1. Developing SOA Applications with Oracle SOA Suite
  2. Advanced Topics
  3. Managing Large Documents and Large Numbers of Instances
  4. Best Practices for Handling Large Documents
  5. Use Cases for Handling Large Documents
  6. Sending and Receiving MTOM-Optimized Messages to SOA Composite Applications

Sending and Receiving MTOM-Optimized Messages to SOA Composite Applications

Within a SOA composite application, you must attach the Oracle WS-MTOM policy to service and reference binding components to receive and send MTOM (MIME binary) optimized messages. When a service binding component (defined under binding.ws in the composite.xml file) is configured with an Oracle WS-MTOM policy, Oracle SOA Suite's MTOM message handling feature is used. When a reference binding component (also defined under binding.ws in the composite.xml file) is configured with an Oracle MTOM policy, Oracle SOA Suite sends MTOM-optimized messages.

Note the following issues with MTOM attachments:

  • When attachments are inline and encoded, Oracle recommends that you not use the file adapter to write attachments to a file.

  • The default mtomThreshold value is 1024 bytes and cannot be modified. If an attachment is less than 1024 bytes, for outbound configurations, Oracle SOA Suite sends it as an inline attachment. If the size is greater than 1024 bytes, then the attachment is sent as an attachment part with an href attribute in the message, and is sent as a WSDL-defined format on the wire. However, if the incoming request (for example, from a different web services provider) has an xop href node for small binary data (that is, size is less than 1024 bytes), Oracle SOA Suite uses the same href attribute in the payload in the flow trace. For example: 

    <xop:Include xmlns:xop="http://www.w3.org/2004/08/xop/include"
 href="cid:e29caf23dc8045908451fdfaafa26dce" />

  • If a service binding component of a composite does not include an Oracle WS-MTOM policy reference, this indicates that the service can accept non-MTOM messages. This indicates that the calling composite (the appropriate reference binding) does not have an Oracle WS-MTOM policy reference and can send out non-MTOM messages to that service.

  • MTOM streaming of attachments is not supported by Oracle SOA Suite.

  • MTOM attachments are supported only with web service bindings. Other bindings (for example, HTTP bindings) are not supported.

  • Oracle Mediator pass through scenarios are supported. If Oracle Mediator does not contain any transformation or assign statements, it is known as a pass through Oracle Mediator. The message and attachment received are propagated to the target without modifying the payload and attachment. Likewise, multiple MTOM attachments in the same message can be sent and received by Oracle SOA Suite.

  • Oracle recommends that you not use both streaming and the MTOM message handling feature for sending and receiving attachments. Use either streaming or the MTOM message handling feature.

    Note:

    If the input is of type text/xml, there is no significant decrease in file size when sending files in MTOM format.

  • As a best practice, Oracle recommends that you not use the XSLT Map Editor to propagate binary data. Instead, use an assign activity. If you must use a style sheet to propagate binary data, it is recommended that you use the xsl:copy-of instruction (copy-of copies everything, including attributes) or use custom functions to copy attributes from source to target.

  • MTOM attachments should not be gigabytes in size. Instead, use the SOAP with attachments streaming feature for very large attachments. For more information, see SOAP with Attachments.