There are two major efforts right now to converge the various messaging protocols used in Web Services:
- The ebXML Message Service Specification (MSS) incorporates the structure of SOAP and the payloads of the RosettaNet Implementation Framework (RNIF). All have moved to using XML documents in the protocol. This work is being done in an OASIS Technical Committee. One way to understand this convergence is to first look at SOAP. That should be followed by RNIF. Then look at MSS to see how the specifications are being combined. SOAP offers a an XML-based protocol. RNIF offers Action and Signal messages that make workflow or choreography between trading partners possible. These Action and Signal messages are also referred to as request/response messages.
- The work in the W3C on the XML Protocol (XMLP) is an effort to converge SOAP with the work in the IETF Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP). Much like RNIF, BEEP provided the capability of request/response messages.
The charter for XML Protocol Work Group states that it will cooperate closely with the IETF, but it only requires attempts to coordinate with ebXML and RosettaNet. Nevertheless, all this work is quite fluid and further convergence of these two efforts should be expected. In fact, working documents for XMLP reference the use of SOAP with Attachments adopted for the MSS.
Finally, Web Distributed Data Exchange (WDDX) is a separate messaging effort.
The messaging here has more to do with the structure of the messages than the contents what is said. The contents, of course, is what really matters. The messaging is just the way to get the contents delivered in a way that is understood by both the sender and receiver. Information on message contents can be found on the Partner Interface Process (PIP) (new window) and XML Vocabularies (new window) pages.
Messaging specifications described on this site are listed below. You can also navigate among the specifications by using the menu tree at the bottom of each page.
- Asynchronous Application Service Protocol (ASAP) for SOAP
- Message Service Specification (MSS)
- Representational State Transfer (REST)
- RosettaNet Business Message
- SOAP
- Web Distributed Data Exchange (WDDX)
- Web Services Addressing (WS-Addressing)
- Web Services Eventing (WS-Eventing)
- Web Services Notification (WSN)
- Web Services Reliability (WS-Reliability)
- Web Services Reliable Messaging (WS-ReliableMessaging)
- XML Protocol (XMLP)
More on the general topic: Messaging
