public class SOAPFaultException extends RuntimeException {
// Public Constructors
    public SOAPFaultException( javax.xml.namespace.QName faultcode, 
        String faultstring, String faultactor, javax.xml.soap.Detail faultdetail);
// Public Instance Methods
    public javax.xml.soap.Detail getDetail(  ); 
    public String getFaultActor(  ); 
    public javax.xml.namespace.QName getFaultCode(  ); 
    public String getFaultString(  ); 
}

SOAPFaultException is an unchecked exception that is thrown from a method call on the client side that results in the server returning a SOAP message that contains a fault element. The methods from which such a fault can be thrown are the invoke( ) method of the Call interface, and any method in the service endpoint interface of a web service for which the WSDL definition allows the response to contain a fault element.

The methods of SOAPFaultException allow the client application to retrieve the information conveyed in the fault message (for a discussion of this, refer to the description of the SOAPFault element in the SAAJ API in Chapter 20). The getFaultCode( ) and getFaultString( ) methods retrieve the reason for the fault as an error code and a human-readable string, respectively, while the getFaultActor( ) method returns a URI that identifies the system that detected the fault. The getDetail( ) returns additional information, which is application-specific, that the sender stored in the SOAP fault element. The value returned by this method is of type javax.xml.soap.Detail (see Chapter 20) and can, therefore, contain arbitrary XML elements.