If the content of a SOAP message is not understood or the recipient of a
message does not know what to do with it when they get it, then using Web
services for business, even with extensions for reliable delivery and
security, will just not work.
To solve this problem you not only need to define how to "deliver the
message" (see WSJ, Volume 3, Issue 11), you also need to define what the
contents of a message mean as well as define what the recipient should do
with a message when it is received. In other words, you need to define the
message semantics.
This brings me to the purpose of this article, which is to describe the
different semantic definitions you need to create so that Web services can be
used for business. It then describes the leading standards that are being
developed to support the definition of semantics and suggests an
architectural approach to sol... (more)
SOAP is at the heart of all Web services as the way to deliver messages
between two applications or systems. SOAP in its various versions is well
known and often discussed. However, SOAP on its own is often not enough,
especially if the message is sent outside the enterprise where privacy of the
message content and reliable message delivery become much more important.
Even security and reliability may not be sufficient. You may also need to
limit the life of a message so that it "expires" at some point, or specify
the type of long-running business transaction of which the message ... (more)
David Burdett is director of Standards Strategy, Web Services for Commerce One and is responsible for directing their use of Web services standards. He is also an experienced consultant with over 20 years’ experience in managing and motivating teams in IT strategy, development, architecture, and organization.
David Lucas
Shaul Efraim
Terence Martin Breslin
Cory Marchand
David Hughes
James Carlini
John Iffert
Dan Stolts
Joe Zeto
