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Last modified: April 06, 2007
Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I)

Contents

Overview

[February 07, 2002] IBM and Microsoft, together with an additional fifty-three(+) industry leaders, have formed a new Web Services Interoperability Organization "committed to promoting interoperability among Web services based on common, industry-accepted definitions and related XML standards support. WS-I brings the work of multiple standards development organizations together for the purpose of providing clarity and conformance around Web Services." WS-I working groups will be chartered to produce specific sets of deliverables such as testing tools and sample Web services. These deliverables will be targeted at providing resources to assist Web services developers "to create interoperable Web services, and to verify that their results are compliant with both industry standards and WS-I recommended guidelines." Key deliverables include (1) Profiles, which identify version-specific sets of Web services specifications that interoperate to support specific types of solutions; (2) Sample Implementations exposing interoperability issues; (3) Implementation Guidelines with implementation scenarios, sample solutions, and test cases illustrating compliance verification; (4) A 'Sniffer' tool to monitor and log interactions with a Web service; (5) An 'Analyzer' conformance testing tool which processes sniffer logs to verify that the Web service implementation is error-free. WS-I is open to any organization supporting the goal of interoperable Web services. See the news item.

[August 18, 2003]   WS-I Releases Basic Profile 1.0a Final Specification for Interoperable Web Services.    The Web Services-Interoperability Organization has announced the publication of a final specification for the WS-I Basic Profile Version 1.0a, accompanied by statements of support from more than twenty-five WS-I member companies. The Basic Profile formally approved by the WS-I member community "consists of implementation guidelines on how core Web services specifications should be used together to develop interoperable Web services. The non-proprietary Web services specifications covered by the Basic Profile include SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, UDDI 2.0, XML 1.0, and W3C XML Schema." The profile identifies and resolves "more than 200 interoperability issues" associated with the use of core Web services specifications referenced in the document. "WS-I is currently developing interoperability guidelines for SOAP with Attachments, and for the Basic Security Profile. These efforts will extend the functionality provided by the Basic Profile and will reference existing specifications." The Microsoft Prescriptive Architecture Group (PAG) has released a 133-page document Building Interoperable Web Services which surveys the contents of the Basic Profile and offers a "definitive guide on how to build and consume WS-I Basic Profile compliant Web services with Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework."

"WS-I is an open, industry organization chartered to promote Web services interoperability across platforms, operating systems, and programming languages. The organization works across the industry and standards organizations to respond to customer needs by providing guidance, best practices, and resources for developing Web services solutions." [Website home page 2002-02-07]

Overview: "The technology industry's rapidly growing interest in XML-based Web services -- which allow people to access and integrate information from throughout the Web, seamlessly and securely -- got a boost today with the announcement that Microsoft, IBM and other leading technology companies have formed a cross-industry initiative, the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization. The focus of the WS-I -- whose founders also include Accenture, BEA Systems Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, -- is to promote a key technology for what Microsoft has called the next generation of the Internet... The organization is dedicated to two key goals. First, WS-I wants to provide implementation guidance and education to accelerate customer deployments. Second, it will articulate and promote a common industry vision for Web-services interoperability to ease customer decision making, to grow market adoption of Web services and to ensure the continued evolution of Web services technologies... [Testing:] Part of what's driven Web services until now has been a growing baseline of Web-services standards, including SOAP 1.1, XML Schema, WSDL 1.1 and UDDI. The WS-I will encourage a set of best practices around these standards. It will also deliver a set of compliance tools that customers can use to test their baseline implementations of the standards. The tests will be voluntary, self-administered and aimed at discovering errors in implementation of the specifications so they can be corrected. We want to make it easier for customers to improve the interoperability of their infrastructure and applications... [Profiles:] WS-I will aggregate collections of key Web services standards into meaningful groups that are easier for customers to work with. It will also promote the evolutionary adoption of key standards, and evolve the scope and definition of profiles as required by market needs and the maturity of underlying standards. Web services, and the market for them, must grow and evolve together. Web-services profiles will help that happen... [Roadmap: The "Web Services Framework" document published by IBM and Microsoft] will serve as the foundation for the new roadmap, an evolving document that will identify functional areas and capabilities to be addressed by future Web services specifications. The roadmap will guide implementers and customers so that their work can remain compatible with the specifications as they are developed." [from the interview with Dan'l Lewin 2002-02-06]

Initiative rationale: "SOAP 1.2, WSDL 1.1, and UDDI 2.0 are the latest specifications that are used to describe, publish, enable discovery, and invoke Web Services [but they are only] the beginning of the design and creation of specifications and standards to support the full Web services vision. For example, additional work is necessary for message extensibility, binary attachments, routing, correlation, guaranteed message exchange, signatures, encryption, transactions, process flow, inspection, and discovery... even though the industry may have the best intentions of ensuring interoperability on a specification by specification basis, a CIO, purchaser or other user of a Web service product (be it a tool, runtime, or web service itself) would find it very difficult to match several pieces of software necessary to complete a task or build a solution. The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) addresses this need through the concept of 'Profiles'..."

"One of the challenges to achieving the interoperability promise of Web services is that the specifications for the first generation of Web services: Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Service Description Language (WSDL), and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), currently are overseen by a number of independent standards bodies making coordination of the various specifications difficult. Additionally, use of the same specifications does not always ensure that the resulting Web services will interoperate with Web services created on other platforms or with different programming languages. As the number and variety of specifications increases to match new and existing needs this problem only increases. To truly realize the promise of interoperability it is imperative that industry leadership in regards to definition, implementation, and testing of Web services be brought forward. The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I), founded by Microsoft, International Business Machines (IBM) and other leaders in the software and technology industries, is an organization committed to promoting interoperability among Web services based on common, industry-accepted definitions and related XML standards support. WS-I will provide the guidance, tools, and test materials necessary to ensure that Web services created using industry standards will interoperate with one another -- across different platforms, applications, and programming languages. By working with industry leaders and standards bodies, WS-I will help advance Web services in a structured, coherent fashion..." [from the MS document "Web Services: Interoperability Across Platforms, Applications, and Programming Languages."

A WS-I Profile is "a named group of Web services specifications at specific version levels, along with conventions about how they work together. WS-I will develop a core collection of profiles that support interoperability for general purpose Web services functionality. Profiles make it easier to discuss Web services interoperability at a level of granularity that makes sense for developers, users, and executives making investment decisions about Web services and Web services products. WS-I focuses on compatibility at both the individual specification and at the Profile level. To be a useful concept and avoid confusion, the number of Profiles should remain relatively small. At the same time, too few profiles would require some Web services products to be forced to add unneeded features simply to conform to some Profile and assert interoperability. It will be an ongoing task of WS-I to design and update profiles that reflect real Web services usage in the industry... The first profile proposed is WS-I Basic (XML Schema 1.0, SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, UDDI 1.0)... The development of additional or updated WS-I Profiles depends on the continued evolution and maturity of Web services specifications and standards. Each of the areas listed in the beginning of this paper is a candidate for additional Profile work as specifications are developed. Additional work in message extensibility, binary attachments, routing, correlation, guaranteed message exchange, signatures, encryption, transactions, process flow, inspection, and discovery is expected."

WS-I Test Resources

[July 29, 2003] "Using the WS-I Test Tools." By Yasser Shohoud (Microsoft). July 24, 2003. 18 minutes. Tutorial prepared as an MSDN TV Episode; the presentations is played using the Microsoft Windows Media Player. Summary: "The Web Services Interoperability organization (WS-I) has published a draft version of the Basic Profile Test Tools. Yasser Shohoud shows how to use these tools to test your Web service for WS-I Basic Profile conformance." Details: A Beta Release of the WS-I Testing Tools was issued in April 2003 and is available in C# and Java. The WS-I testing tools are designed to help developers determine whether their Web services are conformant with Profile Guidelines. The WS-I Testing Working Group also published draft [June 26, 2003] versions of the WS-I Monitor Tool Functional Specification and WS-I Analyzer Tool Functional Specification. The WS-I Monitor Tool specification edited by Scott Seely (Microsoft) documents the message capture and logging tool. "This tool captures messages and stores them for later analysis. The tool itself will have to capture messages traveling over different protocols and transports. The first version of this tool will focus on being able to accurately capture HTTP based SOAP messages. Also, while many interception techniques are available, this implementation uses a man in the middle approach to intercept and record messages... The Monitor has two distinct sets of functionality: (1) It is responsible for sending messages on to some other endpoint that is capable of accepting the traffic while preserving the integrity of communication between the two endpoints. (2) It is responsible for recording the messages that flow through it to a log file. One can think of these two pieces as an interceptor and a logger. For this first version of the Monitor, the interceptor and logger functionality will exist in the same application. The working group recognizes that we may later desire to separate the interceptor and the logger into two, standalone entities. This design discusses how one would go about structuring an application today that should be able to be broken into separate pieces in future versions..." The WS-I Analyzer Tool specification edited by Peter Brittenham (IBM) documents "the design for Version 1.0 of the analyzer tool, which will be used for conformance testing of WS-I profiles. The purpose of the Analyzer tool is to validate the messages that were sent to and from a Web service. The analyzer is also responsible for verifying the description of the Web service. This includes the WSDL document that describes the Web service, and the XML schema files that describe the data types used in the WSDL service definition. The analyzer tool has a defined set of input files, all of which are used to verify conformance to a profile definition: Analyzer configuration file; Test assertion definition file; Message log file; WSDL for the Web service. The analyzer configuration file and test assertion definition file are described in greater detail in the subsequent sections of the document; the message log file contains the list of messages that were captured by the monitor tool..." See also the WS-I Basic Profile Version 1.0 (Working Group Approval Draft 2003/05/20) and the

  • WS-I Testing Working Group Charter.

    • Monitoring tools: 'Sniffer' will be provided to collect Web service message traces and generate a log for subsequent service message traces
    • Analysis tools: 'Analyzer' will examine traces for correctness and use of recommended practices
    • Output of analysis tools is used as a basis for WS-I compliance claims
    • Tools are intended for use by any Web service developer
    • Source code will be available

    From the announcement:

    Implementation Tools and Guidance: "To assist in ensuring the interoperability of Web services, WS-I will initially create a suite of tools and materials for testing implementation and conformance with "basic level" Web services standards: XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI. These testing capabilities are important so customers can ensure that their implementations comply with the best-practices use of these Web services specifications. Tests will be self administered and aimed at uncovering unconventional usage or errors in specification implementations, thus improving interoperability between applications and across platforms.

    Road Map for Web Services: "As Web services mature and gain mainstream momentum, the need will arise for additional capabilities that are not fully addressed in the current Web services standards. To meet these needs, WS-I will publish an architectural road map for identifying functional areas and capabilities that need to be addressed in future Web services specifications. As new specifications are created and adopted by multiple standards organizations to enhance current Web service capabilities, WS-I will provide a forum to ensure testing materials support the evolving set of requirements and their interdependencies."

    • WS-I membership and governance

    Details as portrayed through documents in a WS-I 'membership information' packet distributed via email 2002-02-18, by WS-I Coordinator (Rich Crithfield). See the official contact address for current details on WS-I membership and organizational process.

    WS-I Working Group Charters

    Charters 2002-06:

    WS-I Board Of Directors

    [Website listing 2002-07-18]

    WS-I Members

    The WS-I members include some 107 companies [2002-07-18 listing]: 101communications, Accenture, Actional, Agentis Software, Akamai Technologies, Altova, Approva, Ascential Software, AT&T, Attachmate, Autodesk, Avinon, Bang Networks, BEA Systems, Blue Titan, Borland, Bowstreet, Business Objects, Cape Clear, CIGNA, CommerceQuest, ContentGuard, Corechange, Corel, Corillian, Cotagesoft, Cyclone Commerce, Daimler Chrysler, DealEasy, Discrete Objects, E2open, EDS, Epicentric, Epicor, ESRI, FileNET, Flamenco Networks, Forum Systems, Fox Island Partners, Fujitsu, FullTilt, Geac Computer Corporation, GrandCentral, Groove Networks, Hewlett-Packard, HighJump Software, Hitachi, Hummingbird Limited, I/O Software, IBM Corporation, Intel, Iona, iWay Software, JamCracker, KANA, Kinzan, Loudcloud, Mediapps, Mercator, Metapa, Micro Focus, Microsoft, Mogul Technology, NEON Systems, Netegrity, Onyx, Oracle Corporation, Parasoft, Partnerware, Pivotal, Plumtree, Portera, POSC, Procter & Gamble, Promon IP, Quovadx, Qwest, Rational Software, Reactivity, RealNames, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Sabre, SAP AG, SAS, SeguriDATA, SilverStream Software, Softronic, Software AG, Sonic Software, Suntail, Swingtide, Sybase, Systinet, Talking Blocks, Tata Consultancy Services, TIBCO, Tryllian, Unisys, United Airlines, United Kingdom Office of e-Envoy, Verisign, Versata, Vinsurance, Vitria, webMethods, and WRQ

    [June 27, 2002] WS-I as a "standards organization"? IBM's Bob Sutor says not, according to a Tech Update from Eric Knorr (June 27, 2002). On July 27, 2002, IBM, Microsoft, and VeriSign announced their intention to submit the "Web Services Security Specification (WS-Security)" to OASIS and to create an OASIS Technical Committee for development of this specification. From Knorr's report: "According to Sutor, another message sent by WS-Security's choice of OASIS was to quell speculation once and for all that the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization will go beyond its current charter -- fostering Web services compatibility across tools and platforms -- to becoming a standards organization itself. 'The WS-I is about interoperability,' he says. 'There's been confusion generated -- I don't know why -- about whether it's doing standards or not, but we've always said it's not [emph added]. They've been very busy working on the interoperability of the basic things. I would hope and expect that at a later date they start looking at WS-Security'..." See details of the WS-Security submission to OASIS in "IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign Submit WS-Security Specification to OASIS for Standardization. Advanced Web Services Security Specification Broadly Supported by Industry." The report also highlights the significance of Sun's (stated) commitment to the WS-Security specification within the OASIS context: "Just as important as the players involved, however, is the decision by Microsoft, IBM, and VeriSign to ensure WS-Security will be royalty-free. Explicitly, no party will be able to collect licensing fees from the use of WS-Security, a stipulation that Smith told me was a prerequisite for Sun's participation. He believes the proposed royalty-free license is 'sufficient in all regards. Had they not done that, we would not have participated'..."

    Principal References

    Articles, Papers, News, Tools

    • [April 06, 2007] "WS-I Basic Security Profile Version 1.0 Published as Final Material." The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) has announced the release of the Basic Security Profile Version 1.0 as Final Material. The Profile consists of a set of non-proprietary Web services specifications, along with clarifications to and amplifications of those specifications which promote interoperability. Publication of BSP 1.0 has been praised by Web Services security experts as a key enabling technology to enhance interoperability and improve security. The Basic Security Profile Version 1.0 was produced by members of the WS-I Basic Security Profile Working Group, chaire by Paul Cotton. The Basic Security Profile Working Group was chartered to "develop an interoperability profile dealing with transport security, SOAP messaging security and other Basic-Profile-oriented Web services security considerations. The Working Group is developing and selecting a set of usage scenarios and their component message exchange patterns to guide the profiling work. In addition, the Basic Security Profile Working Group will use the WS-I Security Plan Framework, particularly its collection of usage scenarios and use cases, and the WS-I Work Plan for Web Services Security Interoperability as input to its work." The WS-I Basic Security Profile is an interoperability profile that addresses transport security, SOAP messaging security, and other security considerations. Specifically, the BSP 1.0 document focuses on the interoperability characteristics of two technologies: HTTP over TLS and Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security. HTTP over TLS is a point-to-point technology that protects the confidentiality of all information that flows over an HTTP connection. Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security provides security protection for SOAP messages and applies even when a message passes through several intermediary waypoints, allowing differing levels of protection for selected portions of a message. The BSP 1.0 specification describes a way to apply SOAP Message Security to attachments. The BSP 1.0 also incorporates WSS Token Profiles.

    • [December 11, 2006] "WS-I Publishes New Profiles and Usage Scenarios for Public Review. Working Group Drafts of Basic Profile 1.2, Basic Security Profile 1.1 and Reliable Secure Profile 1.0 Usage Scenarios Now Available." — The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) today announced the publication of three new Working Group Drafts: the Basic Profile 1.2, Basic Security Profile 1.1 and the Reliable Secure Profile 1.0 Usage Scenarios. Advancement of these documents to Working Group Draft status is an invitation to the Web services community to provide technical feedback. The Basic Profile 1.2 is a revision of the Basic Profile 1.1, incorporating errata to date and includes requirements related to the serialization of envelopes and their representation in messages from the Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0. The WS-I Basic Profile 1.2 is primarily constructed using WS-Addressing which defines a standard mechanism for identifying and exchanging Web services messages between multiple endpoints. The newly chartered Reliable Secure Profile Working Group has released a Working Group Draft of the Reliable Secure Profile 1.0 Usage Scenarios for public review. The Reliable Secure Profile 1.0 will deliver interoperability guidance to Web services architects and developers to securely deliver messages reliably between distributed applications in the presence of software component, system, or network failures. The published Usage Scenarios illustrate the use of the Reliable Secure Profile 1.0 and how it can be applied or composed with other profiles and specifications across a wide range of Web services applications (e.g., mobile, devices, intermediaries, enterprise applications, etc.). The Usage Scenarios focus on the specific scenarios that exhibit fundamental interoperability issues and that require implementation guidance. In concert with the current work to finalize the Basic Security Profile 1.0, to be released as Final Material in the first quarter, the Basic Security Profile Working Group has released a Working Group Draft of the Basic Security Profile 1.1. The Basic Security Profile 1.1 is a revision of the Basic Security Profile 1.0 and incorporates any errata to date and profiles WS-Security 1.1 and the WS-Security 1.1 token profiles, including Username, X.509, REL, Kerberos, and SAML..."

    • [July 14, 2006] WS-I Basic Security Profile Enhanced Logging Specification Requirements. Edited by Ram Poornalingam (Microsoft Corporation). Contributors: Craig Chaney (IBM) and Keith Stobie (Microsoft). Produced by members of the Web Services-Interoperability Organization (WS-I). Document Status: Working Group Draft. Version: 1.0. Publication date: May 08, 2006. 8 pages. [This specification defines the enhanced logging facilities used by the WS-I Test Tools to support the Basic Security Profile.] "Verifying Basic Security Profile conformance requires SOAP stack instrumentation. This specification addresses why instrumentation is necessary and how it can be achieved. The document assumes that the reader understands the usage of the Interoperability testing tools version 2.0. [The WS-I Testing Tools are designed to help developers determine whether their Web services are conformant with WS-I profile guidelines.] Complete BSP verification of encrypted SOAP message emitted by the application is not possible. The reason being, Basic Profile verification, a requirement of the BSP, of encrypted messages is not possible. To achieve BP verification, the unencrypted form of the message is necessary. The profile conformance coverage that can be achieved, without adhering to this specification, is only at the surface level..."

    • [May 02, 2006] "Reliable-messaging 'Profile' Passes." By Martin LaMonica. From CNET News.com (May 02, 2006). "The Web Services-Interoperability organization (WS-I) on Monday said it will create guidelines meant to ensure that standards-based reliable-messaging software from different vendors will work together. The WS-I publishes 'profiles' that include directions on how to write software from published Web services standards, a series of XML-based protocols for sharing data between applications. The organization will establish a working group to write a reliable-messaging profile that will be based on two specifications: OASIS WS-ReliableMessaging 1.1 and OASIS WS-Secure Conversations..."

    • [May 01, 2006] "WS-I Announces New Profile Work for 2006. Web Services Interoperability Organization Initiates Work on Three New Profiles: Basic Profile 1.2, Basic Profile 2.0 and Reliable Secure Profile 1.0." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) today announced that the WS-I Board of Directors has approved two new working group charters, which will result in the development of three new WS-I profiles in 2006: the Basic Profile 1.2, Basic Profile 2.0 and the Reliable Secure Profile 1.0. WS I is a global industry organization that promotes consistent and reliable interoperability among Web services across platforms, applications and programming languages. More information about WS-I can be found at www.ws-i.org. The first charter, a revision to the existing WS-I Basic Profile Working Group charter, will result in the development the Basic Profile 1.2 and the Basic Profile 2.0. The Basic Profile 1.2 will incorporate asynchronous messaging and will also consider SOAP 1.1 with Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) and XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP). The Basic Profile 2.0 will build on the Basic Profile 1.2 and will be based on SOAP 1.2 with MTOM and XOP. The second charter establishes a new working group, the Reliable Secure Profile Working Group, which will deliver guidance to Web services architects and developers concerning reliable messaging with security... The newly chartered Reliable Secure Profile Working Group will begin developing scenarios, requirements and profile guidance in parallel with the related standardization efforts within the OASIS WS-Reliable Exchange Technical Committee. The working group's primary deliverable is the WS-I Reliable Secure Profile (RSP) 1.0 which will provide guidance to architects and developers concerning reliable messaging with security. RSP 1.0 will be based upon the following specifications: (1) OASIS WS-ReliableMessaging 1.1 and (2) OASIS WS-SecureConversation 1.3. The scenarios and requirements work will consider interoperability issues identified across a wide range of Web services applications (e.g., mobile, devices, intermediaries, enterprise applications, etc.). A Chair for the Reliable Secure Profile Working Group will be named shortly. The Basic Profile 1.2 and 2.0, and the Reliable Secure Profile 1.0, when practical, will cleanly compose with other WS-I profiles delivered to date..."

    • [April 21, 2006] "WS-I Board of Directors Appoints SAP's Michael Bechauf Chairman at Spring Community Meeting Profile Proposals to Tackle Reliable Asynchronous Messaging, Addressing, Secure Conversations and SOAP 1.2 Considered." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) today announced that the WS-I Board of Directors, by unanimous vote, appointed Michael Bechauf Chairman of the Board. Bechauf, Vice President of Industry Standards at SAP, succeeds Tom Glover, Senior Program Manager of Web Services Standards for IBM's Software Group, who has served as WS-I Chairman since the organization's inception in February, 2002. Bechauf was appointed Chairman at the Board of Directors meeting held recently in conjunction with the WS-I Spring Community Meeting... At the recent Board meeting, the WS-I Board of Directors, collaborating with the WS-I Requirements Gathering Working Group, developed two draft working group charters. The first, a revision of the WS-I Basic Profile Working Group charter, would result in WS-I's producing the Basic Profile version 1.2, which will incorporate asynchronous messaging, and the Basic Profile version 2.0, which will incorporate SOAP 1.2, SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) and XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP). The second charter would create the Reliable Secure Profile Working Group, which would deliver guidance to developers concerning reliable messaging with security. The Board will meet on April 18 [2006] to review the final versions of the proposed working group charters. 'Since the inception of WS-I, the organization has been focused on producing profiles that bridge business needs and standards, so that the full value of Web services can be realized,' said Tom Glover. 'The WS-I Basic Profile has become the foundation of Web services-based interoperability, and the entire industry has benefited from the effort WS-I members put into the Profile and supporting deliverables, which help Web services developers and architects in their work. In 2006, WS-I members are working to deliver the Basic Security Profile, which will improve the ability to integrate clients and services where security is required. In addition, our members are taking the first steps towards developing guidance on interoperable asynchronous messaging, and they are looking past that to what comes next. I'm proud to have been a part of this team for the past four years, and I'm looking forward to seeing WS-I, with Michael Bechauf at the helm, continue to help make interoperability a practical reality'..."

    • [March 24, 2006] "IBM: Proposing An Addition to WS-I Profiles." By Tony Baer. From Computer Business Review Online (March 24, 2006). "After a somewhat stormy birth four years ago, web services interoperability (WS-I) has become one of the success stories in the web services standards world. Its role is devising profiles, or test cases, for determining if web services middleware from different vendors are truly interoperable. IBM is expected to propose the Reliable Asynchronous Messaging Profile, RAMP, at this year's first major WS-I gathering. RAMP will consist of snippets of three recent or pending web services standards: WS-Addressing, WS-ReliableMessaging, and WS-SecureConversation. IBM developed the proposed RAMP profile in conjunction with Ford and Chrysler, and has recently drawn backing from other customers, including Citibank. WS-I profiles are not standards per se, but test cases that vendors accept as their standard for testing the interoperability of their web services middleware products. To keep the tests manageable, they do not necessarily exercise every aspect of the technology stack. Arguably, the strength of WS-I is that it has stuck to its knitting with a couple of very basic interoperability profiles, the Basic Profile and the Basic Security Profile, and has therefore drawn virtually universal industry support. The weakness is that WS-I's lowest common denominator approach has caused the organization to stay behind the times. For instance, the Basic Profile does not even test for the latest version of UDDI, which is supported in most current registry products. And in four years, it only has only finalized one profile, although it is close to finishing the second..."

    • [March 24, 2006] "Next Steps for WS-I: Interoperable Reliable Asynchronous Messaging." By Tom Glover (Senior Program Manager of Web Services Standards, IBM Software Group). IBM Blog (March 23, 2006). "As we approach the next WS-I Plenary discussion regarding how we come to consensus to get work on Reliable Asynchronous Messaging under way is fast and furious ... which is great news. In my last post I talked about RAMP, or the Reliable Asynchronous Messaging Profile, a draft Profile DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and IBM have produced with contributions from many others, and about the preparation of a draft working group charter intended to move this work into WS-I. The draft charter prepared by Citigroup, IBM, and others went to the WS-I Requirements WG where it was considered and amended by the WS-I membership. It's now before the WS-I board. There's now another proposal being worked. This effort, initiated by Microsoft, differs from the initial proposal in a couple of ways at this point, and I say it that way because it's now before the Requirements WG as well and is being amended. The first difference is that there are charters for two working groups in this proposal rather than one. The second difference is that it proposes that RAMP be sub-divided so that ws-addressing goes into an amended basic profile. The third difference is that it attempts to get WS-I committed via working group charter contents to begin working on SOAP 1.2 now. I'm comfortable adopting some of the changes in this work if it will move us forward. Here's what I hope is in the WG charter approved at next weeks WS-I plenary: (1) Scenarios which articulate what the profiles to be produced will address. (2) A BP 1.2 which extends and evolves BP 1.1 to include WS-Addressing. (3) A Basic Reliable Messaging Profile 1.0 which includes WS-ReliableMessaging and WS-SecureConversation. You'll note that I advocate one working group, not two. This lets small companies send representatives to one WG rather than two, which is a real plus for them. It also cuts down on WS-I overhead, again a big plus..."

    • [May 17, 2005] Security Challenges, Threats and Countermeasures Version 1.0. Status: Final Material. May 07, 2005. Edited by Jerry Schwarz (Oracle), Bret Hartman (DataPower), Anthony Nadalin (IBM), Chris Kaler (Microsoft), Mark Davis (Sarvega), Frederick Hirsch (Nokia Corporation), and K. Scott Morrison (Layer 7). Copyright (c) 2002-2005 by The Web Services-Interoperability Organization (WS-I) and Certain of its Members. 48 pages. "The Final Material document describes several security challenges, threats and countermeasures in building interoperable Web services, as well as usage scenarios and solutions. It is used to define the requirements for and scope of the Basic Security Profile. Covers: (1) Challenges: describes several security challenges, including ensuring data integrity, data confidentiality and message uniqueness; (2) Threats: outlines 10 threats on these challenges, such as message alteration, falsified messages, message replay, and denial of service attacks; (3) Countermeasures: recommends how technologies like HTTPS and OASIS Web Services Security (WS-Security): SOAP Message Security 1.0 can be used to counter some of these threats; (4) Usage Scenarios and Solutions: describes how these technologies can be used with the Message Exchange Patterns (MEPs) that have been used in WS-I deliverables such as the Basic Profile 1.0 Sample Applications..." See the announcement.

    • [May 17, 2005] "WS-I Promotes Security Document to Final Material Status. 'Security Challenges, Threats and Countermeasures' Approved by Membership." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) today announced the publication of its "Security Challenges, Threats and Countermeasures" document (SCTC) as Final Material. The Final Material designation is applied to those deliverables that have been formally approved by the WS-I member community. Developed by the WS-I Basic Security Profile Working Group, the SCTC identifies security challenges and threats in building interoperable Web services and countermeasures for these risks. The document is available for download... The WS-I Basic Security Profile Working Group has also been at work on the Basic Security Profile (BSP), which is expected to be published as Final Material this Summer. The BSP is an interoperability profile involving transport security, SOAP messaging security and other security considerations implicated by the Basic Profile. The Basic Security Profile is intended to compose with other WS-I profiles and will reference existing specifications used to provide security, including the WS-Security 1.0 OASIS Standard, and provide clarifications and guidance designed to promote interoperability of those specifications..." See preceding bibliographic entry.

    • [April 24, 2005] "WS-I Submission for the W3C Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 Specification User Experiences." By Erik Johnson (Epicor) for the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I). Version: 1.0. "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) herein offers a submission to the W3C Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 User Experiences. The WS-I appreciates this opportunity to contribute to the Workshop and looks forward to working with the W3C in fostering broad adoption of the XML Schema 1.0 Specification. Unlike other specifications relevant to web services, the WS-I had initially felt that there were no clear ambiguities or feature pathways of the W3C XML Schema 1.0 Specification 2nd Edition itself that merited development of a WS-I XML Schema profile. In fact, the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 expressly allows the use of all W3C XML Schema 1.0 Specification constructs and types. In 2003 however, the WS-I commissioned a Working Group to study interoperability issues with XML Schema raised by WS-I Community members, specifically end-user organizations. The XML Schema Work Plan Working Group (WS-I SWPWG) was then chartered to produce a recommendation for possible further action to the WS-I Board. The WS-I SWPWG began work in November of 2004 to study the issue claims and define how the WS-I might in fact take action. This submission summarizes portions of the conversation and consensus from the work of the WS-I XML Schema Work Plan Working Group... It defeats the purpose of XML web services if developers creating or consuming services have to understand the toolkit and platform assumptions of their counterparts. So, toolkit support of XML Schema needs to be measured in the context of suitability to purpose. But there are many permutations of platform stacks, programming languages, and toolkits in use and the idea of suitability is clearly subjective. WS-I members have discussed these issues from two viewpoints: The first is the need for guidance and clarification of the W3C XML Schema 1.0 Specification, especially around best practices for extensibility, versioning, and type composition (modularity). The second is the need for a testing capability that covers XML Schema constructs found in real-world schemas (good, bad, and ugly) rather than academic coverage of XML Schema features..." For details on the workshop, see the news story "W3C Workshop to Address Improved Interoperability of Schema-Aware Software." [cache]

    • [March 24, 2005] "WS-I Advances BSP Documents, Explores New Items." By Alan J. Weissberger. In Daily News and Information for the Global Grid Community (March 16, 2005). ['Alan Weissberger attended the WS-I Community Meeting, which was held March 8-11 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and offers a report of what was covered. Among the highlights was a representative of the Burton Group who stated that over 70 percent of its Fortune 300 clients recognize the value of WS-I deliverables and are including them in their IT requirements.'] "The Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization held its spring 2005 community meeting March 8-11 in Vancouver, British Columbia. WS-I is the lowest common denominator organization for Web services. It attempts to ensure interoperability of Web services standards (developed by W3C and OASIS) by creating profiles based on those standards. Here are a few highlights of this important WS-I meeting: [1] Board of Directors (BoD) is pursuing ISO/IEC JTC1 'Fast Track' submission of WS-I Basic Profile (BP) 1.1 and Basic Security Profile (BSP) documents. This would convey 'de jure' standards status on the WS-I Board approved output documents, which is required in some foreign countries. [2] W3C is considering a new work item to develop an XML schema profile. This is because many industry participants complain that either schema is not specified correctly, or the schema development tools do not work correctly (two sets of tools may not produce interoperable code for the same Web service). WS-I is keenly interest in this activity and a draft charter of a new XML Schema WG has been generated for BoD review. However, that review is on hold for three months, pending W3C decision on pursuing this activity. [3] Basic Security Profile (BSP) WG (see II. below) completed work on Security Challenges, Threats and Countermeasures document which was approved by BoD at this meeting. The WG also progressed the three documents that collectively comprise the BSP. They are waiting for the OASIS WS-Security TC to complete work on Kerberos Token standard before they begin related Kerberos profiling work. [4] Requirements WG finalized a Usage Pattern Template, submitted by Fujitsu Software, for description of WS usage patterns. Previous templates completed: Business Scenarios, Use Cases and Interoperability Field Report. IBM submitted a new use case on message routing and addressing, by illustrating the steps in processing of an invoice using Web services. This application is quite common in enterprise IT that a Usage Pattern will be distilled from this use case..."

    • [December 15, 2004] "WS-I Launches Advocates Program. WS-I Broadens Community Support with New Recognition Program. More Than 30 Companies Join WS-I as Advocates." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) today announced the introduction of the WS-I Advocates Program, a newly launched recognition opportunity for companies that support the work of WS-I. More than 30 companies have already joined WS-I as Advocates. Although Advocates do not attend WS-I meetings or participate in the organization's technical working groups or committees, they do receive several benefits. Each Advocate's name, logo and testimonial are posted on WS-I's website. In turn, each Advocate may post a special 'WS-I Advocate' logo on its website. Advocates will also receive a subscription to WS-Insider, WS-I's informative newsletter that is published several times each year. The program is free, and any interested company may enroll by completing a registration form... The companies joining WS-I as Advocates, include Acucorp., Approva, AppsSwing Limited, ASD Software, Bestning Technologies, Bluespring Software, Brixlogic, CentrPort, Chip eServices, Dealogic, Docucorp International, EAI User Group, EpiSoftware, Eternet S.A.C., Exocore Consulting, FAMIS Software, Fintricity, FiveSight Technologies, gMorpher, Go Technology, GuruSoft Corporation, HCL Technologies, HTC, Infosys Technologies, Ministry of Finance, Northrop Grumman, Oncorp Direct, Pathlore, QuickTree, ReadiMinds, RezGateway, Softwaremaker.Net, Tata Consulting Services, UBS, vInsurance, WebCab Components, WRQ, XempleX, XWebServices.com and Yellow Pencil. 'The WS-I Advocates Program broadens the community of companies that can support the important work of WS-I and receive some of the many benefits we provide,' said Tom Glover, WS-I Chairman. 'Our organization, which includes Web services vendors, end-user companies, and standards development organizations, is pleased to welcome our new Advocate companies and is grateful for their support.' WS-I is an open industry organization committed to promoting consistent and reliable interoperability among Web services across platforms, applications and programming languages. The organization unites a diverse community of Web services companies to provide guidance, recommended practices and supporting resources for developing interoperable Web services..."

    • [August 24, 2004] "WS-I Promotes Profiles to Final Material Status. Basic Profile 1.1, Attachments Profile 1.0 and Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 Approved by WS-I Membership. WS-I Charters Working Group to Address XML Schema." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) today announced the publication of its Basic Profile 1.1, Attachments Profile 1.0 and Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 as Final Material. The Final Material designation is applied to those deliverables that have been formally approved by the WS-I member community. 'WS-I understood from its members that existing Web services attachment specifications were increasingly presenting interoperability difficulties,' said Chris Ferris, chair of the WS-I Basic Profile Working Group. 'The new profiles provide Web services developers with a flexible mechanism for creating attachment-enabled applications with predictable interoperability'... Basic Profile 1.1 describes how core Web services specifications should be used together to develop interoperable Web services. Specifically, the document consists of a set of nonproprietary Web services specifications and clarifications, refinements, interpretations and amplifications of them that promote interoperability. To create version 1.1, the Basic Profile 1.0 was re-architected to relocate all binding-specific envelope serialization requirements to its own profile; the Simple Soap Binding Profile 1.0. This new structure enables the Basic Profile 1.1 to easily compose with any profile that specifies envelope serialization, including the Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 and the Attachments Profile 1.0. With the release of the profiles, Web services that use attachments can be tested for WS-I conformance with a composition of Basic Profile 1.1 and Attachments Profile 1.0. Those that do not use attachments can be tested for conformance with a composition of Basic Profile 1.1 and Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0. A claim of conformance to both the Basic Profile 1.1 and the Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 will be equivalent to a claim of conformance to the Basic Profile 1.0 plus the published errata... SOAP 1.1 defines an XML structure for transmitting messages, called the envelope. The Simple SOAP Binding Profile mandates the use of that structure and places certain constraints on its use. Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 is derived from the Basic Profile 1.0 requirements related to the serialization of the envelope and its representation in the message... SOAP Messages with Attachments (SwA) defines a MIME multipart/related structure for packaging attachments with SOAP messages. This profile complements the Basic Profile 1.1 to add support for conveying interoperable SwA-based attachments with SOAP messages... WS-I is currently working to develop sample applications and testing tools for use with the newly approved Basic Profile 1.1, Attachments Profile 1.0 and Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0. In addition, at its recent community meeting, WS-I chartered a new working group, called the XML Schema Work Plan Working Group, to focus on collecting and understanding interoperability issues related to the use of XML Schema as the means by which application data is defined with the intent of determining the most suitable course of action for WS-I in addressing those concerns..."

    • [August 11, 2004]   WS-I Board of Directors Releases Three WS-I Approval Draft Profiles for Review.    Board Approval Drafts have been issued for WS-I Basic Profile Version 1.1, WS-I Simple SOAP Binding Profile Version 1.0, and WS-I Attachments Profile Version 1.0. In the WS-I (Web Services Interoperability Organization) specification development process, a Board Approval Draft is a draft that "has been approved for publication by the Board of Directors, and is submitted for consideration by the Membership, and for public comment; it is a work in progress, and should not be considered as final; other documents may supersede this document." According to an overview from Christopher Ferris (IBM; co-editor on two of the Approval Drafts), the approved documents "are now before the WS-I membership for review" and are expected to reach final approval later in August 2004. Once approved by the WS-I membership, the documents becomes WS-I Final Material. Testing Tools and Sample Application implementations for these profiles will enter their own approval cycles in the near future." The WS-I Basic Profile 1.1 consists of "a set of non-proprietary Web services specifications, along with clarifications, refinements, interpretations and amplifications of those specifications which promote interoperability." The WS-I Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 "is derived from those Basic Profile 1.0 requirements related to the serialization of the envelope and its representation in the message, incorporating any errata to date. These requirements have been factored out of the Basic Profile 1.1 to enable other Profiles to be composable with it." Attachments Profile Version 1.0 profile "complements the WS-I Basic Profile 1.1 to add support for conveying interoperable SOAP Messages with Attachments-based attachments with SOAP messages." The overview provided by Ferris clarifies that WS-I "did not choose to produce multiple profiles arbitrarily. The initial intent was to add support for SOAP with Attachments to the Basic Profile 1.0 and to call the new profile Basic Profile 1.1. However, for a variety of reasons this approach proved to be infeasible. The three new profiles address both the need to address the customer requirement to provide guidance on the interoperable use of attachments today and the need to accommodate future bindings for technologies such as the W3C XML Protocol WG's MTOM and XOP." In essence, "the Basic Profile was re-architected to enable the composition of profiles that supported multiple bindings such as SOAP over HTTP, SOAP Messages with Attachments over HTTP and eventually MTOM/XOP over HTTP. It is conceivable that there might be other bindings in the future. The binding-specific requirements have been separated into their own profiles, each with its own conformance claim, and the testing tools have been modified to enable composition of the Test Assertion Documents (TAD) such that conformance to a set of relevant profiles can be measured."

    • [May 18, 2004]   WS-I Releases Basic Security Profile Version 1.0 Working Group Draft.    The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) has announced the availability of a Basic Security Profile Version 1.0 Working Group Draft. Publication of the Basic Security Profile follows a February 2004 release of WS-I Security Scenarios Working Group Draft which defined the requirements and scope for the WS-I Basic Security Profile. The WS-I Basic Security Profile Version 1.0 consists of "a set of non-proprietary Web services specifications, along with clarifications and amendments to those specifications which promote interoperability. The Security Profile WD addresses Transport Layer Security, SOAP Message Security, Username Token Profile, X.509 Certificate Token Profile, XML-Signature, XML Encryption, Algorithms, Relationship of Basic Security Extension Profile to Basic Profile, and Attachment Security. The Profile's Guiding Principles articulated in Section 1.1 clarify that testable statements are made when possible, but that "such testability is not required; preferably, testing is achieved in a non-intrusive manner (e.g., examining artifacts 'on the wire,' but due to the nature of cryptographic security, non-intrusive testing may not be possible." Similarly, the Basic Security Profile provides no guarantee of interoperability: "Although it is impossible to completely guarantee the interoperability of a particular service, the Profile attempts to increase interoperability by addressing the most common problems that implementation experience has revealed to date." Requirements from a number of specifications are incorporated into the Profile by reference, as enumerated in Appendix I: HTTP over TLS; Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security; Web Services Security: Username Token Profile; Web Services Security: X.509 Token Profile; XML-Signature Syntax and Processing; Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security Section 9; XML Encryption Syntax and Processing. The WS-I announcement reports that the the WS-I Basic Security Profile Working Group is "planning to incorporate the Web Services Security: Kerberos Token Profile into the Basic Security Profile upon completion of the technical work by the OASIS Web Services Security Technical Committee. In addition, WS-I is considering incorporating other token profiles, such as the Web Services Security: SAML Token Profile and the Web Services Security: XRML Token Profile into the Basic Security Profile."

    • [April 12, 2004] "WS-I Re-Elects webMethods to Board of Directors. Adobe Systems, America Online, Ford and Toshiba Join Web Services Interoperability Effort." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization ('WS-I') today announced that Andy Astor, vice president, strategic solutions at webMethods, Inc., has been re-elected to the Board of Directors by the WS-I member community. Astor will serve a two-year term alongside representatives from Accenture, BEA Systems, Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., HP, IBM, Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle, SAP AG and Sun Microsystems. WS-I also announced today that Adobe Systems, Inc., America Online, Inc., Ford Motor Co. and Toshiba have joined as contributing members. 'That webMethods has been elected for a second-term to WS-I is a tremendous vote of confidence in our leadership from the Web services community,' said Andy Astor, vice president, strategic solutions at webMethods. 'We are grateful for the opportunity to continue to leverage our integration and interoperability experience to bring a platform-independent, pragmatic perspective to the WS-I Board of Directors. As a leader in Web services-related standards effort for the past seven years, webMethods has demonstrated its commitment to WS-I principles and will continue to promote the adoption of specifications that enable Web services interoperability across all platforms, applications and programming languages.' Interest in WS-I has remained high since its founding in February, 2002, and end-user company involvement continues to grow. Today, WS-I welcomed Adobe Systems, America Online, Ford Motor Co. and Toshiba as contributing members. More than 30 percent of WS-I's membership is now comprised of end-user companies from industries including automotive, financial services, healthcare, insurance, telecommunications, and travel and hospitality..."

    • [March 17, 2004]   WS-I Releases Final Testing Tools Package for Basic Profile 1.0 Compliance.    An announcement from the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) describes the final release of compliance testing tools for WS-I Basic Profile and outlines plans to tackle Web Services Security. The WS-I Testing Tools Version 1.0 package approved by the WS-I membership contains the final release of the WS-I testing tools implementation for the Basic Profile V1.0. Prepared as C# and Java implementations, the tools are designed to help developers determine whether their Web services are conformant with Profile Guidelines and may be used to verify a Web service's compliance. A Service Communication Monitor "captures messages exchanged with Web services, and stores these messages for analysis by the second tool, the Web Service Profile Analyzer. The Analyzer evaluates messages captured by the Monitor, and also validates the description and registration artifacts of the Web service. These artifacts include the WSDL document(s) that describes the Web service, the XML schema files that describe the data types used in the WSDL service definition, and the UDDI registration entries. More than 300 test cases have been written and automated for the Analyzer tool; each test case exercises between 50 and 90 test procedures. The output from the Analyzer is a report that indicates whether or not a Web service meets the interoperability guidelines of the WS-I Basic Profile. The report provides details on the specific deviations and failures, so that users know which requirements of the WS-I Basic Profile were not met." With the completion of the Basic Profile 1.0 deliverables, WS-I is now turning its attention to the development of interoperability guidelines "to address attachments and Web services security. In December 2003 WS-I published drafts of the Basic Profile 1.1, Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 and the Attachments Profile 1.0 for public review. In addition, the Basic Security Profile Working Group expects to publish a draft of the Basic Security Profile early next quarter. The Basic Security Profile will profile the OASIS WS-Security specification and its associated normatively referenced specifications. In February 2004 WS-I announced the availability of the first Security Scenarios Working Group Draft for public review. This document outlines security risks in building interoperable Web services and countermeasures for these risks."

    • [March 10, 2004] "WS-I Issues New Security Guidelines." By John K. Waters. In Application Development Trends (March 10, 2004). "The Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) Organization has lent a hand to Web services architects and developers looking for security solutions with the release of a new report that identifies potential threats and outlines countermeasures based on common scenarios. The WS-I's Security Scenarios Working Group Draft is now available for public review... The 48-page draft report describes challenges to ensuring data integrity, data confidentiality and message uniqueness; lists specific threats, such as message alteration, falsified messages, message replay and denial of service attacks; outlines countermeasures that utilize HTTPS and SOAP Message Security 1.0; and includes a number of usage scenarios and solutions that combine these technologies with the Message Exchange Patterns (MEPs) that have been used in WS-I deliverables such as the Basic Profile 1.0 Sample Applications... 'We're trying to take basic profiles like SOAP and make sure you can at least protect the messages,' said committee member Eve Maler, standards architect at Sun Microsystems during a press conference at the recent RSA security conference in San Francisco... OASIS defines standards for a range of situations, [Hal] Lockhart said. The purpose of the WS-I draft report, he noted, was to narrow the broad set of OASIS recommendations to better fit the needs of WS-I members. 'The WS-I has taken the time to identify the major categories of threats, challenges and mechanisms, he said. 'This activity will form the basis for the problems that the security profile will solve'..." See following bibliographic entry.

    • [February 25, 2004]   WS-I Releases Public Working Draft Document on Security Scenarios.    The Web Services-Interoperability Organization (WS-I) has announced the availability of a public review draft for WS-I Security Scenarios which defines the requirements for and scope of the WS-I Basic Security Profile. Produced by members of the WS-I Basic Security Profile Working Group, this document "is aimed at Web Services architects and developers who are examining the security aspects of the Web Services they are designing/developing. WS-I Security Scenarios "identifies security challenges [in terms of] general security goals or features that inform the selection of specific security requirements in scenarios. It also identifies the typical threats that prevent accomplishment of each challenge, and identifies the typical countermeasures (technologies and protocols) used to mitigate each threat. The draft documents potential usage scenarios and the security challenges and threats that might apply to each, as derived from the templates found in the Supply Chain Management Use Cases and Scenarios documents." A subsequent draft will address security issues related to attaching material to SOAP messages as, described in the WS-I Attachment Profile 1.0. WS-I has requested input, suggestions, and other feedback on the draft from a wide variety of industry participants in order to improve its quality over time. It is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of security technologies such as SSL/TLS, XML encryption, digital signatures, and the OASIS Web Services Security specifiction. "WS-I is also currently working on the Basic Security Profile, an interoperability profile involving transport security, SOAP messaging security, and other security considerations implicated by the Basic Profile 1.0. The Basic Security Profile is intended to compose with other WS-I profiles and will reference existing specifications used to provide security, including the OASIS Web Services Security 1.0 specification, and provide clarifications and guidance designed to promote interoperability of those specifications. A Working Group Draft of the Basic Security Profile is expected to be delivered in 2004Q2."

    • [January 27, 2004] "Parasoft Releases SOAPtest 2.5 for Comprehensive Web Services Testing. Web Services Testing Product Now Offers Security Features, MIME Attachment Support and Enhanced Load Testing Features/" - "Parasoft, leading provider of Automated Error Prevention (AEP) software solutions, announced today the release of SOAPtest 2.5, the most comprehensive Web services testing product available today, verifying every aspect of a Web service from WSDL validation, to client/server unit and functional testing, to performance testing. The latest version of SOAPtest offers support for WS-Security, MIME attachments, enhanced load testing features, and other features designed to help development teams prevent errors and accelerate time to market for their Web service initiatives. 'As Web services mature and more companies adopt them, they need comprehensive tools to address key issues such as interoperability, security, change management and scalability,' said Gary Brunell, Parasoft Vice President of Professional Services. 'SOAPtest 2.5 offers the functionality to address all of these issues while improving the software lifecycle by preventing errors early in the development process.' PPQ#What's New in SOAPtest 2.5#PPQ (1) WS-Security support including fully configurable SOAP Headers and support for X509, SAML, username security tokens, XML Digital Signature and XML Encryption. (2) MIME Attachment support including meeting SOAP with Attachments and OASIS ebXML specifications and sending and receiving both text/XML and binary attachments. (3) Enhanced load testing features including SNMP and Windows monitors, customizable HTML reports and detailed report histograms. (4) WS-I Analyzer Tool to verify WSDL and SOAP traffic for conformance, includes WS-I Testing Tool 1.0 and produces WS-I conformance reports. (5) Supports JMS and Asynchronous testing..."

    • [January 06, 2004] WS-I Basic Profile: Not Just Another Web Service Specification." By Christopher Ferris (IBM). In Web Services Journal Volume 4, Issue 1 (January 2003). "The Final Material version of the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 specification released by the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) represents an important milestone for WS-I and the Web services community as a whole. It specifies the standards and technologies required for interoperability between Web services implementations running on different software and operating system platforms... The promise of interoperability is possibly the most important aspect of Web services technologies. That promise stems from the fact that Web services has its foundations in XML, which itself is interoperable across all platforms and programming languages. However, because Web services leverages heavily on the extensible nature of XML, the interoperability aspect of Web services is significantly challenged. While most, if not all, vendors provide support for the established Web services standards, they are still motivated to provide added value to their customers in the form of advanced feature support for things such as security, reliability, transactions, and business process orchestration. Because many of the advanced Web services features are still in the early stages of development and adoption, developers and IT managers need more than just a checklist of (emerging) standards when making project implementation or product purchasing decisions. They need help in being able to determine when they are 'coloring outside the lines' so that they can weigh the merits of incorporating these advanced features against the importance of ensuring broad interoperability of the deployed solution. WS-I was founded with a mission to provide users of Web services technology with the guidance and tools that help them better understand where the boundary lies between the interoperable and not-necessarily-interoperable solution spaces so that they can make well-informed decisions. The WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg. WS-I has already begun work on a number of follow-on profiles for Web services, including Attachments and Basic Security. Work will begin on future profiles, tackling some of the more advanced Web services features as the various specifications upon which they are based mature and stabilize and as the interoperability requirements associated with these advanced features are better understood by the community..."

    • [December 10, 2003] "WS-I Delivers Sample Applications for Basic Profile. Sample Applications Provide Real-World Business Requirements to Web Services." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization ('WS-I') today announced the general availability of the WS-I Sample Application 1.0. This important deliverable consists of the WS-I Supply Chain Management Use Cases 1.0, the WS-I Usage Scenarios 1.0, the WS-I Supply Chain Management Technical Architecture 1.0 and Sample Application 1.0 implementations developed by 10 vendor companies. These documents and implementations model a simplified supply chain management scenario and demonstrate the features in the recently released WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. The availability of this material was announced today at the XML Conference & Exposition 2003 taking place this week in Philadelphia. 'The availability of the WS-I Sample Application 1.0 deliverables help define best practices for using the Basic Profile 1.0, and provide the real-world implementation guidance and support necessary for customers deploying Web services,' said Sinisa Zimek, chairman of the Sample Applications Working Group. 'We believe that the WS-I Sample Application 1.0 is an important catalyst in the WS-I effort to create industry-level Web services profiles and tools.' The WS-I Sample Application 1.0 provides a configurable collection of Web services, which exercise the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 using a supply chain scenario that models the interactions between multiple retail storefronts, warehouses and manufacturers. Implementations of the Sample Application have been delivered by BEA Systems, Bowstreet, Corillian, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Quovadx, SAP, and Sun Microsystems. WS-I will be demonstrating these implementations at an interoperability showcase this week at the XML Conference & Exposition 2003. The Sample Application Technical Architecture 1.0 details a common design and implementation of the supply chain management application. One of the goals of the WS-I Sample Application 1.0 is to exploit as many of the aspects of the Basic Profile 1.0 as possible. To this end, the Sample Application Technical Architecture implements several schema-naming conventions, SOAP message formats, SOAP message styles, and WSDL design practices that all conform to the Basic Profile..."

    • [November 18, 2003] "OMG, OAGI, and POSC Join WS-I. New Associate Membership Category Extends Communication and Cooperation Among Key Web Services Organizations." - "Today, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) announced that the Object Management Group (OMG), the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), and the Petrotechnical Open Standards Consortium (POSC) have become associate members of WS-I. This new membership category was created to improve communication and cooperation between WS-I and standards development organizations to best meet the needs of customers and the Web services industry. The announcement was made at the Gartner Application Integration and Web Services Summit being held this week in Baltimore. 'While WS-I and standards organizations like the ones announced today have different purposes, we share a common vision for the future of Web services,' said Ed Cobb, board director and chair of the WS-I Liaison Committee. 'WS-I is committed to building and maintaining strong relationships with these organizations, and the associate membership category enables these organizations to participate more directly in the work of WS-I. In addition, WS-I continues to work with other standards organizations through informal liaison channels.' [...] Associate member benefits to qualified organizations include access to the WS-I member website and its documents, access to technical working group materials, participation in technical working groups and community meetings, and the use of the WS-I logo... WS-I is an open industry organization committed to promoting consistent and reliable interoperability among Web services across platforms, applications and programming languages. The organization unites a diverse community of Web services companies to provide guidance, recommended practices, and supporting resources for developing interoperable Web services. Since its formation in February 2002, more than 170 companies have joined WS-I..."

    • [September 18, 2003] "A Preview of WS-I Basic Profile 1.1." By Anish Karmarkar. From O'Reilly WebServices.xml.com (September 16, 2003). "On 12th August 2003 WS-I (Web Services Interoperability Organization) announced the release of the final specification of Basic Profile 1.0 a set of recommendations on how to use web services specifications to maximize interoperability. For developers, users, and vendors of web services and web services tools this is a big leap forward to achieving interoperability in the emerging and fast changing world of web services. But what else has WS-I been working on? WS-I recognizes the fact that Basic Profile 1.0 is just a beginning and that it's a long road toward web services maturity and interoperability. In its mission toward accelerating the adoption of web services and promoting interoperability, the Basic Profile Working Group, which developed Basic Profile 1.0, is tasked with generating Basic Profile 1.1 to incorporate attachments... Basic Profile 1.1, as the name indicates, is the next version of Basic Profile. It builds on 1.0, adding support for SOAP Messages with Attachments (SwA) and WSDL 1.1's Section 5 MIME bindings. As part of the process of releasing a Profile, other Working Groups within WS-I develop sample applications and test tools for the Profile. This ensures that the Profile is implementable and 'debugged' before its final release. Like Basic Profile 1.0, Basic Profile 1.1 will be released with sample applications and test tools. This article provides a preview of Basic Profile 1.1 based on the latest Working Group Draft. The Basic Profile Working Group has been working on Basic Profile 1.1 since January 2003. In the course of its development the WG identified more than 70 technical issues that needed to be resolved. Only a very few minor ones remain. Please remember that this preview is based upon a Working Group Draft; as a work in progress can (and almost certainly will) be modified as the draft Profile is reviewed and refined... The most widely implemented and accepted attachment technology is MIME. SwA combines MHTML and content-id URIs (CID) for referencing MIME parts in SOAP. Basic Profile 1.1 has selected SwA as the attachment technology and WSDL 1.1 Section 5 MIME bindings for describing SwA. Basic Profile 1.1, as with Basic Profile 1.0, clarifies, fixes, and subsets the relevant specs to make it more interoperable and removes ambiguities. This addresses a real need that developers and users of web services have when dealing with large binary data and transporting it within a SOAP 1.1 Envelope. The direction that Basic Profile 1.1 has taken fits very nicely with the direction that XMLP WG has taken with respect to attachments for SOAP 1.2, as documented in SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM). Both use MIME and are based on SwA... Interoperable attachments is one of the features that is frequently demanded by developers and users of web services. The Basic Profile Working Group addresses this need by including SwA in Basic Profile 1.1, resolving ambiguities, and by filling in the gaps of existing specifications. Furthermore, Basic Profile 1.1 also enables language binding tools to generate appropriate APIs to take full advantage of attachments..."

    • [September 11, 2003]   Sun Announces J2EE V1.4 Support for WS-I Compliant Web Services Applications.    Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the availability Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) version 1.4 source code providing support for the final WS-I Basic Profile and the J2EE programming model for portable Web services applications. The source-code release includes compatibility tests, allowing J2EE licensees to make progress on implementing J2EE 1.4. Sun's support of WS-I interoperability specifications helps relieve the burden upon Java developers to learn "specific Web services specifications or to acquire WS-I interoperability expertise; profile guidelines are included in Java platforms and development toolkits such as the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP). To date, Sun has released several versions of its J2EE platform based on early WS-I specifications, such as Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.2 and J2EE 1.4 SDK Beta 2. Once J2EE 1.4 is finalized, Sun will release compatibility tests, source code and a software development toolkit (SDK). With these tools, Java developers can save time and money by working with standard APIs for XML and Web Services, such as JAXP, JAXB, JAX-RPC and JAX-R, instead of proprietary APIs that may change from vendor to vendor. Java and XML technologies allow users to easily develop applications that can be seamlessly deployed across all major operating platforms, including Solaris, Linux and Windows. Java has long been the developer's choice for Web services, and J2EE 1.4 represents a culmination of work by the JCP and the technology industry to deliver the first platform to support the WS-I Basic Profile."

    • [September 11, 2003] "Sun is First to Market With Platform for WS-I Compliant Web Services Applications. Recent Beta Release of the J2EE 1.4 Software Developer Kit and Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.2 Demonstrate Sun's Java Web Services Leadership." - "Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the availability of a qualification release of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) version 1.4 source code for licensees of the J2EE platform. Available less than one month after the WS-I Basic Profile was finalized, the source code delivers support for the final WS-I Basic Profile and includes the J2EE programming model for portable Web services applications. The source-code release includes compatibility tests, allowing J2EE licensees to make progress on implementing J2EE 1.4. 'With our partners and as a WS-I board member, Sun is leading the charge in supporting standards-compliant, Java Web Services platforms,' said Jeff Jackson, vice president of Sun J2EE platform and application server engineering, Sun Microsystems, Inc. 'Java and Web Services merge in J2EE 1.4 as the preferred platform for building enterprise-grade applications and the only available software environment that is platform independent and interoperable by design. The introduction of J2EE 1.4, with its support for more Web services standards and protocols than any other platform, is a prime example of Sun's leadership position in this space.' WS-I specifications are designed to ensure interoperability between different vendors' Web services products. Through the Java Community Process (JCP), Java provides open application programming interfaces (APIs) to provide enterprises with a choice and to keep developers from becoming dependent upon a single vendor's technology. Java developers can save time and money by working with standard APIs for XML (Extensible Markup Language) and Web Services, such as JAXP, JAXB, JAX-RPC and JAX-R, instead of proprietary APIs that may change from vendor to vendor. Java and XML technologies allow users to easily develop applications that can be seamlessly deployed across all major operating platforms, including Solaris, Linux and Windows. In addition, Java developers won't be tasked with learning specific Web services specifications or acquiring WS-I interoperability expertise, because profile guidelines are included in Java platforms and development toolkits such as the Java Web Services Developer Pack (Java WSDP). The Java platform also enables IT organizations to leverage their current technology investments by providing simplified integration with applications and legacy systems, reducing cost and complexity within the organization. As a board member of the WS-I organization, Sun is continuing to make key technological contributions to enhance the interoperability of Web services. To date, Sun has released several versions of its J2EE platform based on early WS-I specifications, such as Java Web Services Developer Pack 1.2 and J2EE 1.4 SDK Beta 2. Once J2EE 1.4 is finalized, Sun will release compatibility tests, source code and a software development toolkit (SDK). Java has long been the developer's choice for Web services, and J2EE 1.4 represents a culmination of work by the JCP and the technology industry to deliver the first platform to support the WS-I Basic Profile..." See also: Java Web Services Developer Pack V1.2 Supports WS-I, WS-Security, and UBL Applications."

    • [August 31, 2003] "WS-I Plans Security, Messaging, Other Profiles." By Paula Rooney. In (August 13, 2003). "The Web Services Interoperability Organization is now turning its attention to security, messaging and other profiles. The forthcoming WS-I guideline for implementing security in Web services will be based on the WS-Security specification currently before the OASIS standards body and will be finished in roughly one year, said Chris Ferris, chairman of the WS-I Basic Profile Working Group and architect in the emerging e-business industry architecture at IBM. Ferris spoke at the XML Web Services One Conference in Boston on Tuesday. Ferris said the development of additional 'features' such as security and messaging on top of the Basic Profile 1.0 will enable more complex Web services transactions. The WS-I will likely provide profiles for reliable messaging, policy, service-level agreements as well as transaction coordination, Ferris said. The first WS-I security profile will guide developers in how to implement a variety of security standards and specifications including SSL, IPSec and HTTP authentication, Ferris said. 'You can take WS-Security and make it a service,' said Ferris. 'It'll take nine months of technical work, and we'll have a basic security profile in about one year.' Security will become more important as SOAP messages and Web services begin to cross corporate boundaries, said Harris Reynolds, engineer and technical evangelist at The Mind Electric. Reynolds said the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) that has been submited as a potential specification to OASIS will enable cross-enterprise Web services business process integration..."

    • [August 15, 2003] "Oracle Helps Developers Build Interoperable Web Services." - "Oracle Corp., the world's largest enterprise software company, today announced the availability of a new sample application to help developers test the interoperability of software and Web services, based on the latest recommendations from the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization. The sample application -- an early release of WS-I supply chain application for Oracle9i Application Server --implements a real world supply chain scenario by modeling the interactions between multiple Web storefronts, retail warehouses and manufacturers. The sample is based on WS-I Basic Profile 1.0, and demonstrates how Web services can connect heterogeneous systems and autonomous organizations. As a result, developers will be able to test the interoperability of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-based Web services deployed on Oracle9i Application Server with Web services deployed on other platforms such as .NET and J2EE application servers from other vendors. The sample application can be downloaded free-of-charge from Oracle Technology Network (OTN)... The sample application utilizes many of the features of the WS-I Basic Profile, including a variety of XML schema naming conventions, SOAP message formats, SOAP message styles, and WSDL design practices. The upcoming release of Oracle JDeveloper, recently announced at JavaOne 2003, is scheduled to feature integrated support for WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 Conformance Testing, enhancing the existing Web services capabilities of the tool, which include instant deployment and testing with the embedded Oracle9i Application Server, local and remote debugging, profiling and integrated SOAP message monitoring. The new feature will enable developers to deliver WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 compatible applications and services more quickly and easily... The WS-I sample supply chain application for Oracle9i Application Server is immediately available for free download from Oracle's online developer community Web site, OTN, which also offers many additional resources for Web services developers and architects. A developer's preview of the new Oracle JDeveloper is scheduled to be available for free download and evaluation from OTN by the end of the year..."

    • [August 12, 2003] "WS-I Announces General Availability of the Basic Profile 1.0. WS-I Member Community Delivers Guidelines to Ensure Interoperability, Reduce Cost and Lower Complexity of Implementing Web Services Solutions." - "At XML Web Services One the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) announced the general availability of the Basic Profile 1.0. The Basic Profile 1.0, which has been formally approved by the WS-I member community, consists of implementation guidelines on how core Web services specifications should be used together to develop interoperable Web services. The specifications covered by the Basic Profile include SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, UDDI 2.0, XML 1.0 and XML Schema. 'Starting today, every Web service developer and provider will have a common framework for implementing interoperable solutions, and buyers will have a common reference point for purchasing decisions,' said Tom Glover, chairman of WS-I. 'WS-I has resolved more than 200 interoperability issues associated with using the core Web services specifications together. The Basic Profile 1.0 will significantly simplify the task of implementing interoperable Web services solutions within and across enterprise boundaries.' 'Support for the Basic Profile is the baseline for interoperable Web services,' said Dan Sholler, vice president of Technology Research Services at the META Group. 'Customers should demand that all of their Web services-enabled technology be compliant with the Basic Profile, and that in turn will lay the foundation for Web services to fulfill their promise and provide technology independent interoperability.' Later this Fall, WS-I will release Test Tools and Sample Applications supporting the Basic Profile 1.0. The Test Tools, available in both C# and Java(TM) implementations, are designed to inspect and validate that a Web service meets the interoperability requirements of the Basic Profile. The Sample Applications demonstrate the Basic Profile at work, including the design, implementation, test and deployment of Web services, based upon selected business scenarios and implemented on 10 different platforms. In parallel with the release of the Test Tools, WS-I will announce how Web services software vendors, hardware vendors, and services providers will be able to claim conformance of their products to the Basic Profile 1.0..."

    • [July 29, 2003] "Double Standards." By Sean Rhody (WSJ Editor-in-Chief). In Web Services Journal Volume 3, Issue 8 (August 2003), page 3. "In June I attended the JavaOne conference... and was reminded, once again, that the lack of a single standards body is a serious roadblock to implementation of Web services... I was further reminded of the mess we're in by some of the Web services presentations. While obviously biased toward Java (it was JavaOne, after all), what really got me was the way everyone needed to explain how this specification came from HP, that standard was developed by W3C, and OASIS has a competing specification to some other specification. It's clear that there are too many bodies producing standards, not to mention too many standards themselves. The Java model works somewhat better, with a single standards organization and the JSR process. Rather than develop competing specifications (SAML or WS-Security, for example), the JCP provides guidance from multiple companies toward the creation of a single standard that all Java vendors will comply with. No one has to decide whether to use BPML or BPEL, or the Java equivalent... I would propose that WS-I become the central Web services body, and that the members of the other bodies treat them as the Supreme Court of Web services. Once they rule on a specification, let there be no further disputes. Let's limit the number of specifications so the innovations can go toward making a smaller set of standards better. Of course the WS-I may not want to act as the final arbiter of Web services fate, and for various reasons, many vendors may not want the WS-I as currently constituted to be the sole determining body for Web services..." [alt URL]

    • [July 14, 2003] "WS-I Discusses Interoperable Web Services." By Allison Taylor. In ComputerWorld Australia (July 14, 2003). "The speed and extent of Web services adoption depends on the success of making them interoperable, the president and chairman of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) said at a roundtable discussion on Web services in Toronto last Thursday. Tom Glover and a slew of WS-I member companies including Microsoft Canada Corp., IBM Canada Ltd., Nortel Networks, NetManage Canada Inc., Hummingbird Ltd. and Cognos Inc., participated in the discussion which focused on the importance of interoperable Web services for the entire IT industry and how those standards should be made. The WS-I is a group of about 160 software companies working to identify Web services interoperability requirements and developing materials to address those needs. The groups that comprise the WS-I try to understand how Web services are used throughout the industry, try to understand the requirements and then, as a community, the groups attempt to resolve challenges, define services and define how those services behave at an infrastructure level, Glover said. By taking the resources within IT and working together, the WS-I hopes to create a set of standards to help everyone understand what Web services look like, he added. As an example of the importance of developing standards, Glover highlighted the battle between the BETA video tape versus VHS, which resulted in the market and public determining VHS as the winner. 'This battle is not the model we want for Web services. It's not efficient and it costs too much. We don't want the market penalized but we want Web services to be understood,' he said, adding that standards would ensure the market completely understands Web services. Phil Edholm, chief technology officer and vice-president of network architecture for Nortel Networks, said there is a great economic and productivity value in having interoperable Web services and as such, it's critical to Web Services to have the WS-I succeed'..."

    • [June 03, 2003] "WS-I Basic Profile: Why Wait?" By Darryl K. Taft. In eWEEK (June 03, 2003). "While the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) is working toward a basic profile for interoperability of Web services, customers should not wait but should use tools that are available today. During a session at the Microsoft TechEd 2003 conference here, Yasser Shohoud, a program manager on the Microsoft XML Messaging team, said he does not know when the industry will see a basic profile from WS-I, but it should not matter. I don't know when the WS-I Basic Profile will be ready, but does it matter?' Shohoud said. 'I think the world should not wait for that.' Shohoud said, 'The bottom line is when you're trying to interoperate you have tools that need to work together,' but there are few tools that support the broad spectrum of interoperability issues. In the interim, while a WS-I Basic Profile is being hashed out, 'people should avoid things in the basic profile that are not widely used,' Shohoud said. 'If you are ready to build Web services today, you should not be waiting for any profile.' The WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 was approved as a draft specification in April, but has not been approved as a final document yet..."

    • [April 23, 2003] "WS-I Announces Availability of Testing Tools. Pre-Release Now Available for Public Comment." - "The Web Services Interoperability Organization ('WS-I') today announced the availability of two testing tools for interoperability assessment with the WS-I Basic Profile. Pre-release versions of the Web Service Communication Monitor and the Web Service Profile Analyzer are now available. The tools, with implementations in both C# and Java, can be used on any Web services platform. The testing tools and their supporting documentation and processes were developed by the WS-I Test Tools Working Group. 'The tools have been designed in such a way to allow for expansion and extension, so they can accommodate the Basic Profile as well as future profiles,' said Jacques Durand, chair of the Test Tools Working Group, and director, Industry Relations at Fujitsu Software Corporation. 'They can be configured to specifically address whichever profile definition they need to verify. Testing results will help developers ensure that their Web services meet the WS-I interoperability guidelines.' The Web Service Communication Monitor ('Monitor') captures messages exchanged between Web services and the software that invokes them and stores the messages for later analysis. Today's pre-release version captures HTTP-based SOAP messages. The Web Service Profile Analyzer ('Analyzer') evaluates messages captured by Monitor, and also validates the description and registration artifacts of the Web service. This includes the WSDL document(s) that describes the Web service, and the XML schema files that describe the data types used in the WSDL service definition and the UDDI registration entries. The output from Analyzer is a report that indicates whether or not a Web service meets the interoperability guidelines of the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. The report provides details on the specific deviations and failures, so that users know which requirements of the WS-I Basic Profile were not met..." Note: Versions of the tool were available for C# and Java.

    • [April 08, 2003] "Sun Wastes Little Time Preparing WS-I 'Wish List'." By Vance McCarthy. In Integration Developer News (April 07, 2003). "Sun Microsystems is wasting little time mapping out their agenda for contributing to the WS-I (Web Services Interoperability Organization), a multi-vendor web services group of more than 160+ vendors co-founded by Microsoft and IBM. Sun's long campaign for a seat on WS-I's board came to a successful close last week, as Mark Hapner, a Sun distinguished engineer and chief web services strategist for the company, was voted to a two-year term. Following the vote, Hapner [said] that he felt 'WS-I had made a very good start,' but added that Sun intended to use its new influence as a board member to push for a few issues. 'Our job is to represent the Java and J2EE developer community, and that is what will do,' Hapner said. Java vendors IBM, BEA, Borland and Rational are all members of WS-I. While WS-I execs and publicly hoping that Sun's membership in the group's board will speed development of web services standards, it's equally possible that Sun could actually slow things down, depending how you look at it... Hapner wants WS-I to improve the way the group interacts with formal standards bodies, notably the W3C and OASIS. He noted that only two pending web services standards (WS-Security and DIME) had been presented to a formal standards body, and claimed that proposals advocated by WS-I members (including the WS family of standards being proposed by IBM and Microsoft) should also be submitted to standards group... [Hapner also wants ] stricter guides for cross-platform interoperability: 'WS-I's approach to interoperability between platforms may need some extra work,' and, as a result, he said he intends to push WS-I to make its conformance procedures more strict, and overall 'improve the quality of platform conformance.' Under the current WS-I approach, Hapner claimed, there are some 'very simple ways' for developers to get caught in building non-conformant specs..."

    • [April 01, 2003]   WS-I Charters Basic Security Profile Working Group (BSPWG).    The Web Services Interoperability Organization has issued a public announcement for a Basic Security Profile Working Group (BSPWG). "The BSPWG was chartered following the organization's fourth plenary session held recently in Salt Lake City. The formation of the BSPWG is the result of several months of research and planning conducted by the Basic Security Work Plan Working Group, a security task force chaired by Eve Maler, XML standards architect at Sun Microsystems. The newly chartered BSPWG will develop an interoperability profile involving transport security, SOAP messaging security and other security considerations implicated by the WS-I Basic Profile. The Basic Security Profile is intended to be an extension to the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 and will reference existing specifications used to provide security and provide clarifications and guidance designed to promote interoperability of those specifications. The BSPWG will also develop a set of usage scenarios and their component message exchange patterns (MEPs) to guide their work. A timeline for the deliverables will be determined in the next month."

    • [March 31, 2003] "WS-I: Guiding Interoperability." By Jeff Reser (IBM Strategic Software Solutions). In .NET Magazine (March 2003). "The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) was formed in February 2002 to address the issues surrounding the interoperable nature of a Web services-oriented architecture. WS-I isn't a standards development organization, but it works closely with a number of standards bodies, such as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to promote and utilize the right set of technologies in compatible business scenarios. The WS-I community grows as companies realize their contributions to WS-I active working groups benefit a common set of goals: to enable and promote the practical adoption of Web services technologies and open standards. WS-I concerns itself with the underlying themes of the aches and pains in implementing Web services across disciplines. Recently, WS-I published a working draft set of architectural guidelines as part of its first major deliverable: the WS-I Basic Profile. The Basic Profile consists of implementation guidelines recommending how a set of core Web services specifications (SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, UDDI 2.0, XML 1.0, and XML Schema) should be used together to develop interoperable Web services. It helps to ensure standards developed by different organizations and vendors interoperate with each other, especially in the increasingly significant Web services areas. The WS-I scenarios included in the profile describe how you can apply Web services to meet real-world business needs. These scenarios provide real-world examples of how you can utilize Web services, while also demonstrating how you can use the specifications individually and/or with others. The WS-I deliverables also include sample applications that support the profiles and scenarios, and testing tools and materials. These sample applications of basic Web services illustrate best practices for implementation and are developed in multiple programming languages using multiple development tools. Sample applications serve as working examples for companies planning to implement Web services. The test materials and tools can be used to verify that the interactions observed with the monitored Web services conform to the set of guidelines and test assertions that define the profiles..."

    • [March 27, 2003] "Sun Wins WS-I Seat." By Darryl K. Taft. In eWEEK (March 27, 2003). "Sun Microsystems Inc. has won a two-year position on the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) board of directors, sources said. In winning this slot, Sun joins the leaders in Web services on the board of an organization initially formed with the apparent intent of keeping the Unix systems vendor out of its ranks. Now Sun is a member of that board, with the same rights and responsibilities as the rest of the 11 members... The other open board seat went to webMethods Inc. The company will serve a one-year term. Mark Hapner, Sun's lead architect for Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and chief Web services strategist for Java Web services, will represent Sun on the WS-I board. Hapner told eWEEK in a prior interview that he was pleased to have the opportunity to run for the WS-I board slot and said that Sun has participated 'strongly' in the organization since it joined last October. Sun has participated in WS-I efforts involving business process integration, developing sample applications for testing interoperability, and chairing a security working group. The Santa Clara, Calif., company also has been instrumental in developing and promoting Web services standards like WS-Reliability, he said. And Sun has made conformance to the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 a requirement of J2EE 1.4 compliance, he added... Sun's work with the Java Community Process, which is the multi-vendor coalition that votes on Java platform specifications, gave the company an advantage over competitors for the slot as well, Hapner said. 'We found in our work in the Java compatibility arena that it takes significant investment and dogged persistence to achieve interoperability,' he said. 'The payback is customers feel secure in broadly pursuing interoperability.' Indeed, Sun's Java expertise itself was a distinguishing factor that set Sun apart from others in the running, the company said. 'We are the representative for Java and J2EE, which will be one of the two primary platforms on which people will develop Web services,' Hapner said. Hapner said Sun's history is that of a leader in the Web services space. The company has had strong participation in the evolution of Simple Object Access Protocol 1.2 and Web Services Description Language 1.2, as well as other specifications and foundational Web technologies, he said."

    • [March 19, 2003] "Web Services Interoperability Organisation (WS-I.org): What's it All About?" By [Staff]. From WebServices.org (March 19, 2003). ['WebServices.org interviews Chris Ferris, on his views of WS-I as IBM's representative to the Basic Profile WG. Chris is an Architect with IBM's Emerging e-business Industry Architecture group and is actively engaged in the development of Web Services and e-business standards. He currently represents IBM on the WS-I Basic Profile Working Group (WG) as editor of the Basic Profile 1.1 specification. He also represents IBM on the W3C Web Services Architecture WG.'] Excerpts: "The main objective of WS-I is to promote and enable the interoperability of Web services, which I believe is the most fundamental aspect of Web services. People are using Web services to integrate their heterogenous computing environments, both with