Parts of a Message

A SOAPMessage object is required to have certain elements, and, as stated previously, the SAAJ API simplifies things for you by returning a new SOAPMessage object that already contains these elements. When you call createMessage with no arguments, the message that is created automatically has the following:

I. A SOAPPart object that contains
    A.  A SOAPEnvelope object that contains
        1.  An empty SOAPHeader object
        2.  An empty SOAPBody object

The SOAPHeader object is optional and can be deleted if it is not needed. However, if there is one, it must precede the SOAPBody object. The SOAPBody object can hold either the content of the message or a fault message that contains status information or details about a problem with the message. The section Using SOAP Faults walks you through how to use SOAPFault objects.