Wiki
Appendix 3

In the original proposal for Translation Web Services it was proposed that SwA (SOAP with Attachments) could be used in order to facilitate the upload and download of files.

Subsequent detailed discussions established that using WWW URI mechanism to specify the location of a file would be a better way of locating files. This leaves the retrieval mechanism including any security arrangements and clean up to the party responsible for the supply of the file. However we have included an optional fileUpload method is you need to use the SwA mechanism.

The reasoning behind this decision is as follows:

  1. SwA is not ideal for very large attachments and we cannot impose any limits on the size of attachments. In certain type of localization task very large files may be exchanged.
  2. A common mechanism that is not encumbered by file size, but uses standard W3C location definition is required for all data objects.
  3. The supplier of the file may need to implement specific security mechanism that are not covered by SwA.

The URI mechanism provides a common way for specifying the location of all data objects.