diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd
index 4b45ffa1c8..295eeefefd 100644
--- a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd
@@ -108,8 +108,8 @@
 
 	<xsd:complexType name="transformerType">
 		<xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:string"/>
-		<xsd:attribute name="input-channel" type="xsd:string" use="required"/>
-		<xsd:attribute name="output-channel" type="xsd:string" use="required"/>		
+		<xsd:attribute name="input-channel" type="xsd:string"/>
+		<xsd:attribute name="output-channel" type="xsd:string"/>		
 	</xsd:complexType>
 
 </xsd:schema>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/Exclaimer.java b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/Exclaimer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..26f385c9d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/Exclaimer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.mail.config;
+
+/**
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ */
+public class Exclaimer {
+
+	public String exclaim(String input) {
+		return input.toUpperCase() + "!!!";
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/MailToStringTransformerParserTests.java b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/MailToStringTransformerParserTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6c98b168f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/MailToStringTransformerParserTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.springframework.integration.mail.config;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+import javax.mail.internet.MimeMessage;
+
+import org.easymock.classextension.EasyMock;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException;
+import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
+import org.springframework.integration.channel.BeanFactoryChannelResolver;
+import org.springframework.integration.channel.PollableChannel;
+import org.springframework.integration.core.Message;
+import org.springframework.integration.core.MessageChannel;
+import org.springframework.integration.message.GenericMessage;
+
+/**
+ * @author Mark Fisher
+ */
+public class MailToStringTransformerParserTests {
+
+	@Test
+	public void topLevelTransformer() throws Exception {
+		ClassPathXmlApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
+				"mailToStringTransformerParserTests.xml",  this.getClass());
+		MessageChannel input = new BeanFactoryChannelResolver(context).resolveChannelName("input");
+		PollableChannel output = (PollableChannel) new BeanFactoryChannelResolver(context).resolveChannelName("output");
+		MimeMessage mimeMessage = EasyMock.createNiceMock(MimeMessage.class);
+		EasyMock.expect(mimeMessage.getContent()).andReturn("hello");
+		EasyMock.replay(mimeMessage);
+		input.send(new GenericMessage<javax.mail.Message>(mimeMessage));
+		Message<?> result = output.receive(0);
+		assertNotNull(result);
+		assertEquals("hello", result.getPayload());
+		EasyMock.verify(mimeMessage);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void transformerWithinChain() throws Exception {
+		ClassPathXmlApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
+				"mailToStringTransformerWithinChain.xml",  this.getClass());
+		MessageChannel input = new BeanFactoryChannelResolver(context).resolveChannelName("input");
+		PollableChannel output = (PollableChannel) new BeanFactoryChannelResolver(context).resolveChannelName("output");
+		MimeMessage mimeMessage = EasyMock.createNiceMock(MimeMessage.class);
+		EasyMock.expect(mimeMessage.getContent()).andReturn("foo");
+		EasyMock.replay(mimeMessage);
+		input.send(new GenericMessage<javax.mail.Message>(mimeMessage));
+		Message<?> result = output.receive(0);
+		assertNotNull(result);
+		assertEquals("FOO!!!", result.getPayload());
+		EasyMock.verify(mimeMessage);
+	}
+
+	@Test(expected = BeanDefinitionStoreException.class)
+	public void topLevelTransformerMissingInput() {
+		try {
+			new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("mailToStringTransformerWithoutInputChannel.xml", this.getClass());
+		}
+		catch (BeanDefinitionStoreException e) {
+			assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("input-channel"));
+			throw e;
+		}
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerParserTests.xml b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerParserTests.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a99d56e945
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerParserTests.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:integration="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd">
+
+	<integration:channel id="input"/>
+
+	<integration:channel id="output">
+		<integration:queue capacity="1"/>
+	</integration:channel>
+
+	<mail-to-string-transformer input-channel="input" output-channel="output"/>
+
+</beans:beans>
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerWithinChain.xml b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerWithinChain.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b1c4752176
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerWithinChain.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:integration="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd">
+
+	<integration:channel id="input"/>
+
+	<integration:channel id="output">
+		<integration:queue capacity="1"/>
+	</integration:channel>
+
+	<integration:chain id="chain" input-channel="input" output-channel="output">
+		<mail-to-string-transformer/>
+		<integration:service-activator ref="exclaimer"/>
+	</integration:chain>
+
+	<beans:bean id="exclaimer" class="org.springframework.integration.mail.config.Exclaimer"/>
+
+</beans:beans>
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerWithoutInputChannel.xml b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerWithoutInputChannel.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..acb0450a7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.springframework.integration.mail/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/mail/config/mailToStringTransformerWithoutInputChannel.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:integration="http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail
+			http://www.springframework.org/schema/integration/mail/spring-integration-mail-1.0.xsd">
+
+	<integration:channel id="output">
+		<integration:queue capacity="1"/>
+	</integration:channel>
+
+	<mail-to-string-transformer output-channel="output"/>
+
+</beans:beans>