Re: Did ebXML Help Accelerate the Web Services Evolution?

[Duane Nickull <dnickull@adobe.com>]

brian:

I would like to clarify part of your statement. Web Services was not 
there when ebXML first met (San Jose November 1999) and started work. 
Web Services came out after ebXML.

As far as staking a claim, this quote always resonated well with me:

ebXML is a tailored superset of Web services. It's design center is B2B
integration, although it can be used for other applications. SOAP/WSDL is a
more generic Web services framework. It can be used for a wide variety of
applications, including B2B integration, but B2Bi isn't it's primary goal,
and extra infrastructure features (security, reliability, etc) are required
for most B2Bi applications. So it's quite reasonable to use ebXML for these
applications. It is not reasonable to assume use of ebXML for all
applications.

So even if companies provide add-on capabilities to support the ebXML
infrastructure, companies won't deploy these add-on features to every system
(especially not on desktops and handhelds). The ebXML infrastructure will
only be deployed on systems that require this additional functionality.
Other systems will use a lighter-weight solution, such as SOAP/WSDL or XML
over HTTP. One of the most popular features of SOAP is that it's relatively
lightweight. There are versions of SOAP that run on mobile phones and
embedded processors (kSOAP, Wingfoot SOAP, and eSOAP).

- Anne Thomas Manes,
VP and Research Director
Burton Group"

To me, both ebXML and Web Services each are useful and address a 
different set of requirements. It is important to note that ebXML uses 
WSDL and SOAP.

Duane Nickull





Brian Repko wrote:

>
> I do think that the ebXML folks looked at Web Services specs
> (since they were there already) and took the best of that and
> used and built on top of it. I'm not sure that the Web Services
> folks look into ebXML too much, if at all, particular for the flurry
> of WS-* specs that are out there.
>
> What is sad to me is all the WS talk related to customers and
> suppliers and B2B without talking about ebXML. It feels too
> one sided.
>
> Now that WS has died down a bit - is there a chance to stake
> a claim in certain areas? Say what is ebXML and where does it
> fit in with the other specs out there?
>
> Brian
>
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-- 
Senior Standards Strategist
Adobe Systems, Inc.
http://www.adobe.com