WS-CAF

Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) is an open framework developed by OASIS. Its purpose is to define a generic and open framework for applications that contain multiple services used together, which are sometimes referred to as composite applications. WS-CAF characteristics include interoperability, ease of implementation and ease of use.

Scope
The scope of WS-CAF includes:


 * Provision of WSDL definitions for context, coordination and transactions.
 * Message formats will be specified as SOAP headers and/or body content.
 * The specification is to be programming language-neutral and platform-neutral.
 * Demonstrated composability with other Web Service specifications that are being developed as open, recognized standards
 * The goals of promoting convergence, consistent use, and a coherent architecture.
 * Support composability as a critical architectural characteristic of Web service specifications. WS-CAF and WS-Context are targeted to become building blocks for other Web service specifications and standards.

Input specifications
The WS-CAF accepts the following Web services specifications as input:


 * WS-Context
 * WS-Coordination Framework (WS-CF)
 * WS-Transaction Management (WS-TXM)

Benefits
The benefits and results of CAF are intended to be standard and interoperable ways to:


 * Demarcate and coordinate web service activities
 * Propagate and coordinate context information
 * Notify participants of changes in an activity
 * Define the relationship of coordinators to each other
 * Recover transactions predictably and consistently in a business process execution.
 * Interact across multiple transaction models (such as are used in CORBA, CICS, Enterprise JavaBeans or .NET environments).