The Web Services Interoperability Organisation
(WS-I) yesterday released its Basic Profile 1.0 document, said to
be the Holy Grail of low-cost, easy interoperability for data and
applications.
Basic Profile 1.0, approved unanimously on 22 July by the
11-member WS-I board of directors and by approximately 150 member
organisations 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 IBM's 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.
The profile features a set of guidelines resolving more than 200
interoperability issues, Astor said. Following release of the
profile, WS-I this autumn 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. With the release of the tools WS-I will also
announce how web services software suppliers and service providers
can claim conformance of their products to Basic Profile 1.0.
Future web services profiles are expected to add functionality
such 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.
Sun has been awaiting the release of the Basic Profile so it can
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.
Webmethods plans to add support for Basic Profile 1.0 to its
integration platform, Astor said.
Some suppliers have already supported the profile, based on
details released about it. A working draft was released by WS-I in
October 2002.
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.
Web services management software supplier Actional also said it
already supports the profile. "The response [to the Basic Profile]
from a customer perspective has been very positive," said James
Phillips, Actional senior vice-president. "We've had customers
specifically ask if we support Basic Profile 1.0 or plan to if it
is made public."
Mindreef yesterday announced that its new Soapscope 2.0 Web
services diagnostics system includes WSDL interoperability checking
based on Basic Profile 1.0.
An analyst stressed that the profile represents the first
deliverable from WS-I. "Until now, [the profile has] has been
theory and works in progress, but now they have the profile
available," said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink.
Bloomberg said the profile at this point is primarily for suppliers
to make their offerings interoperable. WS-I needs to add more user
organisations to its fold, he said.
Affirmation of the profile unites bitter rivals IBM, Microsoft,
and Sun, all of which hold board seats, although Sun had to be
elected to a seat in March while IBM and Microsoft were charter
board members dating back to WS-I's formation in February
2002.
WS-I is not a standards body like the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) or Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards. It merely takes standards from organisations such as
these and develops interoperability and usage profiles.
Paul Krillwrites for
InfoWorld