Web Service Return Type/Value Standards

Are there specific standa开发者_StackOverflow中文版rds for the return message of a Web Service especially in regard to errors? I can imagine something like embedding error codes in a xml format but I didn't find anything specific for a established standardization of the return messages.

I also had a look at OASIS but the amount of information is a bit overwhelming and I'm not even sure where to begin.

You can start with SOAP services. You can get enough specs on SOAP