Network Working Group E. O'Tuathail
Request for Comments: 3288 Clipcode.com
Category: Standards Track M. Rose
Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.
June 2002
Using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
in Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This memo specifies a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) binding to
the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol core (BEEP). A SOAP binding
describes how SOAP messages are transmitted in the network.
The SOAP is an XML-based (extensible markup language) messaging
protocol used to implement a wide variety of distributed messaging
models. It defines a message format and describes a variety of
message patterns, including, but not limited to, RPC, asynchronous
event notification, unacknowledged messages, and forwarding via SOAP
intermediaries.
O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. BEEP Profile Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.1 Profile Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. SOAP Message Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4. SOAP Message Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.1 One-way Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.2 Request-Response Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.3 Request/N-Responses Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 5. URL Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.1 The soap.beep URL Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.1.1 Resolving IP/TCP Address Information . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.2 The soap.beeps URL Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. Registration Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 6.1 SOAP Profile Feature Registration Template . . . . . . . . . 12 7. Initial Registrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7.1 Registration: The SOAP Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7.2 Registration: The soap.beep URL Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . 14 7.3 Registration: The soap.beeps URL Scheme . . . . . . . . . . 15 7.4 Registration: The System (Well-Known) TCP port number for SOAP over BEEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 1. Introduction This memo specifies how SOAP 1.1 envelopes[1] are transmitted using a BEEP profile[2]. In the W3C, the XMLP effort is evolving SOAP. Accordingly, this memo provides a mechanism for negotiating the use of new features. Throughout this memo, the term "envelope" refers to the "SOAP- Env:Envelope" element defined in Section 4 of [1]. Further, the terms "peer", "client", "server", "one-to-one", and "one-to-many" are used in the context of BEEP. In particular, Sections 2.1 and 2.1.1 of [2] discuss BEEP roles and exchange styles. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 3]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 2. BEEP Profile Identification The BEEP profile for SOAP is identified as http://iana.org/beep/soap in the BEEP "profile" element during channel creation. In BEEP, when the first channel is successfully created, the "serverName" attribute in the "start" element identifies the "virtual host" associated with the peer acting in the server role, e.g., <start number='1' serverName='stockquoteserver.example.com'> <profile uri='http://iana.org/beep/soap' /> </start> The "serverName" attribute is analagous to HTTP's "Host" request- header field (c.f., Section 14.23 of [3]). There are two states in the BEEP profile for SOAP, "boot" and "ready": o In the "boot" state, the peer requesting the creation of the channel sends a "bootmsg" (either during channel initialization or in a "MSG" message). * If the other peer sends a "bootrpy" (either during channel initialization or in a "RPY" message), then the "ready" state is entered * Otherwise, the other peer sends an "error" (either during channel initialization or in a "ERR" message), then no state change occurs. o In the "ready" state, either peer begins a SOAP message pattern by sending a "MSG" message containing an envelope. The other peer completes the message pattern either by: * sending back a "RPY" message containing an envelope; or, * sending back zero or more "ANS" messages, each containing an envelope, followed by a "NUL" message. Regardless, no state change occurs. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 4]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 2.1 Profile Initialization The boot message is used for two purposes: resource identification: each channel bound to the BEEP profile for SOAP provides access to a single resource (a network data object or service). feature negotiation: if new features of SOAP (such as compression) emerge, their use can be negotiated. The DTD syntax for the boot message and its response are: <!ELEMENT bootmsg EMPTY> <!ATTLIST bootmsg resource CDATA #REQUIRED features NMTOKENS ""> <!ELEMENT bootrpy EMPTY> <!ATTLIST bootrpy features NMTOKENS ""> The boot message contains a mandatory and an optional attribute: o the "resource" attribute, which is analagous to HTTP's "abs_path" Request-URI parameter (c.f., Section 5.1.2 of [3]); and, o the "features" attribute, which, if present, contains one or more feature tokens, each indicating an optional feature of the BEEP profile for SOAP that is being requested for possible use over the channel. Section 6.1 defines a registration template for optional features. If the peer acting in the server role recognizes the requested resource, it replies with the boot response that contains one optional attribute: o the "features" attribute, if present, contains a subset of the feature tokens in the boot message, indicating which features may be used over the channel. (If not present or empty, then no features may be used.) Otherwise, if the boot message is improperly formed, or if the requested resource isn't recognized, the peer acting in the server role replies with an error message (c.f., Section 7.1 of [2]). O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 5]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 Typically, the boot message and its response are exchanged during channel initialization (c.f., Section 2.3.1.2 of [2]). For example, here the boot message and its response are exchanged during channel initialization: C: <start number='1' serverName='stockquoteserver.example.com'> C: <profile uri='http://iana.org/beep/soap'> C: <![CDATA[<bootmsg resource='/StockQuote' />]]> C: </profile> C: </start> S: <profile uri='http://iana.org/beep/soap'> S: <![CDATA[<bootrpy />]]> S: </profile> The channel bound to the BEEP profile for SOAP is now in the "ready" state. Alternatively, here is an example in which the boot exchange is unsuccessful: C: <start number='1' serverName='stockquoteserver.example.com'> C: <profile uri='http://iana.org/beep/soap'> C: <![CDATA[<bootmsg resource='/StockPick' />]]> C: </profile> C: </start> S: <profile uri='http://iana.org/beep/soap'> S: <![CDATA[<error code='550'>resource not S: supported</error>]]> S: </profile> Although the channel was created successfully, it remains in the "boot" state. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 6]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 3. SOAP Message Packages The BEEP profile for SOAP transmits envelopes encoded as UTF-8 using the media type "application/xml"[4], e.g., MSG 1 1 . 0 364 Content-Type: application/xml <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <m:GetLastTradePrice xmlns:m="Some-URI"> <symbol>DIS</symbol> </m:GetLastTradePrice> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> END O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 7]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 In addition, the BEEP profile for SOAP also allows envelopes to be transmitted as the root part of a "multipart/related"[5] content, and with subordinate parts referenced using the rules of Section 3 of [6] (i.e., using either the "Content-ID:"[7] or "Content-Location:"[8] headers), e.g., MSG 1 2 . 364 668 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="MIME_boundary"; type=application/xml; start="<claim061400a.xml@claiming-it.com>" --MIME_boundary Content-Type: application/xml Content-ID: <claim061400a.xml@claiming-it.com> <?xml version='1.0' ?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"> <SOAP-ENV:Body> .. <theSignedForm href="cid:claim061400a.tiff@claiming-it.com" /> .. </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope> --MIME_boundary Content-Type: image/tiff Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary Content-ID: <claim061400a.tiff@claiming-it.com> ...binary TIFF image... --MIME_boundary-- END Consistent with Section 2 of [6], it is strongly recommended that the multipart contain a "start" parameter, and that the root part contain a "Content-ID:" header. However, because BEEP provides an 8bit-wide path, a "transformative" Content-Transfer-Encoding (e.g., "base64" or "quoted-printable") should not be used. Further note that MIME[9] requires that the value of the "Content-ID" header be globally unique. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 8]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 4. SOAP Message Patterns 4.1 One-way Message A one-way message involves sending a message without any response being returned. The BEEP profile for SOAP achieves this using a one-to-many exchange, in which the client sends a "MSG" message containing an envelope, and the server immediately sends back a "NUL" message, before processing the contents of the envelope. 4.2 Request-Response Exchange A request/response exchange involves sending a request, which results in a response being returned. The BEEP profile for SOAP achieves this using a one-to-one exchange, in which the client sends a "MSG" message containing an envelope, and the server sends back a "RPY" message containing an envelope. Finally, the BEEP profile for SOAP does not use the "ERR" message for SOAP faults when performing one-to-one exchanges -- whatever response is generated by the server is always returned in the "RPY" message. 4.3 Request/N-Responses Exchange A request/N-responses exchange involves sending a request, which results in zero or more responses being returned. The BEEP profile for SOAP achieves this using a one-to-many exchange, in which the client sends a "MSG" message containing an envelope, and the server sends back zero or more "ANS" messages, each containing an envelope, followed by a "NUL" message. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 9]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 5. URL Schemes This memo defines two URL schemes, "soap.beep" and "soap.beeps", which identify the use of SOAP over BEEP over TCP. Note that, at present, a "generic" URL scheme for SOAP is not defined. 5.1 The soap.beep URL Scheme The "soap.beep" URL scheme uses the "generic URI" syntax defined in Section 3 of [10], specifically: o the value "soap.beep" is used for the scheme component; and, o the server-based naming authority defined in Section 3.2.2 of [10] is used for the authority component. o the path component maps to the "resource" component of the boot message sent during profile initialization (if absent, it defaults to "/"). The values of both the scheme and authority components are case- insensitive. For example, the URL soap.beep://stockquoteserver.example.com/StockQuote might result in the example shown in Section 2.1. 5.1.1 Resolving IP/TCP Address Information The "soap.beep" URL scheme indicates the use of the BEEP profile for SOAP running over TCP/IP. If the authority component contains a domain name and a port number, e.g., soap.beep://stockquoteserver.example.com:1026 then the DNS is queried for the A RRs corresponding to the domain name, and the port number is used directly. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 10]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 If the authority component contains a domain name and no port number, e.g., soap.beep://stockquoteserver.example.com the SRV algorithm[11] is used with a service parameter of "soap-beep" and a protocol parameter of "tcp" to determine the IP/TCP addressing information. If no appropriate SRV RRs are found (e.g., for "_soap- beep._tcp.stockquoteserver.example.com"), then the DNS is queried for the A RRs corresponding to the domain name and the port number used is assigned by the IANA for the registration in Section 7.4. If the authority component contains an IP address, e.g., soap.beep://10.0.0.2:1026 then the DNS is not queried, and the IP address is used directly. If a port number is present, it is used directly; otherwise, the port number used is assigned by the IANA for the registration in Section 7.4. While the use of literal IPv6 addresses in URLs is discouraged, if a literal IPv6 address is used in a "soap.beep" URL, it must conform to the syntax specified in [12]. 5.2 The soap.beeps URL Scheme The "soap.beeps" URL scheme is identical, in all ways, to the "soap.beep" URL scheme specified in Section 5.1, with the exception that prior to starting the BEEP profile for SOAP, the BEEP session must be tuned for privacy. In particular, note that both URL schemes use the identical algorithms and parameters for address resolution as specified in Section 5.1.1 (e.g., the same service name for SRV lookups, the same port number for TCP, and so on). There are two ways to perform privacy tuning on a BEEP session, either: o a transport security profile may be successfully started; or, o a user authentication profile that supports transport security may be successfully started. Regardless, upon completion of the negotiation process, a tuning reset occurs in which both BEEP peers issue a new greeting. Consult Section 3 of [2] for an example of how a BEEP peer may choose to issue different greetings based on whether privacy is in use. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 11]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 6. Registration Templates 6.1 SOAP Profile Feature Registration Template When a feature for the BEEP profile for SOAP is registered, the following information is supplied: Feature Identification: specify a string that identifies this feature. Unless the feature is registered with the IANA, the feature's identification must start with "x-". Feature Semantics: specify the semantics of the feature. Contact Information: specify the electronic contact information for the author of the feature. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 12]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 7. Initial Registrations 7.1 Registration: The SOAP Profile Profile Identification: http://iana.org/beep/soap Messages exchanged during Channel Creation: bootmsg, bootrpy Messages starting one-to-one exchanges: bootmsg, SOAP-Env:Envelope Messages in positive replies: bootrpy, SOAP-Env:Envelope Messages in negative replies: error Messages in one-to-many exchanges: SOAP-Env:Envelope Message Syntax: SOAP-Env:Envelope as defined in Section 4 of [1] and [6] Message Semantics: c.f., [1] Contact Information: Eamon O'Tuathail <eamon.otuathail@clipcode.com>, Marshall Rose <mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us> O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 13]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 7.2 Registration: The soap.beep URL Scheme URL scheme name: soap.beep URL scheme syntax: c.f., Section 5.1 Character encoding considerations: c.f., the "generic URI" syntax defined in Section 3 of [10] Intended usage: identifies a SOAP resource made available using the BEEP profile for SOAP Applications using this scheme: c.f., "Intended usage", above Interoperability considerations: n/a Security Considerations: c.f., Section 8 Relevant Publications: c.f., [1], [6], and [2] Contact Information: Eamon O'Tuathail <eamon.otuathail@clipcode.com>, Marshall Rose <mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us> Author/Change controller: the IESG O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 14]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 7.3 Registration: The soap.beeps URL Scheme URL scheme name: soap.beeps URL scheme syntax: c.f., Section 5.2 Character encoding considerations: c.f., the "generic URI" syntax defined in Section 3 of [10] Intended usage: identifies a SOAP resource made available using the BEEP profile for SOAP after the BEEP session has been tuned for privacy Applications using this scheme: c.f., "Intended usage", above Interoperability considerations: n/a Security Considerations: c.f., Section 8 Relevant Publications: c.f., [1], [6], and [2] Contact Information: Eamon O'Tuathail <eamon.otuathail@clipcode.com>, Marshall Rose <mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us> Author/Change controller: the IESG 7.4 Registration: The System (Well-Known) TCP port number for SOAP over BEEP Protocol Number: TCP Message Formats, Types, Opcodes, and Sequences: c.f., Section 2.1 Functions: c.f., [1] Use of Broadcast/Multicast: none Proposed Name: SOAP over BEEP Short name: soap-beep Contact Information: Eamon O'Tuathail <eamon.otuathail@clipcode.com>, Marshall Rose <mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us> O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 15]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 8. Security Considerations Although service provisioning is a policy matter, at a minimum, all implementations must provide the following tuning profiles: for authentication: http://iana.org/beep/SASL/DIGEST-MD5 for confidentiality: http://iana.org/beep/TLS (using the TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA cipher) for both: http://iana.org/beep/TLS (using the TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA cipher supporting client-side certificates) Further, implementations may choose to offer MIME-based security services providing message integrity and confidentiality, such as OpenPGP[13] or S/MIME[14]. Regardless, consult [2]'s Section 9 for a discussion of BEEP-specific security issues. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 16]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 References [1] Box, D., Ehnebuske, D., Kakivaya, G., Layman, A., Mendelsohn, N., Nielsen, H., Thatte, S. and D. Winer, "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1", May 2000, <http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/ NOTE-SOAP-20000508>. [2] Rose, M., "The Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol Core", RFC 3080, March 2001. [3] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Nielsen, H., Masinter, L., Leach, P. and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999. [4] Murata, M., St.Laurent, S. and D. Kohn, "XML Media Types", RFC 3023, January 2001. [5] Levinson, E., "The MIME Multipart/Related Content-type", RFC 2387, August 1998. [6] Barton, J., Thatte, S. and H. Nielsen, "SOAP Messages with Attachments", December 2000, <http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE- SOAP-attachments-20001211>. [7] Levinson, E., "Content-ID and Message-ID Uniform Resource Locators", RFC 2392, August 1998. [8] Palme, F., Hopmann, A., Shelness, N. and E. Stefferud, "MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate Documents, such as HTML (MHTML)", RFC 2557, March 1999. [9] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996. [10] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August 1998. [11] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P. and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782, February 2000. [12] Haskin, D. and E. Allen, "IP Version 6 over PPP", RFC 2472, December 1998. [13] Elkins, M., Del Torto, D., Levien, R. and T. Roessler, "MIME Security with OpenPGP", RFC 3156, August 2001. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 17]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 [14] Ramsdell, B., "S/MIME Version 3 Message Specification", RFC 2633, June 1999. IANA Considerations The IANA has registered the profile specified in Section 7.1 as: http://iana.org/beep/soap The IANA has registered "soap.beep" and "soap.beeps" as URL schemes, as specified in Section 7.2 and Section 7.3, respectively. The IANA has also registered "SOAP over BEEP" as a TCP port number, as specified in Section 7.4. Finally, the IANA maintains a list of SOAP profile features, c.f., Section 6.1. The IESG is responsible for assigning a designated expert to review the specification prior to the IANA making the assignment. Prior to contacting the IESG, developers of SOAP profile features must use the mailing list beepwg@lists.beepcore.org to solicit commentary. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of: Christopher Ferris, Huston Franklin, Alexey Melnikov, Bill Mills, and Roy T. Fielding. O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 18]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002 Authors' Addresses Eamon O'Tuathail Clipcode.com 24 Thomastown Road Dun Laoghaire Dublin IE Phone: +353 1 2350 424 EMail: eamon.otuathail@clipcode.com URI: http://www.clipcode.com/ Marshall T. Rose Dover Beach Consulting, Inc. POB 255268 Sacramento, CA 95865-5268 US Phone: +1 916 483 8878 EMail: mrose@dbc.mtview.ca.us O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 19]
RFC 3288 Using SOAP in BEEP June 2002
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O'Tuathail & Rose Standards Track [Page 20]
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