WS-I Attachments Profile

The Web Services-Interoperability (WS-I) Attachments Profile is a set of non-proprietary web services specifications that promote interoperability. This profile compliments the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1 to add support for interoperable SOAP messages with attachments-based web services.

WebSphere Application Server conforms to the WS-I Attachments Profile 1.0.

Attachments are typically used to send binary data, for example, data that is mapped in Java code to java.awt.Image and javax.activation.DataHandler. The raw data can be sent in the SOAP message, however, this approach is inefficient because an XML parser has to scan the data as it parses the message.

The WS-I Attachments Profile provides a solution to the limitations presented by WSDL 1.1. Because WSDL 1.1 attachments are not part of the XML schema type space, they can be message parts only. As message parts, the attachments cannot be arrays or properties of Java beans. The profile defines the wsi:swaRef XML schema type.Use the wsi:swaRef XML schema type to overcome the limitations of WSDL 1.1 attachments.

The wsi:swaRef type is an extension of the xsd:anyURI type, where its value contains the content-ID of the attachment.

Web services specifications and APIs