Perhaps a historical perspective on SOAP and ebXML will help clarify some misunderstandings that seem to exist. I worked on ebXML Message Service standard and served as ebXML's liaison to W3C and had many conversations with the SOAP authors from version 0.9 through 1.2. The ebXML initiative began in November of 1999. In January of 2000 the ebXML Transport, Routing and Packaging team began development of a message service to support the reliable, secure exchange of XML, traditional EDI data and other digital data that may be exchanged as part of a business transaction (e.g. cad drawings). Also noteworthy is the fact that ebXML's message service DOES support BOTH traditional REQUEST-RESPONSE (i.e. RPC) as well as async messaging. Recognizing the broad acceptance of HTTP the TR&P team elected to follow HTTP's MIME based packaging approach from the start. This enabled ebXML's Message Service to "naturally" layer on top of HTTP. The original ebXML "message" structure consisted of two (MIME) parts, an XML header (primarily routing and Identification data) and a "business payload" MIME part. This separation of "business data" from "routing data" allowed each "part" to be processed independently. SOAP v 0.9 was released by Don Box in the Fall of 1999. This version of SOAP (which was the current version available at the time ebXML began its efforts) had many issues that slowed its adoption by developers at large. One significant obstacle was its dependence on the HTTP extension framework (remember that one..) which was a work in process in the W3C. The ebXML TR&P team reviewed SOAP v0.9 and made the decision that it lacked support for traditional EDI and therefore could not be used and a pure HTTP/MIME approach was pursued. SOAP V1.1 was released in May 2000 and the Soap with Attachments spec soon followed. The combination of SOAP 1.1 and SwA together were virtually identical to the approach taken by ebXML and efforts to converge the efforts began in earnest. A team of interested parties from the SOAP camp (e.g. David Turner and Andrew Layman) met with the ebXML TR&P team in February 2001 at the ebXML meeting in Vancouver to discuss SOAP and ebXML's convergence. The decision was made to utilize SOAP within ebXML's message header as a means to align the two efforts. The convergence work began at the February ebXML meeting and was completed by the final release of ebXML's Message Service standard in May 2001. I've attached a few e-mails between myself and others (Don Box, Andrew Layman, Bob Sutor, Klaus and others) which should help you see how/why SOAP became a part of ebXML's Message Service. In the end ebXML's TRP team incorporated SOAP into the ebXML Message Service standard for interoperability reasons. Regards, Dick Brooks B2B Application Integration and CyberSecurity Consultant Lowell, Massachusetts http://www.tech-comm.com/dbc Telephone: 602-684-1484 -----Original Message----- From: Brian Repko [mailto:brian_repko@hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 5:55 PM To: ebxml-dev@lists.ebxml.org Subject: Re: Did ebXML Help Accelerate the Web Services Evolution? 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 _________________________________________________________________ Check out MSN PC Safety & Security to help ensure your PC is protected and safe. http://specials.msn.com/msn/security.asp The ebxml-dev list is sponsored by OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> The list archives are at http://lists.ebxml.org/archives/ebxml-dev/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription manager: <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/>
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