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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-15T17:41:17+00:00

We have a .NET 2.0 web service (.ASMX file). This web service is being

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We have a .NET 2.0 web service (.ASMX file). This web service is being called by a Java client and they are not passing in a SoapAction header.

This causes our web service to fail with the error: : “Server did not recognize the value of HTTP Header SOAPAction: .”

There is no chance that I can convince the development team in charge of the calling Java client to include a SoapAction header.

Is there anyway to resolve this problem on my end?

Can I prevent .NET from throwing this error when the SoapAction is missing? Can I direct the call to the correct WebMethod programmatically?

Something like this psuedo-code,

if (Header.SoapAction == String.Empty) then MyWebMethod();
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    According to the SOAP 1.1 specification this is required of HTTP clients.

    6.1 SOAP HTTP Request

    Although SOAP might be used in
    combination with a variety of HTTP
    request methods, this binding only
    defines SOAP within HTTP POST requests
    (see section 7 for how to use SOAP for
    RPC and section 6.3 for how to use the
    HTTP Extension Framework).

    6.1.1 The SOAPAction HTTP Header Field

    The SOAPAction HTTP request header
    field can be used to indicate the
    intent of the SOAP HTTP request. The
    value is a URI identifying the intent.
    SOAP places no restrictions on the
    format or specificity of the URI or
    that it is resolvable. An HTTP client
    MUST use this header field when
    issuing a SOAP HTTP Request.

    Source http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/NOTE-SOAP-20000508/#_Toc478383528

    From a quick Google it seems this is a common issue with Java and Axis, but there is some debate whether it is required. Could this help you convince the Java developers that they need to implement the header?

    Edit:

    The correct URI for your SoapAction http header is defined in the WSDL document.

    Goto http://mydomain.com/myservice.asmx?wsdl

    Look for the wsdl:operation element for the method you are calling, it should have a child element soap:operation which has a attribute called soapaction, the URI in there is the one you should use. In a webservice i tested it looks like the namespace followed by / and the method name as follows.

    <wsdl:operation name="AddTwoNumbers">
  <soap:operation soapAction="http://mydomain.com/myservice/AddTwoNumbers" style="document"/>
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