WS-MetadataExchange now published!
The specification for WS-MetadataExchange has finally been published.
WS-MetadataExchange (lovingly nicknamed MEX) completes the core set of WS-* protocols which enable next-generation secure, reliable, transacted web services. The core WS-* suite of protocols enables the next-generation of service eventing and management protocols discussed in a recent whitepaper jointly published by HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
MEX is crucial to the successful implementation of next-generation web services since it enables services' consumers to request a service's Contract, Schema and Policy. A Contract describes (using WSDL) the service's operations (methods). A Schema describes (using XSD) the shape and strucure of the data a service will accept and return. A Policy describes (via WS-Policy) the service's requirements relating to security, etc.
Using MEX, a service's consumer can obtain the service's Contract, Schema and Policy and can dynamically or statically construct the necessary communication infrastructure to exchange the correctly formatted messages over the correct transports, secured appropriately.
MEX is supported by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and is used by many other technologies including CardSpace.
I for one want to congratulate all those people and organizations involved in designing, implementing and testing the protocols. It's amazing to see such a comprehensive suite of protocols be driven from concept to final submission in just a few short years.
