Problem : A SOAP request message is encoded in XML. The requestor can encode the message either using SOAP-Encoding or Literal-XML-Encoding. In both cases the message carries the method name and parameters. However, the difference comes during the response. If the message was encoded using SOAP-Encoding, a tag containing string value is parsed and translated : '>' would be translated to '>', '<' would be translated to '<' etc.. This is undesirable because the clients can not make sense of '<' and '&rt' if they are expecting XML tags. Solution : On the other hand if the request was encoded using 'literal-XML' encoding style, SOAP expects Document Node for the parameters. It is upto the soap server to parse the Document Node and get the parameters. While this may be a slight inconvenient in coding, this offers great benefits for the SOAP development : Advantages : 1) In SOAP-encoding, parameters (if present) are mandatory. In literal - XML parameters are not mandatory. 2) In SOAP-encoding, parameters order is important. In literal - XML it can present anywhere. We are free to require and not require any parameter. So the clients can send request very freely. 3) In SOAP-encoding, a string is parsed and translated, In literal - XML, it is not.
