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The SOAP body is a mandatory element that contains the application-defined XML data being exchanged in the SOAP message. The body must be contained within the envelope and must follow any headers that might be defined for the message.

The body is defined as a child element of the envelope, and the semantics for the body are defined in the associated SOAP schema.

The body contains mandatory information intended for the ultimate receiver of the message. For example −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
   ........
   <SOAP-ENV:Body>
      <m:GetQuotation xmlns:m = "http://www.tp.com/Quotation">
         <m:Item>Computers</m:Item>
      </m:GetQuotation>
   </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

The example above requests a quotation of computer sets. Note that the m:GetQuotation and the Item elements above are application-specific elements. They are not a part of the SOAP standard.

Here is the response to the above query −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
   ........
   <SOAP-ENV:Body>
      <m:GetQuotationResponse xmlns:m = "http://www.tp.com/Quotation">
         <m:Quotation>This is Qutation</m:Quotation>
      </m:GetQuotationResponse>
   </SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

Normally, the application also defines a schema to contain semantics associated with the request and response elements.

The Quotation service might be implemented using an EJB running in an application server; if so, the SOAP processor would be responsible for mapping the body information as parameters into and out of the EJB implementation of the GetQuotationResponse service. The SOAP processor could also be mapping the body information to a .NET object, a CORBA object, a COBOL program, and so on.