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Tutorials > SOAP Web Service > Creating and using SOAP headers

Creating and using SOAP headers

SOAP headers are optional elements that can be included in a SOAP message to provide additional information or context. They are typically used for security-related information, such as authentication credentials or encryption keys.

To create a SOAP header, you define a custom XML element that contains the information you want to send. The header is then included in the SOAP envelope as a child element of the Header element.

Here is an example of a SOAP message that includes a custom header:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Header>
    <myHeader:Auth xmlns:myHeader="http://example.com/myHeader">
      <myHeader:Username>john.doe</myHeader:Username>
      <myHeader:Password>secret</myHeader:Password>
    </myHeader:Auth>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <!-- the body of the SOAP message -->
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

In this example, the header is an element named Auth in the namespace http://example.com/myHeader. The header includes two child elements, Username and Password, that contain the authentication credentials.

To use a SOAP header, the client adds the header to the SOAP message and sends the request to the server. On the server side, the header information can be extracted from the SOAP message and used for authentication or other purposes.

Here is an example of a Java client that sends a SOAP request with a custom header:

import javax.xml.soap.*;

public class SoapClient {
  public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
    // create a SOAP connection
    SOAPConnectionFactory soapConnectionFactory = SOAPConnectionFactory.newInstance();
    SOAPConnection soapConnection = soapConnectionFactory.createConnection();

    // create a SOAP message
    MessageFactory messageFactory = MessageFactory.newInstance();
    SOAPMessage soapMessage = messageFactory.createMessage();

    // create the header
    SOAPHeader soapHeader = soapMessage.getSOAPHeader();
    SOAPHeaderElement headerElement = soapHeader.addHeaderElement(
        SOAPFactory.newInstance().createName("Auth", "myHeader", "http://example.com/myHeader"));
    headerElement.addChildElement("Username").addTextNode("john.doe");
    headerElement.addChildElement("Password").addTextNode("secret");

    // create the body
    SOAPBody soapBody = soapMessage.getSOAPBody();
    SOAPElement soapBodyElement = soapBody.addChildElement("getData", "ns1");
    soapBodyElement.addChildElement("param1").addTextNode("value1");
    soapBodyElement.addChildElement("param2").addTextNode("value2");

    // send the message
    soapMessage.saveChanges();
    SOAPMessage response = soapConnection.call(soapMessage, "http://example.com/dataService");

    // process the response
    // ...

    soapConnection.close();
  }
}
In this example, the client creates a SOAP header and adds it to the SOAP message. The header contains authentication information, in this case the username and password, which can be used on the server side for authentication purposes.

Note that this is just an example to illustrate the concept of using SOAP headers. In practice, you should use secure methods for transmitting sensitive information, such as encryption, rather than sending it in clear text as in this example.



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