The SOAP Envelope Element

The SOAP Envelope Element
The required SOAP Envelope element is the root element of a SOAP message. This element defines the XML document as a SOAP message.

Example
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope"
soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding">
  ...
  Message information goes here
  ...
</soap:Envelope>
The xmlns:soap Namespace
Notice the xmlns:soap namespace in the example above. It should always have the value of: "http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope".

The namespace defines the Envelope as a SOAP Envelope.

If a different namespace is used, the application generates an error and discards the message.

The encodingStyle Attribute
The encodingStyle attribute is used to define the data types used in the document. This attribute may appear on any SOAP element, and applies to the element's contents and all child elements.

A SOAP message has no default encoding.

Syntax

soap:encodingStyle="URI"
Example

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope"
soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-encoding">
  ...
  Message information goes here
  ...
</soap:Envelope>