Microsoft, BEA Systems and TIBCO Software have published a new Web services specification called WS-Eventing. The aim is to offer a common way of communicating events within and between Web services.
Events are defined as “occurrences in the real world that can trigger action in software” – such as a ‘phone rings, an order is placed, a package is shipped, a printer runs out of paper, a favourite team scores, a stock hits a new high, and so on.
“These real world events need to be mirrored within the technologies that have become fundamental to our personal lives and businesses,” says the three companies in a joint statement. “However, until now, there has not been a common way of communicating about events between different Web services.”
They say that, without a common way to communicate events, developers have been forced to create ad hoc solutions that are incomplete and inflexible. The aim with WS-Eventing is to ensure that every Web service can send and receive information about events that have occurred, regardless of whether the event is originating in the “firmware” of a simple device or in large scale enterprise systems.
WS-Eventing will be a set of fundamental protocols, message formats and interfaces for a Web service to subscribe to events coming from another Web service. The aim is to create a web specification flexible enough to be apply across scenarios, enterprises, homes, and devices.
The three firms add that the WS-Eventing specification is designed to take advantage of the capabilities of published specifications such as WS-Addressing, WS-Security and WS-ReliableMessaging.