The purpose of this TC is to develop techniques to support the processing of digital signatures, including defining an interface for requesting that a web service produce and/or verify a digital signature.

This web service validates an HR-XML payload. As of 2004-02-01, the release services have been significantly improved.

With ColdFusion MX (CFMX), the most common return type for homegrown Web services is the recordset. Drop the ColdFusion component (CFC) in your site, make a call, and voila—instant data. Where you run into problems is when you try to call non-CFC Web services, such as those served by BEA WebLogic.

Mindreef SOAPscope 3.0 is a toolkit-independent Web services diagnostic system for examining, debugging, testing and tuning Web services. New features include:

This tutorial will introduce you to the world of Web services.

At some point over the past 18 months the future direction of the Web began to be seen widely as a struggle between "Web Services" and the "Semantic Web". The latter was thought to be rooted in the W3C and academia, the former in IBM-Microsoft-Sun and industry. Since the significance of any debate of the form, "the future of x", depends almost entirely on the present value of x, debates about the future of the Web are often heated, primarily because the present Web is so valuable. There is too much at stake for half measures.

In my last column I sketched out an alternative to WSDL. In my ongoing attempts to suggest useful ideas for others to implement, I now want to spend some time discussing an implementation of a real service. I'm going to look at XKMS, the XML Key Management Service. (A separate document specifies bindings to SOAP and HTTP.) This is a recommendation that has finished its W3C Last Call phase and is unlikely to see anything other than editorial changes at this point.

In my last column I sketched out an alternative to WSDL. In my ongoing attempts to suggest useful ideas for others to implement, I now want to spend some time discussing an implementation of a real service. I'm going to look at XKMS, the XML Key Management Service. (A separate document specifies bindings to SOAP and HTTP.) This is a recommendation that has finished its W3C Last Call phase and is unlikely to see anything other than editorial changes at this point.

The most interesting story from Microsoft's recent Professional Developers Conference wasn't the vendor's future Longhorn operating system, but rather, Microsoft's shift away from two preoccupations of its recent past: .Net and Web services.

Microsoft® .NET is a set of Microsoft software technologies for connecting information, people, systems, and devices. It enables a high level of software integration through the use of Web services—small, discrete, building-block applications that connect to each other as well as to other, larger applications over the Internet.

If you've developed a Web service client and are waiting to test it, twiddling your thumbs until the server implementation is complete, check out Parasoft's SOAPtest. This Java-based Web services testing application for Microsoft Windows and Linux is packed with tools that can eliminate waiting for someone else to finish the needed server development.

The Sun Java System Application Server (formerly Sun ONE Application Server) provides a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE platform) 1.3 and 1.4 compatible platform for developing and delivering Java web services. It integrates a powerful application development environment with the Sun Java Studio Enterprise, that increases developer productivity and speeds overall time to market.

W3C is pleased to receive the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1 submission from International Business Machines Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Allaire, Ariba, BEA, Bowstreet, Commerce One, Compaq Computer Corporation, DataChannel, Epicentric, Fujitsu Limited, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IONA Technologies, Jamcracker, Lotus Development Corporation, Oracle, Rogue Wave, SAP, TIBCO, VeriSign, Vitria, webMethods, XML Global Technologies and XMLSolutions.

This tutorial uses Oracle JDeveloper and its built in UDDI Browser to locate a .NET Web service within the public Microsoft UDDI Registry. It then shows how Oracle JDeveloper can automatically generate a Java client to invoke that .NET Web service. This lightweight Java client can then be incorporated into other Web or desktop applications.

In this tip we demo the StockQuote Web service, which uses the webservice DHTML behavior. The Web service returns an XML object which we transform to HTML with an XSL file. Try it now. After the page loads, click the Get Quotes button and then wait patiently for a few seconds until a table shows up with the stock quote details of YHOO, IBM, and MSFT. This Web services example works only in IE5.5 and up.

XML Firewalls are the latest solution for securing Web services. A number of vendors, including Datapower, Forum Systems, Reactivity, VeriSign, and Westbridge Tech are providing this new brand of technology, which purports to automatically add security processing to all of your backend applications.

DevelopMentor's XML Web Services curriculum provides a comprehensive roadmap for becoming fluent in this new realm of development. Essential XML gives you an intense introduction to the XML platform and the fundamental technologies used in Web services including XML 1.0 + Namespaces, XPath, XSLT, XML Schema, and SOAP. With this foundation in place, you'll be prepared to dive deeper into DevelopMentor's applied XML courses. Essential XSLT is designed for developers working heavily with XSLT in content management systems, Web applications, or even Web Services where a deeper understanding of the XSLT language is required. DevelopMentor also offers several intense Web Service courses including Essential Web Services .NET, Guerrilla Web Services .NET, Java Web Services, and Guerrilla Java Web Services, all of which provide deep and thorough coverage of building Web Services on your platform.

"Vordel SOAPbox is used to create XML messages which contain security tokens, without the need for writing code. Developers, testers, and application support technicians will use it to create XML messages that comply with security standards such as WS-Security and SAML. These secure messages may be targeted at a Web Service, over HTTP or SSL, in order to test the Web Service for security compliance".

In my last column I sketched out an alternative to WSDL. In my ongoing attempts to suggest useful ideas for others to implement, I now want to spend some time discussing an implementation of a real service. I'm going to look at XKMS, the XML Key Management Service. (A separate document specifies bindings to SOAP and HTTP.) This is a recommendation that has finished its W3C Last Call phase and is unlikely to see anything other than editorial changes at this point.

Einstein made that famous statement many decades ago, and it's still relevant today for building superior software systems. Unfortunately, as anyone who has been in the IT industry for long can point out, far too many software systems have failed Einstein's test. Some are made too simple to carry out the duties they are supposed to perform. Others are made too complex, and the costs of building and maintaining them have rocketed, not to mention the nearly impossible tasks of integrating different systems together. It seems that reaching the right level of simplicity is more like a dream than reality. Where have we gone wrong?