Question

I have a problem with a ColdFusion webservice I’ve created. The service accepts XML data, Base64 encoded, and then writes it to disk for archive purposes. This file then undergoes a basic schema check and any errors are reported back to the user as follows:

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" 
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <soapenv:Body>
        <UploadXMLResponse xmlns="http://url">
            <UploadXMLReturn>
                <AuthMessage>Authentication successful</AuthMessage>
                <AuthStatus>Success</AuthStatus>
                <FileInfo>File Example.xml was successfully uploaded</FileInfo>
                <UploadStatus>Success</UploadStatus>
                <xmlValErrors>
                    <xmlValErrors xsi:type="xsd:string">1824</xmlValErrors>
                    <xmlValErrors xsi:type="xsd:string">Error Message</xmlValErrors>
                    <xmlValErrors xsi:type="xsd:string">23</xmlValErrors>
                    <xmlValErrors xsi:type="xsd:string">1824</xmlValErrors>
                    <xmlValErrors xsi:type="xsd:string">Error Message</xmlValErrors>
                    <xmlValErrors xsi:type="xsd:string">38</xmlValErrors>
                </xmlValErrors>
                <xmlValMessage>Schema validation generated errors</xmlValMessage>
                <xmlValStatus>Failure</xmlValStatus>
            </UploadXMLReturn>
        </UploadXMLResponse>
    </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

The problem is that the <xmlValErrors> element is nested in a slightly weird way. This is due to the way ColdFusion handles the array of errors. The result is that when a user tries to analyse the reponse, they are only able to see the initial <xmlValErrors> element.

.Net appears to be a particular problem here, as it sees the <xmlValErrors> element as an empty array, even although it clearly contains numerous other elements.

I suspect the problem lays with the reuse of the name on the child elements within the <xmlValErrors> element. However I have not been able to find a way around this in ColdFusion.

Thoughts on how this might be resolved would greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

How were you accessing xmlValErrors? Because your array of errors is inside the parent xmlVarErrors, you want to access it like so:

uploadxmlreturn.xmlvarerrors.xmlvarerrors

The first xmlvarerrors points to the parent, the second to the array of errors.

Make sense?