Re: Use of MIME multipart for zero payload containers

[Dan Weinreb <dlw@exceloncorp.com>]

   Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 09:07:23 -0500
   From: "David Fischer" <david@drummondgroup.com>

   Doesn't zero payloads mean SOAP 1.1 rather than SOAP w/ Attachments since there
   are no attachments?

Well, I think it's usually cleaner for two parties to agree that, at a
certain layer, they are using one particular protocol (e.g. "SOAP 1.1
with Attachments").  It's sort of unfortunate (error-prone, etc) if
they have to say "at this layer, we sometimes talk protocol X and
other times talk protocol Y, and the receiver of a message must
"sniff" it to see which protocol it conforms to.  In my opinion, the
"SOAP 1.1 with Attachments" protocol spec ought to clearly state how
to transmit a SOAP message with zero attachments, rather than just
abdicating and saying that it can't handle it.  Again, I don't think I
can tell what the protocol spec is actually saying.