4. Overview of the CalWS protocol

CalWS operations and data elements are defined in this specification. Many of the operations result in the transmission of data as defined in IETF RFC 5545.

SOAP 1.1 messages consist of three elements: an envelope, header data, and a message body. CalWS request-response elements MUST be enclosed within the SOAP message body. CalWS SOAP messages MUST conform to WT-I-Basic and WS-I-Bind. A single CalWS SOAP message MUST contain only one service request or a single service response).

The basic process for using SOAP for CalWS operations is:

  • A system entity acting as a CalWS requester transmits a CalWS request element within the body of a SOAP message to a system entity acting as a CalWS responder. The CalWS requester MUST NOT include more than one CalWS request per SOAP message or include any additional XML elements in the SOAP body (though see Clause 13 for multiple messages packaged in one request).

  • The CalWS responder MUST return either a CalWS response element within the body of another SOAP message or generate a SOAP fault. The CalWS responder MUST NOT include more than one CalWS response per SOAP message or include any additional XML elements in the SOAP body. If a CalWS responder cannot, for some reason, process a CalWS request, it MUST generate a SOAP fault. (SOAP 1.1 faults and fault codes are discussed in SOAP11, Section 5.1.)