Web Services Coordination (WS- Coordination)

This specification (WS-Coordination) describes an extensible framework for providing protocols that coordinate the actions of distributed applications. Such coordination protocols are used to support a number of applications, including those that need to reach consistent agreement on the outcome of distributed transactions. The framework defined in this specification enables an application service to create a context needed to propagate an activity to other services and to register for coordination protocols. The framework enables existing transaction processing, workflow, and other systems for coordination to hide their proprietary protocols and to operate in a heterogeneous environment. Additionally, this specification describes a definition of the structure of context and the requirements for propagating context between cooperating services. Composable architecture By using the SOAP [SOAP] and WSDL [WSDL] extensibility model, SOAP-based and WSDL-based specifications are designed to be composed with each other to define a rich Web services environment. As such, WS-Coordination by itself does not define all the features required for a complete solution. WS-Coordination is a building block that is used in conjunction with other specifications and application-specific protocols to accommodate a wide variety of protocols related to the operation of distributed Web services. The Web service protocols defined in this specification should be used when interoperability is needed across vendor implementations, trust domains, etc. Thus, the Web service protocols defined in this specification can be combined with proprietary protocols within the same application. Status of this Document WS-Coordination and related specifications are provided for use as-is and for review and evaluation only. Microsoft, BEA and IBM will solicit your contributions and suggestions in the near future. Microsoft, BEA and IBM make no warrantees or representations regarding the specification in any manner whatsoever. Acknowledgements The following individuals have provided invaluable input into the design of the WS-Transaction specification: Francisco Curbera, IBM Don Ferguson, IBM Frank Leymann, IBM Jagan Peri, Microsoft Satish Thatte, Microsoft Sanjiva Weerawarana, IBM We also wish to thank the technical writers and development reviewers who provided feedback to improve the readability of the specification.