UPDATED: Several leading software vendors have submitted to the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) the draft of a key specification to foster the
interoperability of Web services.
In a sign of unity, usual standards collaborators Microsoft, IBM,
and BEA Systems
were
joined by SAP AG
and Sun Microsystems
to deliver
WS-Addressing to the W3C as a
royalty-free, proposed standard.
Sun has traditionally had a contentious relationship with the other
companies regarding agreement of Web services specs, accusing Microsoft, IBM
and
BEA of fragmenting the industry with disparate specs.
It appears that is water under the bridge due to the broad interoperability
agreement
inked in April between Microsoft and Sun, according to Ed Julson of Web
Services Marketing at Sun Microsystems.
“In the process of having some of these discussions, it’s pretty obvious
that one of these areas that we need to collaborate to get to this
interoperability is in the standards domain. This is one area where it
just made a lot of sense to do that,” Julson told internetnews.com
during a call.
WS-Addressing defines a standard way for finding and exchanging Web services
messages between multiple endpoints on a network, which is a key barrier to
the development and
adoption of interoperable Web services applications.
WS-Addressing provides an XML format for exchanging endpoint references
within SOAP
replies to specific locations.
Julson said WS-Addressing joins WS-MessageDelivery
in the W3C as a protocol for addressing. It is expected that
WS-MessageDelivery will be ultimately bundled with WS-Addressing after
consideration by the W3C.
Developers and businesses use Web services — raw application-to-application
communication — for integration projects. Without the point-to-point
communication advocated by WS-Addressing, messages can be lost, resulting in
failure to carry out a task. WS-Addressing also obviates the need for
proprietary point software band-aids that rarely interoperate.
W3C was chosen over OASIS as a home for WS-Addressing because it is where
most core foundation specs are hashed out, including SOAP and WSDL.
Dave Orchard, Director of Technology, Office of the CTO at BEA, said the
co-authors hope a W3C working group will be formed over the next few months
to facilitate the standards ratification process for WS-Addressing.
Depending on W3C members, standards passage could take a year.
Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst for SOA and Web services research firm
ZapThink, rejoiced at the teaming of Microsoft, IBM, BEA and Sun: the
companies
have found themselves developing competing specs.
For example, Microsoft, IBM and BEA drew the
ire of Sun Microsystems in 2003 when they published the WS-ReliableMessaging
spec after Sun and others had released
WS-Reliability.
“That’s definitely a significant shift from the detente of the past where it
seemed that some of the above vendors were always on the other side of the
spec issue, Schmelzer
told internetnews.com. “Seems like Sun in particular has turned the
corner.”
