(June 24, 2003) -The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released the SOAP Version 1.2 Recommendation, consisting of the SOAP Version 1.2 Primer, the SOAP Version 1.2 Messaging Framework, SOAP Version 1.2 Adjuncts, and the SOAP Version 1.2 Specification Assertions and Test Collection. SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol intended for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment such as the Web. A W3C Recommendation is the equivalent of a Web standard, indicating that this W3C-developed specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by the industry.

"Web services make good on the promise of interoperable applications only when the technical foundations are shared, robust, and achieve expected performance," explained Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "Today, W3C Members have endorsed SOAP Version 1.2, the first version of SOAP to have undergone rigorous testing and implementation, and to support a full complement of Web standards. Web services customers and developers alike demand an XML-based Web services protocol that powers the full range of applications and Web technologies they can imagine using. Now that SOAP Version 1.2 is here, they have it."

As an XML-based messaging framework for building distributed Web applications, SOAP Version 1.2 offers several benefits over SOAP 1.1: it provides clear processing and extensibility models, better integration, protocol independence, and performance optimizations.

The SOAP Version 1.2 specification provides a framework for XML-based messaging systems in two parts, the Messaging Framework and Adjuncts:

SOAP Version 1.2 Messaging Framework provides a processing model (the rules for processing a SOAP message), an extensibility framework (enabling developers to use extensions inside and outside the SOAP envelope), the message construct (the rules for constructing SOAP messages), and the protocol binding framework (the rules for specifying the exchange of SOAP messages over underlying protocols such as HTTP).

SOAP Version 1.2 Adjuncts completes the specification. It includes rules for representing remote procedure calls (RPCs), for encoding SOAP messages, for describing SOAP features and SOAP bindings. It also provides a standard binding of SOAP to HTTP, allowing SOAP messages to be exchanged using the mechanisms of the World Wide Web.

In addition to fulfilling requirements spelled out in the Working Group charter, SOAP Version 1.2 integrates core XML technologies. SOAP Version 1.2 is designed to work seamlessly with W3C XML schemas, maximizing SOAP's utility with a broad range of XML tools, and paving the way for future work on the WSDL. It also makes use of Namespaces in XML as a flexible and lightweight mechanism for handling XML language mixing.

SOAP Version 1.2 describes a refined processing model, removing ambiguities found in SOAP 1.1. SOAP Version 1.2 includes improved error messages that will help developers to write better applications.

Current participants in the Working Group include: AT&T; BEA Systems; Canon; DaimlerChrysler Research and Technology; Ericsson; Fujitsu Limited; IBM; IONA Technologies; Macromedia; Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.; Microsoft Corporation; Oracle Corporation; SAP AG; SeeBeyond; Software AG; Sun Microsystems; and Systinet.