Glossary: W

Web services
A mechanism for the retrieval of knowledge assets, independent of any particular usage or display purpose. Web services are a platform-agnostic form of protocols such as DCOM and CORBA, allowing heterogeneous networks to leverage knowledge assets across the enterprise.

WebSphere
IBM’s Web server software. A Java-based platform, designed to run on many different operating systems.

W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium. An independent group, made up of representatives from many different industries, which defines the standards for the exchange of information over the Internet.

WSDL
Web Services Description Language. An XML grammar that allows XML documents to define the interfaces to an XML Web service. Note the difference between WSDL and SOAP: WSDL defines the interface, while a SOAP message provides an actual instance of a request or a response that conforms to the WSDL specification for that service.

XML
eXtensible Markup Language. A way of representing structured information in a serialized way (using tags to define structure). All of the components of XML Web services, from the WSDL documents used to define the interfaces to the SOAP messages used to request, and respond to, service calls, are defined as XML documents.

XML Schema
An XML grammar defined by the W3C that defines the allowable content of an XML document. It includes such features as strong typing support and null value support. All of the specialized grammars used in XML Web service calls, such as SOAP and WSDL, are defined by an XML Schema document.