Web Services Addressing (WS-Addressing) is a specification of transport-neutral mechanism that allows

web service A web service (WS) is either: * a service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating with each other via the Internet, or * a server running on a computer device, listening for requests at a particular port over a n ...

s to communicate addressing information. It essentially consists of two parts: a structure for communicating a reference to a Web service endpoint, and a set of message addressing properties which associate addressing information with a particular message.

Description

WS-Addressing is a standardized way of including message routing data within

SOAP Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

headers. Instead of relying on network-level transport to convey routing information, a message utilizing WS-Addressing may contain its own dispatch metadata in a standardized SOAP header. The network-level transport is only responsible for delivering that message to a dispatcher capable of reading the WS-Addressing metadata. Once that message arrives at the dispatcher specified in the URI, the job of the network-level transport is done. WS-Addressing supports the use of asynchronous interactions by specifying a common SOAP header (wsa:ReplyTo) that contains the endpoint reference (EPR) to which the response is to be sent. The service provider transmits the response message over a separate connection to the wsa:ReplyTo endpoint. This decouples the lifetime of the SOAP request/response interaction from the lifetime of the HTTP request/response protocol, thus enabling long-running interactions that can span arbitrary periods of time.

Endpoint references

An endpoint reference (EPR) is an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

structure encapsulating information useful for addressing a message to a Web service. This includes the destination address of the message, any additional parameters (called reference parameters) necessary to route the message to the destination, and optional metadata (such as

WSDL The Web Services Description Language (WSDL ) is an XML-based interface description language that is used for describing the functionality offered by a web service. The acronym is also used for any specific WSDL description of a web service (also ...

WS-Policy WS-Policy is a specification that allows web services to use XML to advertise their policies (on security, quality of service, etc.) and for web service consumers to specify their policy requirements. WS-Policy is a W3C recommendation as of Septemb ...

) about the service.

Message addressing properties

Message addressing properties communicate addressing information relating to the delivery of a message to a Web service: *Message destination

URI Uri may refer to: Places * Canton of Uri, a canton in Switzerland * Úri, a village and commune in Hungary * Uri, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province * Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India * Uri (island), off Malakula Island in V ...

*Source endpoint -- the endpoint of the service that dispatched this message (EPR) *Reply endpoint -- the endpoint to which reply messages should be dispatched (EPR) *Fault endpoint -- the endpoint to which fault messages should be dispatched (EPR) *Action -- an action value indicating the semantics of the message (may assist with routing the message)

*Unique message ID

*Relationship to previous messages (A pair of

History

WS-Addressing was originally authored by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, BEA,

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

, and

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...

and submitted to

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

for standardization. The W3C WS-Addressing Working Group has refined and augmented the specification in the process of standardization. WS-Addressing is currently specified in three parts: *Th
Core
specification of Endpoint References and Message Addressing Properties. *
binding
of these properties to

. *Th
Metadata
specification defines how the abstract properties defined i
Core
are described using

, how to include WSDL metadata in endpoint references, and how

can be used to indicate the support of WS-Addressing by a Web service.
Web Services Policy Attachment for Endpoint Reference (WS-PAEPR)
specifies the mechanism and meaning of including

expressions in Endpoint References. WS-PAEPR is a W3C Member Submission.

References

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External links

Web Services Addressing Working GroupWS-Addressing - Submission Request to W3CTeam Comment on the WS-Addressing Submission
Addressing