List of web service specifications

There are a variety of specifications associated with web services. These specifications are in varying degrees of maturity and are maintained or supported by various standards bodies and entities. These specifications are the basic web services framework established by first-generation standards represented by WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI. Specifications may complement, overlap, and compete with each other. Web service specifications are occasionally referred to collectively as "WS-*", though there is not a single managed set of specifications that this consistently refers to, nor a recognized owning body across them all.

Web service standards listings
These sites contain documents and links about the different Web services standards identified on this page.
 * IBM Developerworks: Standard and Web Service
 * innoQ's WS-Standard Overview
 * MSDN .NET Developer Centre: Web Service Specification Index Page
 * OASIS Standards and Other Approved Work
 * Open Grid Forum Final Document
 * XML CoverPage
 * W3C's Web Services Activity

XML specification

 * XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
 * XML Namespaces
 * XML Schema
 * XPath
 * XQuery
 * XML Information Set
 * XInclude
 * XML Pointer

Messaging specification

 * SOAP (formerly known as Simple Object Access Protocol)
 * SOAP-over-UDP
 * SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism
 * WS-Notification
 * WS-BaseNotification
 * WS-Topics
 * WS-BrokeredNotification
 * WS-Addressing
 * WS-Transfer
 * WS-Eventing
 * WS-Enumeration
 * WS-MakeConnection

Metadata exchange specification

 * JSON-WSP
 * WS-Policy
 * WS-PolicyAssertions
 * WS-PolicyAttachment
 * WS-Discovery
 * WS-Inspection
 * WS-MetadataExchange
 * Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI)
 * WSDL 2.0 Core
 * WSDL 2.0 SOAP Binding
 * Web Services Semantics (WSDL-S)
 * WS-Resource Framework (WSRF)

Security specification

 * WS-Security
 * XML Signature
 * XML Encryption
 * XML Key Management (XKMS)
 * WS-SecureConversation
 * WS-SecurityPolicy
 * WS-Trust
 * WS-Federation
 * WS-Federation Active Requestor Profile
 * WS-Federation Passive Requestor Profile
 * Web Services Security Kerberos Binding
 * Web Single Sign-On Interoperability Profile
 * Web Single Sign-On Metadata Exchange Protocol
 * Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
 * XACML

Privacy

 * P3P

Reliable messaging specifications

 * WS-ReliableMessaging
 * WS-Reliability
 * WS-RM Policy Assertion

Resource specifications

 * Web Services Resource Framework
 * WS-Resource
 * WS-BaseFaults
 * WS-ServiceGroup
 * WS-ResourceProperties
 * WS-ResourceLifetime
 * WS-Transfer
 * WS-Fragment
 * Resource Representation SOAP Header Block

Web services interoperability (WS-I) specification
These specifications provide additional information to improve interoperability between vendor implementations.
 * WS-I Basic Profile
 * WS-I Basic Security Profile
 * Simple Soap Binding Profile

Business process specifications

 * WS-BPEL
 * WS-CDL
 * Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI)
 * WS-Choreography
 * XML Process Definition Language
 * Web Services Conversation Language (WSCL)

Transaction specifications

 * WS-BusinessActivity
 * WS-AtomicTransaction
 * WS-Coordination
 * WS-CAF
 * WS-Transaction
 * WS-Context
 * WS-CF
 * WS-TXM

Management specifications

 * WS-Management
 * WS-Management Catalog
 * WS-ResourceTransfer
 * WSDM

Presentation-oriented specification

 * Web Services for Remote Portlets

Draft specifications

 * WS-Provisioning – Describes the APIs and schemas necessary to facilitate interoperability between provisioning systems in a consistent manner using Web services

Other

 * Devices Profile for Web Services (DPWS)
 * ebXML

Standardization

 * ISO/IEC 19784-2:2007 Information technology -- Biometric application programming interface -- Part 2: Biometric archive function provider interface
 * ISO 19133:2005 Geographic information -- Location-based services -- Tracking and navigation
 * ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 Information technology -- Service management -- Part 1: Specification
 * ISO/IEC 20000-2:2005 Information technology -- Service management -- Part 2: Code of practice
 * ISO/IEC 24824-2:2006 Information technology -- Generic applications of ASN.1: Fast Web Services
 * ISO/IEC 25437:2006 Information technology -- Telecommunications and information exchange between systems -- WS-Session -- Web Services for Application Session Services