 | Level: Advanced Contributors: IBM 01 Apr 2005
Updated 26 Aug 2005 The IBM Basic Business-to-Business (B2B) Profile 1.0 is a profile that, in the fashion of the WS-I profiles, enables basic B2B integration scenarios using Web services technologies.
Note: This profile has been updated as of 26 August, 2005. The second draft of this profile was renamed to the Reliable Asynchronous Messaging Profile (RAMP) 1.0. See Resources for links to the updated profile and introductory material related to the new profile. The Web Services - Interoperabiliy Organization (WS-I -- see Resources) was created to help promote cross-language and cross-platform interoperability when using Web services as a software integration technology. WS-I has released its Basic Profile (BP) (see Resources) and is actively working on its Basic Security Profile (BSP) (see Resources). These profiles go a long way toward improving interoperability in many different scenarios. However, in order to ensure that its profiles lead to broad interoperability, WS-I requires a very high level of industry consensus on which Web services specifications it will include in its profiles and looks for broad support of those specifications through implementation in products such as application development tools, middleware, and solution components. Because the industry has not yet reached consensus on some of the advanced Web services specifications, it could be some time before WS-I incorporates them into its profiles. Many B2B scenarios require more functionality than what the current set of WS-I profiles provides. Specifically, two types of functionality that are currently not supported by any of the WS-I profiles, yet are required for many B2B scenarios, are asynchronous message exchange patterns, and reliable delivery of messages. The WS-Addressing specification provides the former, and the WS-ReliableMessaging specification provides the latter. These two specifications, together with the WS-I Basic Profile and Basic Security Profile, make up the basis of the guidance provided by the IBM Basic B2B Profile, which should enable the use of Web services to satisfy the requirements of most basic B2B integration scenarios.
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It should be clearly noted that this work is not intended to compete with the work of WS-I. Quite the contrary, work on this profile can lay the groundwork for possible future WS-I profiles. It is the express intent of IBM that anyone, including WS-I be free to take this work and expand or refine it as they see fit.
Resources
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RAMP Profile: Enable basic B2B integration scenarios using Web services technologies, plus much more with the new Reliable Asynchronous Messaging Profile 1.0 (formerly known as the IBM Basic B2B Profile -- August 2005).
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Introducing the RAMP Profile: Find out what changed since this profile was first published and learn about the reasons for those changes.
- Learn more about the IBM Basic Business-to-Business (B2B) Profile's purpose and content in this paper by Chris Ferris (developerWorks, April 2004).
- To learn more about WS-I, visit the IBM WS-I Portal. You'll find technical documentation, how-to articles, education, downloads, product information, and more.
- Find the following profiles on WS-I:
- Find guidance for using SOAP 1.1, WSDL 1.1, and UDDI 2.0 to send messages, describe Web services, and advertise Web services in an interoperable manner in the paper "First look at the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0" (developerWorks, October 2002).
- Ensure that your service will interoperate with any consumer that wants to use it by following the guidelines that are listed in the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. WS-I Test Tools provide an easy way to determine if your services conform to these guidelines. You can find out more in the paper "Understanding the WS-I Test Tools" (developerWorks, November 2003).
- Discover the scenarios or patterns of Web services usage that are supported by the WS-I Basic Profile in the paper "First look at the WS-I Usage Scenarios" (developerWorks, January 2003).
- Explore the Supply Chain Management (SCM) sample application which was developed by WS-I to demonstrate how the WS-I Basic Profile can be used to improve interoperability when integrating systems using Web services in the paper "Preview of the WS-I sample application" (developerWorks, March 2003).
- For more information on the WS-Addressing specification and its submission to the W3C for standardization, see Web Services Addressing.
- Learn more about a proposed architecture and roadmap for how to reliably exchange messages in a Web services environment in the whitepaper "Reliable Message Delivery in a Web services World" (developerWorks, March 2003).
- Find a proposed strategy for addressing security within a Web service environment in the whitepaper "Security in a Web services world" (developerWorks, April 2002).
- Business-to-Business integration requires the secure messaging features of WS-Security.
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