[AXIS-2029] SOAPHeader.appendChild() throws unexpected ClassCastException

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 1.2
• Component/s: Basic Architecture, SAAJ
• Labels: dom-compatibility
• Environment: Windows XP Pro/WebSphere 4.0
• Assignee: Ashutosh Shahi
• Reporter: Mark Tye
• Created: 01/Jun/05 09:22
• Updated: 07/Oct/12 21:06

Description

The class org.apache.axis.message.SOAPHeader overrides the appendChild(org.w3c.dom.Node) method of org.apache.axis.message.NodeImpl in such a way that it breaks the contract of the org.3c.dom.Node.appendChild(org.w3c.dom.Node) interface.

Here's the implementation of appendChild(Node) in SOAPHeader:

390 public Node appendChild(Node newChild) throws DOMException {
391 SOAPHeaderElement headerElement = null;
392 if(newChild instanceof SOAPHeaderElement)
393 headerElement = (SOAPHeaderElement)newChild;
394 else
395 headerElement = new SOAPHeaderElement((Element)newChild);
396 try

{ 397 addChildElement(headerElement); 398 }

catch (SOAPException e)

{ 399 throw new DOMException(DOMException.INVALID_STATE_ERR,e.toString()); 400 }

401 return headerElement;
402 }

This works fine if the newChild Node parameter is an instance of SOAPHeaderElement or org.w3c.dom.Element, but any other subclass of Node will cause a ClassCastException to be thrown at line 395.

It's reasonable to expect that in most cases, the Node being appended to a SOAP Header will be DOM Element representing a header entry. However, there is no prohibition in the SOAP 1.1 Note or the SOAP 1.2 Recommendation against whitespace before, after, or in between the header entries of a SOAP Header. Some parsers will render such whitespace as Text nodes, which will cause a ClassCastException in the appendChild() method.

Even if a deliberate design decision has been made not to support whitespace in the SOAPHeader class, the appendChild(Node) method should probably do something more elegant than throw a ClassCastException if the Node parameter is a Text node containing whitespace.