WS-I releases Web services interoperability plan

Looking to find the Holy Grail of low-cost, easy interoperability for data and applications, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) on Tuesday is set to release its Basic Profile 1.0 document.

Basic Profile 1.0, approved unanimously July 22 by the 11-member WS-I board of directors and by approximately 150 member organizations-at-large earlier this month, includes implementation guidelines on using core Web services specifications together to develop interoperable Web services. Those specifications include SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, UDDI 2.0, XML 1.0, and XML Schema.

The availability of Basic Profile 1.0 sets the stage for unified Web services support in technologies such as the next major version of the enterprise Java specification, J2EE 1.4, and the upcoming upgrade of the IBM WebSphere Studio development environment. Version 1.0 of the profile is intended to provide a common framework for implementing interoperable solutions while giving buyers a common reference point for purchasing decisions, according to WS-I.

"What the importance of this is, is that without these guidelines, there are enough ambiguities in the way you can implement these standards that Web services built by different companies [or on different platforms] will not be interoperable with each other," said Andy Astor, a member of the WS-I board of directors and chairman of marketing and communications at webMethods, in Middletown, N.J.

The profile features a set of guidelines resolving more than 200 interoperability issues, Astor said. Following release of the profile, WS-I this fall plans to release testing tools to verify conformance with the profile and sample applications to demonstrate use. Test tools will be available in both C# and Java implementations. WS-I with the release of the tools also will announce how Web services software vendors and service providers can claim conformance of their products to Basic Profile 1.0

Future Web services profiles are expected to add such functionality as security, via the Basic Security Profile, and Web services attachments capabilities through use of SOAP with Attachments technology, said Mark Hapner, WS-I board member from Sun Microsystems and Web services strategist for Java at Sun, in Santa Clara, Calif.

Sun has been awaiting the release of the Basic Profile so it could include it in J2EE 1.4. Sun now plans to release J2EE 1.4, which is to feature Web services enablement, in the fourth quarter of this year, Hapner said.

IBM, meanwhile, plans to add support for the profile in Version 5.1.1 of the WebSphere Studio development environment when it is released later this month, said IBM spokesman Scott Cook, in Cambridge, Mass.

WebMethods plans to add support for Basic Profile 1.0 to its integration platform, Astor said.

Some vendors already have supported the profile, based on details already released about it. A working draft was released by WS-I in October.

Microsoft said it supports Basic Profile 1.0 in technologies such as its Visual Studio .Net development environment and .Net Framework. "Microsoft applauds the ratification of the Basic Profile 1.0 and sees it as a significant milestone, taking the industry a step closer to ensuring Web services are able to interoperate across heterogeneous systems," said Microsoft's Steven VanRoekel, director of Web services, in a prepared statement.