NonStop SOAP 4.1 User's Manual

Phases
A Phase is a stage of processing or a time interval in the message process. A collection of phases
forms a Flow. The phases within a flow, and the order in which they are invoked, are defined
within the phaseOrder element in the axis2.xml configuration file.
For more information on the axis2.xml configuration file, see “NonStop SOAP 4 Configuration
Files” (page 177).
Pre-defined phases in inflow
The inflow comprises a set of pre-defined phases in the following sequence:
1. “Transport” (page 128)
2. “PreDispatch” (page 128)
3. “Dispatch” (page 128)
4. “PostDispatch” (page 129)
Transport
This phase processes transport-specific information, such as validating incoming messages and
adding data to the message context structure.
The handlers attached to the Transport phase can access transport-specific information and
perform the following tasks:
• Receive raw XML requests
• Read Transport headers
• Modify Transport headers
• Validate incoming messages by examining the Transport headers
• Add data to the message context structure
• Update data in the message context structure
PreDispatch
This phase populates the message context structure before forwarding the message to the Dispatch
phase. For example, the addressing headers of the SOAP message are processed in this phase.
The addressing handlers extract information from the message headers and include the information
in the message context structure.
The handlers attached to the PreDispatch phase can access the message context structure. The
handlers in this phase perform the following tasks:
• Read SOAP headers for SOAP messages
• Modify SOAP headers for SOAP messages
• Remove SOAP headers from SOAP messages
• Add data to the message context structure
• Update data in the message context structure
Dispatch
This phase locates the required service and operation for which the message in the request is
intended.
128 Customizing NonStop SOAP 4 Message Processing