|  | Home | Documentation | XML namespace tables updated Wed Apr 8 2026 by Robert van Engelen |

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XML namespace tables

This module describes the `Namespace` XML namespace structure and function to activate a table. More...

## Classes
struct | Namespace
| Structure of each row in a namespace table. More...

## Functions
int | soap_set_namespaces (struct soap *soap, const struct Namespace *namespaces)
| Activates an XML namespace table to generate and resolve xmlns namespace prefixes in XML messages. More...

## Variables
struct Namespace | namespaces []
| The global XML namespaces table with entries defined by the `Namespace` structure and populated in an .nsmap file generated by soapcpp2. More...

## Detailed Description

This module describes the `Namespace` XML namespace structure and function to activate a table.

## Function Documentation

int soap_set_namespaces | ( | struct soap * | soap,
|  | const struct Namespace * | namespaces
| ) |  |

Activates an XML namespace table to generate and resolve xmlns namespace prefixes in XML messages.

This function sets the XML namespace table to be used by the engine to generate and resolve xmlns namespace prefixes in XML messages. Different tables can be set at any time, depending on the XML messaging requirements. However, XML generation and parsing may fail if prefix-URI bindings are missing in the table. Tables are generated by soapcpp2 in .nsmap files, which defines a global table `namespaces` that is used by default by the engines, but can be replaced by the XML namespace table specified with this function. Returns `SOAP_OK` or a `soap_status` error code.

Example:
  #include "soapH.h"
  struct Namespace my_namespaces[] = {
  { "SOAP-ENV", "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/", "http://www.w3.org/*soap-envelope", NULL },
  { "SOAP-ENC", "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/", "http://www.w3.org/*soap-encoding", NULL },
  { "xsi", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance", "http://www.w3.org/*XMLSchema-instance", NULL },
  { "xsd", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema", "http://www.w3.org/*XMLSchema", NULL },
  { "ns", "http://tempuri.org/ns.xsd", NULL, NULL },
  { NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL }
  };
  struct soap *soap = soap_new();
  soap_set_namespaces(soap, my_namespaces); // use a specific XML namespace binding table for the next call
  if (soap_call_ns__webmethod(soap, endpoint, NULL, ...))
  {
  soap_print_fault(soap, stderr);
  }
  else
  {
  ...
  }
  soap_set_namespaces(soap, namespaces); // use the default XML namespace binding table, when defined, for the next call

This example defines SOAP 1.1 namespaces (`SOAP-ENV` and `SOAP-ENC`) to be used by default, but also accepts SOAP 1.2 because of the second URI in the third column. XML schema instance namespace `xsi` is used with `xsi:type` and `xsi:nil` and the XML schema namespace `xsd` is used with XSD types such as `xsd:string`, which may be used in XML messages. URI patterns in the third column may contain wildcard strings `*` and wildcard characters `-`.

Returns
  `SOAP_OK` or a `soap_status` error code

Parameters

  soap | `soap` context
  namespaces | the XML namespace table to activate

## Variable Documentation

struct Namespace namespaces[]

The global XML namespaces table with entries defined by the `Namespace` structure and populated in an .nsmap file generated by soapcpp2.

This XML namespaces table defines XML namespace prefix-URI pairs for XML generation, parsing and validation. The last row in the table must be followed by a row with a NULL value to indicate the end of the table. The requirement to link this global table can be removed at compile time with `WITH_NONAMESPACES`.