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This specification explains how the Web Services MetadataExchange Framework is structured and how it operates. It is an update to the version previous published on September 1, 2004.
Web services use metadata to describe what other endpoints need to know to interact with them. For example, WS-Policy describes the capabilities, requirements, and general characteristics of Web services; WSDL describes abstract message operations, concrete network protocols, and endpoint addresses used by Web services; XML Schema describes the structure and contents of XML-based messages received and sent by Web services.
To bootstrap communication with a Web service, this specification defines how an endpoint can request the various types of metadata it may need to effectively communicate with the Web service. In response to the request, this specification defines an encapsulation that contains the three different ways the metadata may be returned. First, the metadata itself may be simply included in the response. Second, a URI may be returned, to which an HTTP GET can then be sent to retrieve the metadata from that location. And third, a WS-Addressing Endpoint Reference of a WS-Transfer Metadata Resource may be returned, to which a WS-Transfer Get may be issued to retrieve the metadata. This specification also defines how a WS-Addressing Endpoint Reference can be modified to include this encapsulation.
Get the specifications and related material
| Description | Date | Access method |
|---|---|---|
| WS-MetadataExchange specification (PDF, 236KB) | August 2006 | HTTP download |
| WS-MetadataExchange WSDL (4KB) | August 2006 | HTTP download |
| WS-MetadataExchange XSD (4KB) | August 2006 | HTTP download |
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Previous versions of this specification:
- March, 2004: WS-MetadataExchange specification (specification)
- September, 2004: WS-MetadataExchange specification (specification)
- September, 2004: WS-MetadataExchange WSDL (WSDL file)
- September, 2004: WS-MetadataExchange XSD (XSD file)
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Web Services Policy Framework defines how to apply policies to control individual services behavior.
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Web Services Trust Language is a related protocol for how trust
relationships can be shared between services.
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Web Services Transfer describes a general SOAP-based protocol for accessing XML representations of Web service-based resources.
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Web Services Security and Web Services Security Addendum describe enhancements to SOAP to provide quality of
protection through message integrity, confidentiality, and authentication.
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WS-SecureConversation defines extensions that build on WS-Security to provide secure communication.
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WS-SecurityPolicy is a building block that is used in conjunction with other Web service and application-specific protocols to accommodate a wide variety of security models.
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SOAP 1.1 is the basic messaging transport for all Web services while SOAP 1.2
offers enhancements to the message framework.
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WSDL 1.1 is the current standard language for services description.
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XML Schema, Part 1 and Part 2 are specifications
that explain how schemas are organized in XML documents.