MustUnderstand

MustUnderstand

SOAP1.1 has an attribute, MustUnderstand, that can be set to true on a message, to say "The recipient must be able to understand this header". The recipient of the SOAP message must either process the header in its processing chain, or throw an exception saying 'I didn't understand it',a MustUnderstand fault.

Setting this flag in a header ensures a minimal level of compliance among implementations, though it does not ensure that the SoapHeader was actually understood.

Axis throws this fault when at the end of processing, one or more MustUnderstand header has not been processed. The actual PivotPoint -the web service- has probably already been called at this point, a fact that the caller cannot readily determine. Other implementations may behave differently. Thus when you receive a MustUnderstand fault, make no assumptions about the state of processing of the request.