They wont neccessarily follow the rules, but they are in the same namespace and each namespace could be associated with a schema document; the parser reading that document could chose to enforce the rules of that schema, and it's probably better to assume that every parser will enforce those rules; and it certainly couldn't hurt to use 'real' schema documents rather than dead links for the namespace address.

It's more important that the namespaces separate the two types of data in that document, and that namespaces generally (although not officially) imply that a group of nodes could be processed by a different technology than other nodes in the document.


Nope; the purpose of the m: before getPrices and item is to place those nodes to a namespace. Whether or not a parser looks at the schema relating to m: (or enforces its rules) is down to the parser, and what the parser does. An m: parser might be particularly interested in the latest m: schema; but an XSL parser wouldn't be interested atall.

SOAP perhaps uses namespaces more than other technologies, because there seem to be alot of technologies that can be used within a single SOAP document.

Perhaps this document will be more helpful than me with regard to SOAP specifically:

http://www.awprofessional.com/articl...&seqNum=2&rl=1