Web Services Enhancements
Encyclopedia
Web Services Enhancements (WSE) is an add-on to the Microsoft
.NET Framework
which includes a set of classes that implement additional WS-* web service
specifications chiefly in areas such as security, reliable messaging, and sending attachments. Web services are business logic components which provide functionality via the Internet using standard protocols such as HTTP. Web services communicate via either SOAP
or REST
messages. WSE provides extensions to the SOAP
protocol and allows the definition of custom security, reliable messaging, policy, etc. Developers can add these capabilities at design time using code or at deployment time through the use of a policy file.
It seems that there is no update for WSE to work with VS2008. Instead, VS 2008 relies on WCF for the same functionality.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
.NET Framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
which includes a set of classes that implement additional WS-* web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
specifications chiefly in areas such as security, reliable messaging, and sending attachments. Web services are business logic components which provide functionality via the Internet using standard protocols such as HTTP. Web services communicate via either SOAP
SOAP
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
or REST
Representational State Transfer
Representational state transfer is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. The term representational state transfer was introduced and defined in 2000 by Roy Fielding in his doctoral dissertation...
messages. WSE provides extensions to the SOAP
SOAP
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
protocol and allows the definition of custom security, reliable messaging, policy, etc. Developers can add these capabilities at design time using code or at deployment time through the use of a policy file.
Versions
All versions install side-by-side.- WSE 1.0 for .NET Framework 1.0 was released in December 2002. It was based on the draft version of WS-SecurityWS-SecurityWS-Security is a flexible and feature-rich extension to SOAP to apply security to web services. It is a member of the WS-* family of web service specifications and was published by OASIS....
. It is not supported anymore and is not compatible with .NET 2.0. It uses the older "XMLSOAP" namespace in contrast to the OASIS namespace used by WSS4J and WSE 2.0/3.0. - WSE 2.0 was released for Visual Studio .NET 2003 and the .NET Framework 1.1 in May 2004. It introduced major secure communication improvements (signing and encryption of user-defined SOAP headers, Kerberos Security Context Tokens, delegated trust etc.), a new lightweight messaging infrastructure, a new programming model, support for SOAP based messaging over TCP as an alternative to HTTP, a policy framework based on WS-PolicyWS-PolicyWS-Policy is a specification that allows web services to use XML to advertise their policies and for web service consumers to specify their policy requirements.WS-Policy is a W3C recommendation as of September 2007....
and WSDLWeb Services Description LanguageThe Web Services Description Language is an XML-based language that is used for describing the functionality offered by a Web service. A WSDL description of a web service provides a machine-readable description of how the service can be called, what parameters it expects and what data structures...
, WS-AddressingWS-AddressingWS-Addressing or Web Services Addressing is a specification of transport-neutral mechanisms that allow web services to communicate addressing information...
, WS-TrustWS-TrustWS-Trust is a WS-* specification and OASIS standard that provides extensions to WS-Security, specifically dealing with the issuing, renewing, and validating of security tokens, as well as with ways to establish, assess the presence of, and broker trust relationships between participants in a secure...
, WS-SecureConversationWS-SecureConversationWS-SecureConversation is a Web Services specification, created by IBM and others, that works in conjunction with WS-Security, WS-Trust and WS-Policy to allow the creation and sharing of security contexts...
support. WSE 2.0 can be used from within standalone executables and Windows services i.e. outside IISInternet Information ServicesInternet Information Services – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. It is the most used web server after Apache HTTP Server. IIS 7.5 supports HTTP, HTTPS,...
in addition to ASP.NETASP.NETASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
applications. It is also compatible with .NET 2.0, however it does not have design time support with Visual Studio 2005. It is not interoperable with WSE 3.0 and WCFWindows Communication FoundationThe Windows Communication Foundation , previously known as "Indigo", is an application programming interface in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications.-The architectures:...
. - WSE 3.0 was released in October 2005 and has design time support with Visual Studio 2005. It includes policy framework enhancements including security based on policy assertions (associating CLR client proxies with policy files), turnkey security scenarios for securing end to end messages, extensibility mechanisms for user-defined policies in code and a simplified policy model applied to a message exchange instead of on a per-message level. It supports updated web serviceWeb serviceA Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
s specifications and a native 64-bit runtime. WS-SecureConversationWS-SecureConversationWS-SecureConversation is a Web Services specification, created by IBM and others, that works in conjunction with WS-Security, WS-Trust and WS-Policy to allow the creation and sharing of security contexts...
sessions can be canceled explicitly and sessions are reliable and usable in web farm scenarios as Security Context Tokens can contain the original client authentication token when sent from the client to the service, which enable sessions to be re-established if lost, e.g. when a service's appdomainApplication domainIn Microsoft's Common Language Runtime , an application domain is a mechanism used to isolate executed software applications from one another so that they do not affect each other...
is reset. WSE 3.0 is wire-level interoperable over HTTP with Windows Communication FoundationWindows Communication FoundationThe Windows Communication Foundation , previously known as "Indigo", is an application programming interface in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications.-The architectures:...
(WCF) and supports the same version of the WS-* specifications as WCF (WS-SecurityWS-SecurityWS-Security is a flexible and feature-rich extension to SOAP to apply security to web services. It is a member of the WS-* family of web service specifications and was published by OASIS....
1.1, SOAP 1.2, MTOMMTOMMTOM is the W3C Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism,a method of efficiently sending binary data to and from Web services.MTOM is usually used with XOP .-Status:MTOM is a W3C Recommendation....
).
It seems that there is no update for WSE to work with VS2008. Instead, VS 2008 relies on WCF for the same functionality.
See also
- Web serviceWeb serviceA Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
- List of web service specifications
- Windows Communication FoundationWindows Communication FoundationThe Windows Communication Foundation , previously known as "Indigo", is an application programming interface in the .NET Framework for building connected, service-oriented applications.-The architectures:...
- .NET Framework.NET FrameworkThe .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
- SOAPSOAPSOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...