RESTful web service, but leaving inbound XML intact

I’m developing a Rails application which has to process orders via a web
service. I want to develop this as a RESTful one, and have worked out
that
since this is an “INSERT” the call should be a POST.

However first on my list of business requirements is that the inbound
XML has
to be stored “untouched”.

It seems that Rails helpfully parses the XML inbound for me.

If someone could describe to me how to add a RESTful web service to
Rails,
which calls a method orders/public_order and which gives me the raw XML
to
work with that would be really helpful.

TIA

Philip N.
ScotDB Limited
([email protected])