Web services

Microsoft wins reprieve in Eolas browser dispute

THE US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has invalidated a claim by software company Eolas that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser infringed its patents on plug-in and applet technology.

The disputed patent relates to the way Internet Explorer works with programs like Flash and QuickTime, and ActiveX technology. Any alterations to the way the browser handles such website elements could render some sites unusable and force companies to spend thousands reconfiguring web standards to avoid patented features.

Microsoft had begun making changes to its flagship browser in anticipation of Eolas’ claims being upheld, and many web groups were worried that changes to browser operations could undermine internet functionality.

In December last year, the W3C, led by Tim Berners-Lee, pleaded with the USPTO to re-examine the evidence in the patent case, arguing that prior art existed to invalidate Eolas’ claim. The USPTO’s ruling is not final and Microsoft is still locked in a costly court battle with Eolas. However, the USPTO’s provisional decision could significantly influence legal proceedings.
www.microsoft.com
www.eolas.com
www.uspto.gov

Windows XP web-services toolkit available

MICROSOFT’S OFFICE XP web-services toolkit is available for free download. Using Visual Basic for Applications, developers can use the UDDI registry to discover those web services available.

The toolkit contains comprehensive documentation on XML web services, including technical white papers and case studies.
http://msdn.microsoft.com

WS-I finalises Basic Profile 1.0

THE WS-I has released a new batch of testing tools, the Communication Monitor and Profile Analyser, which is compatible with every web-services platform.

The tool represents the final component of the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 standard. It captures and stores messages exchanged with web services, which are then analysed to validate the description and registration ‘artefacts’ of the web service. These artefacts include WSDL, the XML schema files that describe the data types used in the WSDL service definition, and the UDDI registration entries.

More than 300 test cases have been written and automated for the analyser tool, which can be downloaded from:
www.ws-i.org/implementation.aspx

Oasis seeks improvements to standard

MEMBERS OF Oasis have announced plans to improve the electronic business architecture that builds on ebXML standards and other web-services technology.

The ebSOA technical committee will use the existing ebXML 1.04 technical architecture as the foundation for development of the improved standard.

“When the ebXML architecture was first conceived, the term ‘web services’ hadn’t even been coined,” said Charles Abrams, senior analyst at Gartner. “Now, many of the ebXML layers have been reconciled to embrace core W3C technology, such as WSDL and Soap. Oasis and its member organisations will build momentum for ebXML by articulating how the standards fit into the emerging service-oriented architectures that users need to stay competitive in their IT efforts.”

Members of the Oasis ebSOA technical committee include Adobe Systems and the Boeing Group.
www.oasis-open.org

Tech giants update WS-MetadataExchange draft

BEA SYSTEMS, Microsoft, IBM and Sap have updated the public draft of the WS-MetadataExchange specification, a set of web-service mechanisms used to exchange policies, WSDL, schema and other metadata.

The WS-MetadataExchange specification defines Soap message types for obtaining XML files that include web-services metadata such as WS-Policy and WSDL. It supports multiple protocols and takes advantage of recent improvements to the WS-Addressing standard. WS-MetadataExchange provides information about the XML Schema, WS-Policy and WSDL; WS-Policy describes the capabilities and requirements of web services; WSDL describes message operations; and XML Schema describes the structure and content of XML messages.

WS-MetadataExchange ties these strands together by defining three request-response message pairs to retrieve these three types of metadata.
www.bea.com
www.microsoft.com
www.ibm.com/uk
www.sap.com

WS-Security gets technical committee approval

OASIS HAS finalised the WS-Security web-services standard, which has been in development for more than two years.

The WS-Security technical committee, led by Microsoft and IBM, has completed its work on the crucial standard, which is used to authenticate the identity of users and ensure the security of data passed between applications. Safeguarding the security of web services is seen as vital to its widespread adoption, particularly outside the firewall.

It is thought that WS-Security will be embedded in a variety of applications, including web-services-management tools, XML-based firewalls, and network access and identity management programs.
www.oasis-open.org

Compuware warns against venturing outside the firewall

BUSINESSES NEED to improve their problem-identification processes before implementing web services outside the firewall, according to vendors Compuware.

‘Consuming’ web services deployed by other vendors outside the firewall is said to undermine control over the quality of components and performance.

Companies are advised to balance the desire for web-services-based interoperability and process automation with the potential cost of identifying and repairing system failures caused by conflicting standards.
www.compuware.com