WS-Transfer is a specification defining the transfer of an XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-representation of an WS-addressable

WS-Addressing

WS-Addressing or Web Services Addressing is a specification of transport-neutral mechanisms that allow web services to communicate addressing information...

resource, as well as creating and deleting such resources.

The Candidate Recommendation specification summarize the scope like this:

"This specification defines a mechanism for acquiring XML-based representations of entities using the Web service infrastructure. It defines two types of entities:

• Resources, which are entities addressable by an endpoint reference that provide an XML representation
• Resource factories, which are Web services that can create new resources"

External links

• Latest Version of the specification at W3C, Candidate Recommendation 28 April 2011
• Submitted specification to W3C, September 2006
• WS-Transfer specification, September 2004 - PDF file