title: Webservices - SOAP vs. "XML over HTTP"
body: <p>I have a general web services question and I'm hoping you can help me clear up my confusion on the subject. </p>
  
  <p>I am working with a web service that the host is calling an "XML over HTTP service". They claim that this service <strong>is NOT a SOAP service</strong>, yet the response is a SOAP envelope response. The service is currently invoked via HTML form post; here is the HTML form and response:</p>
  
  <p><strong>HTML</strong>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;FORM name=TestForm action=http://intranet/TheWSMethod enctype="text/plain" method="POST"&gt;
      &lt;TEXTAREA name=Data rows=22 cols=91 type="text" style="position: absolute; left: 78; top: 69; width:752px; height:330px"&gt;&lt;/TEXTAREA&gt;
      &lt;INPUT type=xml&gt; 
      &lt;INPUT type=submit value="Transmit"&gt;
  &lt;/FORM&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>RESPONSE</strong> - SOAP Based?</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?&gt; 
  &lt;soapenv:Fault xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"&gt; 
      &lt;faultcode&gt;soap-env:Server&lt;/faultcode&gt; 
      &lt;faultstring&gt;9001&lt;/faultstring&gt; 
      &lt;faultactor&gt;/TheWSMethod&lt;/faultactor&gt; 
      &lt;detail&gt; ... &lt;/detail&gt; 
  &lt;/soapenv:Fault&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The host tells me that there is <strong>no WSDL</strong> for this process, which is where my confusion begins. </p>
  
  <p>So my question is, whether or not there is/should be an existing WSDL? (i.e. are they pulling my leg or do they not understand what I am asking) or is it possible to not have a WSDL for this type of service? </p>