This specification intends to meet the following requirements:

The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 .

This specification uses the following syntax to define outlines for messages:

In addition to Message Information Header properties , this specification uses the following properties to define messages:

These properties bind to a SOAP Envelope as follows:

This specification can be used in terms of XML Information Set (Infoset) , even though the specification uses XML 1.0 terminology. Valid Infoset for this specification is the one serializable in XML 1.0, hence the use of XML 1.0.

The term "generate" is used in relation to the various faults defined by this specification to imply that a fault is produced and no further processing SHOULD be performed. In these cases the fault SHOULD be transmitted. However, there might be reasons when a compliant implementation can choose not to transmit the fault - for example, security concerns - in these situations the service MAY choose not to transmit the fault.

The elements defined in this specification MAY be extended at the points indicated by their outlines and schema. Implementations MAY add child elements and/or attributes at the indicated extension points but MUST NOT contradict the semantics of the parent and/or owner, respectively. If a receiver does not recognize an extension, the receiver SHOULD ignore that extension. Senders MAY indicate the presence of an extension that has to be understood through the use of a corresponding SOAP Header with a soap:mustUnderstand attribute with the value "1".

In cases where it is either desirable or necessary for the receiver of a request that has been extended to indicate that it has recognized and accepted the semantics associated with that extension, it is RECOMMENDED that the receiver add a corresponding extension to the response message. The definition of an extension SHOULD clearly specify how the extension that appears in the response correlates with that in the corresponding request.

Extension elements and attributes MUST NOT use the Web Services Transfer namespace URI.

An implementation is not compliant with this specification if it fails to satisfy one or more of the MUST or REQUIRED level requirements defined herein. A SOAP Node MUST NOT use the XML namespace identifier for this specification (listed in ) within SOAP Envelopes unless it is compliant with this specification.

Normative text within this specification takes precedence over the XML Schema and WSDL descriptions, which in turn take precedence over outlines, which in turn take precedence over examples.

All messages defined by this specification MUST conform to the WS-Addressing specifications and be sent to a Web service that is addressable by an EPR (see ).

Unless otherwise noted, all IRIs are absolute IRIs and IRI comparison MUST be performed according to section 5.3.1.

For any message defined by this specification, any OPTIONAL elements or attributes in the message MAY be used by senders of the message; however receivers of those messages MUST support those OPTIONAL elements and attributes, unless other behavior is explicitly defined by this specification.

Implementations are expected to support both UTF-8 and UTF-16 as described in XML 1.0.

Implementations of this specification MUST conform to the corrected version of WSDL as defined by the 'WSDL Correction' sections of WS-I Basic Profile 1.2 and WS-I Basic Profile 2.0 .

The XML Namespace URI that MUST be used by implementations of this specification is:

lists XML namespaces that are used in this specification. The choice of any namespace prefix is arbitrary and not semantically significant.

The working group intends to update the value of the Web Services Transfer namespace URI each time a new version of this document is published until such time that the document reaches Candidate Recommendation status. Once it has reached Candidate Recommendation status, the working group intends to maintain the value of the Web Services Transfer namespace URI that was assigned in the Candidate Recommendation unless significant changes are made that impact the implementation or break post-CR implementations of the specification. Also see http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/namespaceState.html and http://www.w3.org/2005/07/13-nsuri .

This specification defines one Web service operation (Get) for fetching a one-time snapshot of the representation of a resource. This operation MUST be supported by compliant WS-Transfer resources.

The Get request message MUST be of the following form:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above:

If the request message reaches a conformant implementation of WS-Transfer and the message refers to an unknown resource, then the implementation MUST generate a wst:UnknownResource fault.

A Get request MUST be targeted at the resource whose representation is desired as described in of this specification.

If the resource accepts a Get request, it MUST reply with a response of the following form:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above:

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

This operation is safe; it will not result in any side effect imputable to the requester. This means that in case of an underlying protocol error that might get unnoticed, resending the same request can be done automatically.

The following shows a sample SOAP envelope containing a Get request:

The following shows the corresponding response message:

In this example, the representation of the resource is the following XML element:

This specification defines one Web service operation (Put) for updating a resource. This operation MAY be supported by compliant WS-Transfer resources. A resource MAY accept updates that provide different XML representations than that returned by the resource; in such a case, the semantics of the update operation is defined by the resource.

Unless otherwise specified by an extension, this operation will replace the entire XML representation of the resource with the resource representation in the Put request message, or if the Put request message contains instructions, update the XML representation based on those instructions. When this operation is used to replace the entire XML representation, any OPTIONAL values (elements or attributes) not specified in the Put request message MUST be set to a resource-specific default value.

The Put request message MUST be of the following form:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above:

If the request message reaches a conformant implementation of WS-Transfer and the message refers to an unknown resource, then the implementation MUST generate a wst:UnknownResource fault.

A Put request MUST be targeted at the resource whose representation is desired to be updated, as described in of this specification.

The replacement representation could be considered to be invalid if it does not conform to the schema(s) for the target resource, is empty and the implementation does not support empty representations, or otherwise violates some cardinality or type constraint. If an implementation that validates the presented representation detects that the presented representation is invalid for the target resource, then the implementation MUST generate a wst:InvalidRepresentation fault.

The replacement representation could contain within it element or attribute values that are different than their corresponding values in the current representation. Such changes could affect elements or attributes that, for whatever reason, the implementation does not wish to allow the client to change. An implementation MAY choose to ignore such elements or attributes. If an implementation does not ignore those elements or attributes, it MUST generate a wst:PutDenied fault. See .

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

A successful Put operation updates the current representation associated with the targeted resource. An unsuccessful Put operation does not affect the resource.

If the resource accepts a Put request and performs the requested update, it MUST reply with a response of the following form:

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

The following shows a sample SOAP envelope containing a Put request:

The following shows the corresponding response message indicating success:

This specification defines one Web service operation (Delete) for deleting a resource in its entirety. This operation MAY be supported by compliant WS-Transfer resources.

The Delete request message MUST be of the following form:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above:

If the request message reaches a conformant implementation of WS-Transfer and the message refers to an unknown resource, then the implementation MUST generate a wst:UnknownResource fault.

A Delete request MUST be targeted at the resource to be deleted as described in of this specification.

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

A successful Delete operation deletes the targeted resource.

If the resource accepts a Delete request, it MUST reply with a response of the following form:

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

The following shows a sample SOAP envelope containing a Delete request:

The following shows the corresponding response message indicating success:

This specification defines one Web service operation (Create) for creating a resource and providing its initial representation. This operation MAY be supported by compliant WS-Transfer resource factories. In some cases, the initial representation MAY constitute the representation of a logical constructor for the resource and can thus differ structurally from the representation returned by Get or the one used by Put. This is because the parameterization requirement for creating a resource is often distinct from the steady-state representation of the resource. Implementations SHOULD provide metadata which describes the use of the representation and how it relates to the resource which is created, but such mechanisms are beyond the scope of this specification. The resource factory that receives a Create request will allocate a new resource that is initialized from the presented representation. The new resource will be assigned a service-determined endpoint reference that is returned in the response message.

The Create request message MUST be of the following form:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above:

A Create request MUST be targeted at a resource factory capable of creating the desired new resource. This factory is distinct from the resource being created (which by definition does not exist prior to the successful processing of the Create request message).

The representation could be considered to be invalid if it does not conform to the schema(s) for the target resource, is empty and the implementation does not support empty representations, or otherwise violates some cardinality or type constraint. If an implementation that validates the presented representation detects that the presented representation is invalid for the target resource, then the implementation MUST generate a wst:InvalidRepresentation fault.

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

If the resource factory accepts a Create request, it MUST reply with a response of the following form:

Other components of the outline above are not further constrained by this specification.

The following shows a sample SOAP envelope containing a Create request:

The following shows the corresponding response message indicating success:

This fault MUST be generated when an incorrect representation is sent in a wst:Put or wst:Create message.

This fault MUST be generated when a service detects an unknown Dialect IRI in a request message.

This fault MUST be generated when a Put request message attempts to modify a portion of a resource but is not allowed to do so.

This fault MUST be generated when a request specifies a resource that is not known.

Both resources and the information that makes up their representation might be sensitive. In these cases, it is advisable for resource managers to authenticate and authorize clients attempting Get, Put, or Delete operations. To protect representations sent over a network, the wst:Get, wst:GetResponse, wst:Put, and wst:PutResponse messages ought to have the appropriate authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality measures applied.

In cases where resources and/or the information that makes up their representation are sensitive so, too, are the services that create these resources. In such cases it is advisable for resource factories to authenticate and authorize clients attempting Create operations. To protect representations sent over a network, wst:CreateResponse messages that include representations ought to have the appropriate authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality measures applied.

Services indicate support for the WS-Transfer's definition of a Transfer Resource through the use of the Web Services Policy - Framework and Web Services Policy - Attachment specifications.

This specification defines a policy assertion (wst:TransferResource). The normative outline of this assertion is:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above:

Services indicate support for WS-Transfer's definition of a Transfer Resource Factory through the use of the Web Services Policy - Framework and Web Services Policy - Attachment specifications.

This specification defines a policy assertion (wst:TransferResourceFactory). The normative outline of this assertion is:

The following describes additional, normative constraints on the outline listed above: