IPP> W3C launches Web Services Activity (including SOAP)

[McDonald, Ira]

Hi folks,

Apropos of several PWG and other meetings this week in LA...

The W3C has just launched (25 January 2002) a new 'Web Services Activity'.
The full text of the announcement (in plaintext) is below.  The link is:

    http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/Activity

Cheers,
- Ira McDonald
  High North Inc

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Web Services
Activity Statement
Activity statements provide an executive overview of W3C's work in this
area, while the Web Services Activity Home Page points to highlights,
events, specifications, discussion groups, software, and other resources.

Work on Web services is being managed as part of W3C's Architecture domain.

Introduction 
Role of W3C 
Current Situation and Accomplishments 
What the Future Holds 
Contact 
Introduction
The advent of XML makes it easier for systems in different environments to
exchange information. The universality of XML makes it a very attractive way
to communicate information between programs. Programmers can use different
operating systems, programming languages, etc., and have their software
communicate with each other in an interoperable manner. Moreover, XML, XML
namespaces and XML schemas serve as useful tools for providing mechanisms to
deal with structured extensibility in a distributed environment, especially
when used in combination.

The same way programmatic interfaces have been been available since the
early days of the World Wide Web via HTML forms, programs are now accessible
by exchanging XML data through an interface, e.g. by using SOAP Version 1.2,
the XML-based protocol produced by the XML Protocol Working Group. Those
interfaces are called Web services.

The power of Web services, apart from their great interoperability and
extensibility thanks to the use of XML, is that they can then be combined in
order to achieve more complex operations.

In order to get a complete automation of such interactions, the architecture
of Web services needs to be better understood, and several technologies need
to be developed.

Role of W3C
W3C provides the platform for discussion for discussion and for planning and
creation of a variety of technologies to design Web services.

In September 2000, W3C started the XML Protocol Activity in order to address
the need of an XML-based protocol for application-to-application messaging.

In January 2002, the Activity was extended to address all the different
aspects of Web services, and was renamed the Web Services Activity.

The goal of the Web Services Activity is to design a set of technologies in
order to bring the development of Web services to its full potential. The
goal of the Web Services Architecture Working Group is to identify the
building blocks and how they interact with each other.

Current Situation and Accomplishments
The Web Services Activity is composed of three Working Groups and a
Coordination Group:

Web Services Architecture Working Group
The Web Services Architecture Working Group is chartered with producing an
architecture document identifying the technologies that the Activity needs
to design, their scope and how they relate to each other.

The Working Group was started in January 2002 and is working on producing a
requirements document for the Web services architecture.

XML Protocol Working Group
The XML Protocol Working Group is chartered to develop an XML-based
protocol, in the form of four deliverables:

An envelope to encapsulate XML data for transfer in an interoperable manner
that allows for distributed extensibility, evolvability, as well as
intermediaries like proxies, caches, and gateways. 
In cooperation with the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), an operating
system-neutral convention for the content of the envelope when used for RPC
(Remote Procedure Call) applications. 
A mechanism to serialize data based on XML Schema datatypes. 
In cooperation with the IETF, a non-exclusive mechanism layered on HTTP
transport. 
The following documents have been produced by the Working Group:

a set of requirements for the protocol designed: XML Protocol (XMLP)
Requirements. 
an abstract model: XML Protocol Abstract Model. 
a specification in two parts: SOAP Version 1.2 Part 1: Messaging Framework
and SOAP Version 1.2 Part 2: Adjuncts. 
a primer: SOAP Version 1.2 Part 0: Primer. 
a set of usage scenarios: XML Protocol Usage Scenarios. 
a test collection: SOAP Version 1.2 Test Collection. 
Web Services Description Working Group
The Web Services Description Working Group is chartered with designing a
language for describing interfaces to Web services and how to interact with
them. The Working Group is basing its work on the Web Services Description
Language (WSDL) 1.1.

The Working Group was started in January 2002 and is working on producing a
requirements document for the developed technology.

Web Services Coordination Group
This role of the Web Services Coordination Working Group is to ensure
coordination between the different groups of the Web Services Activity, as
well as with the Semantic Web Activity, which conducts related work.

What the Future Holds
The Web Services Architecture Working Group is expected to last 2 years, and
to have a Recommendation mid-2002.

The XML Protocol Working Group is expected to last 1.5 years, through April,
2002. Deliverables will be made available to the public every three months.
Publication and face-to-face meeting schedules have been drafted. Following
the requirements document in October 2000, we expect a Candidate
Recommendation, then a Proposed Recommendation, and finally a Recommendation
around mid 2002.

The Web Services Description Working Group is expected to last 2 years, and
to have a Recommendation in May 2003.

New Working Groups are expected to be started in the future as a result of
the work going on in the Web Services Architecture Working Group.

Contact
Hugo Haas <hugo at w3.org> Activity Lead 

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Last modified $Date: 2002/01/25 16:48:47 $ GMT by $Author: hugo $

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