SOAP Processing Model

The concept of a flow is very simple and it constitutes a series of phases wherein a phase refers to a collection of handlers. Depending on the MEP for a given method invocation, the number of flows associated with it may vary.

In the case of an in-only MEP, the corresponding method invocation has only one pipe, that is, the message will only go through the in pipe (inflow). On the other hand, in the case of in-out MEP, the message will go through two pipes, that is the in pipe (inflow) and the out pipe (outflow). When a SOAP message is being sent, an OutFlow begins. The OutFlow invokes the handlers and ends with a Transport Sender that sends the SOAP message to the target endpoint. The SOAP message is received by a Transport Receiver at the target endpoint, which reads the SOAP message and starts the InFlow. The InFlow consists of handlers and ends with the Message Receiver, which handles the actual business logic invocation.

A phase is a logical collection of one or more handlers, and sometimes a phase itself acts as a handler. Axis2 introduced the phase concept as an easy way of extending core functionalities. In Axis 1.x, we need to change the global configuration files if we want to add a handler into a handler chain. But Axis2 makes it easier by using the concept of phases and phase rules. Phase rules specify how a given set of handlers, inside a particular phase, are ordered. The figure below illustrates a flow and its phases.

If the message has gone through the execution chain without having any problem, then the engine will hand over the message to the message receiver in order to do the business logic invocation, After this, it is up to the message receiver to invoke the service and send the response, if necessary. The figure below shows how the Message Receiver fits into the execution chain.

The two pipes do not differentiate between the server and the client. The SOAP processing model handles the complexity and provides two abstract pipes to the user. The different areas or the stages of the pipes are named 'phases' in Axis2.

A handler always runs inside a phase, and the phase provides a mechanism to specify the ordering of handlers. Both pipes have built-in phases, and both define the areas for 'User Phases', which can be defined by the user, as well.