In my trading network, trading partners needs to send image files (in this case TIFFs) along with the meta-data comprising the XML documents (image contents like image name, size, author, purpose, etc.).

Has anyone solved this problem? Combining binary data (image files in this case) with XML based meta-data in a B2B implementation?

I would need to be able to pull the image file out of the XML document and then store it in a BLOB column in Oracle.

tanx in advance for any feedback offered!

Generally speaking I have seen attachments sent but this was using MIME messages where xml exists in different sections within a MIME message.

HOWEVER, a while back I was able to base64 encode a byte stream (a serialized java class), put the string in an XML file (as the contents of an XML element) and base64 decode the string upon retrieval- this was not within webMethods - but wm has methods for encoding/decoding so you might try that

Either MIME or base64 encoding of course will be valid. Just make sure you properly communicate your format to Trad partner, things such as filename when doing base64 encoding, what not.

 If you're doing RNet, then RNIF 2.0 has facility for file attachment.

No matter how you do it though, there's one little problem of "large file" yet to be resolved. wM B2B servers (up to 4.0.2 apparently) have various problems transporting data > 12-16MB.