The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has acknowledged the recent submission of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) specification.
Among the many companies that co-submitted the specification were Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Intel Corp. and VeriSign Inc. The companies proposed that the W3C’s XML Protocol activity take on the work of standardizing WSDL. According to Microsoft, WSDL is implemented in its .NET Framework, Visual Studio.NET, SOAP Toolkit and many other technologies. WSDL augments SOAP, enabling development tools and other infrastructure to easily integrate by engaging in automated “conversations” with a Web Service. As communications standards emerge in the Web community, it becomes increasingly possible and important to be able to describe the communications in a common, structured way. WSDL addresses that need by defining an XML grammar for describing network services as collections of communication endpoints capable of exchanging messages, Microsoft said.
Handspring launches site for developers, customers
Handheld computing vendor Handspring Inc. announced recently that it will put up an all-in-one site for both developers and customers who want to create products using the Handspring platform.
Handspring will partner with eLance Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif., a designer of Web-based outsourcing solution platforms for such companies as Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM Corp. The site – www.handspring.com/developers – will aggregate Springboard module developers, other mechanical and industrial hardware designers, and developers using the Palm OS. Essentially, the site will become a source for potential Palm OS and Handspring licensees and give developers the ability to share and exchange resources. The Handspring site will also facilitate request for proposals and bids for products and services as well as offer collaborative design space and a global billing and payment system. Lee Epting, director of developer relations at Handspring, said that creating a developer and customer community would reduce the amount of time it takes to find sources for projects.
IBM releases new WebSphere products
IBM recently announced upgraded Internet infrastructure software for mainframes.
The new WebSphere software runs on IBM’s z/OS and OS/390 operating systems for the eServer z900 as well as the S/390. In addition, it includes support for Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) that enables software developers to write the “guts” of business applications (i.e. connections to databases, transaction handling, etc.) that can run on a variety of computing systems. The new software products include WebSphere Application Server for z/OS and OS/390 and CICS Transaction Server V2.1. With WebSphere, application programmers can now design, develop and assemble Java applications using common, industry-standard programming without having to account for the differences or restrictions of any particular computing system, IBM said. The decision of where to run a J2EE application can now be based on desired qualities of service, the availability and location of data, and the availability of computing resources, not just the operating system-specific knowledge or skills of the application programmers, the company said.