REDMOND, Wash., March 15, 2001 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has acknowledged the submission of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) specification. Microsoft joined International Business Machines Corp., Allaire Corp., Ariba Technologies Inc., BEA Systems Inc., Bowstreet Inc., Commerce One Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., DataChannel Inc., Epicentric Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., IONA Technologies, Jamcracker Inc., Oracle Corp., Rogue Wave Software Inc., SAP AG, TIBCO Software Inc., VeriSign Inc., Vitria Technology Inc., webMethods Inc., XML Global Technologies and XMLSolutions Corp. in submitting the specification and proposing that the W3C’s XML Protocol activity take on the work of standardizing it. WSDL is a key Web Services technology, implemented in the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Visual Studio.NET, SOAP Toolkit and many other technologies. It provides an XML grammar for describing the capabilities of a Web Service.
“Web Services are transforming the way companies develop and deploy Web applications,”
said William Zachmann, vice president of Server Infrastructure Strategies at Meta Group.
“But widespread development and use of Web Services hinges on the standardization of core Web Services technologies. Today’s announcement that these companies have submitted the WSDL specification to the W3C for standardization is a win for the Web community at large because it is proof that this collaboration and agreement is taking place.”
Today’s news follows a sequence of initiatives by Microsoft to enable the widespread development and implementation of Web Services. Others include the Universal Description Design and Integration (UDDI) initiative that provides a comprehensive directory of businesses operating in the online world and the Web-based services they offer. Another is the submission of the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1 to the W3C last May. SOAP is a technology that enables integration of applications over the Internet irrespective of operating system or platform.
“We are gratified that the W3C has acknowledged the submission,”
said Andrew Layman, XML architect at Microsoft.
“Having open standards is critical for integrating services over the Web. WSDL provides an open, extensible, platform-neutral way to describe Web Services. Microsoft is continuing to deliver on its commitment to create and support open standards for Web Services.”
About WSDL
WSDL augments SOAP, enabling development tools and other infrastructure to easily integrate by engaging in automated
“conversations”
with a Web Service. As communications standards emerge in the Web community, it becomes increasingly possible and important to be able to describe the communications in a common, structured way. WSDL addresses that need by defining an XML grammar for describing network services as collections of communication endpoints capable of exchanging messages. For more information on WSDL, visit the Microsoft Developer Network at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
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