WS-CAF
Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) is an open framework developed by OASIS. Its purpose is to define a generic and open framework for applications that contain multiple services used together, which are sometimes referred to as composite applications.[1] WS-CAF characteristics include interoperability, ease of implementation and ease of use.
Scope
The scope of WS-CAF includes:
- Provision of WSDL definitions for context, coordination and transactions.
- Message formats will be specified as SOAP headers and/or body content.
- The specification is to be programming language-neutral and platform-neutral.
- Demonstrated composability with other Web Service specifications that are being developed as open, recognized standards
- The goals of promoting convergence, consistent use, and a coherent architecture.
- Support composability as a critical architectural characteristic of Web service specifications. WS-CAF and WS-Context are targeted to become building blocks for other Web service specifications and standards.
Input specifications
The WS-CAF accepts the following Web services specifications as input:
- WS-Context
- WS-Coordination Framework (WS-CF)
- WS-Transaction Management (WS-TXM)
Benefits
The benefits and results of CAF are intended to be standard and interoperable ways to:
- Demarcate and coordinate web service activities
- Propagate and coordinate context information
- Notify participants of changes in an activity
- Define the relationship of coordinators to each other
- Recover transactions predictably and consistently in a business process execution.
- Interact across multiple transaction models (such as are used in CORBA, CICS, Enterprise JavaBeans or .NET environments).[2]
See also
- WS-Coordination - an alternative transaction standard
- Enterprise service bus