Date: Oct. 13, 2000
Link: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmsg/
Source Author or Organization: Lexica, LLC

This document describes XML Messaging (XMSG), which is based on a basic principle of providing a simple way to transport multiple XML documents within one logical XML construct, without dictating semantics of any messaging protocols that might be layered on top.

Primary goals of the specification are: to provide the ability to transport multiple documents and references to associated data objects within a single document (a message) and preserve their identity, to provide the ability to associate metadata with both the documents and the message without modifying the original document or schemas for those documents, and to provide the ability to transport non-XML data as a document within the message.

A "message" is an XML document utilizing namespaces. The top-level structure of the document belongs to a namespace defined for this purpose, and within the document other documents that are the message content are embedded. The message structure and embedded documents are validated via associated schemas.