Issue - 47 - Which Version of WSDL should we use?

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Issue - 47 - Which Version of WSDL should we use?
Status: open

Date added: 8 Aug 2003

Submitter: Liu, Kevin

Date submitted: 07 August 2003

Document: Specification

Description: The BPEL4WS 1.1 draft uses WSDL1.1. Given the time the draft was 
created, it's very reasonable that WSDL1.1 was used.  As time elapses and 
WSDL1.2 is about to emerge, it may be the time for us to reconsider which 
version of WSDL should BPEL 1.2 (or whatever number we choose to version 
our deliverable) be based on. The decision may have significant impact on 
our workload and maybe schedule.

WSDL1.2 is still under construction, but it's already obvious that 
some key changes will be made to the core WSDL language. For example, 
portType will be called "interface", support for interface inheritance 
(sort of) will be added, and most importantly for BPEL, the message 
construct will most likely be removed (the W3C web services description 
WG has just reached consensus in its F2F last week that). Hopefully the 
public will have access to a relatively stable draft by November as 
the W3C group is targeting to produce a last call draft by then.

We are facing a timing issue here. Our charter gives us 9 months to 
produce a TC draft. Let's assume that we will get the job done on 
time, and we will have a new version of BPEL delivered in February 2004. 
Though nobody can tell for sure at this point of time, but it's likely 
that WSDL1.2 (at least part 1 for the core language) may be released in 
about the same time frame, if not earlier.   If we will not be able to 
meet our deadline in February, WSDL1.2 may already been there for a 
little while when we do our release. 

I would like suggest that the TC consider to:

1. Assess the necessity for establishing a form liaison with the W3C 
WSD working group to coordinate schedules and get updates on key 
feature changes

2. Assess the impact of relevant WSDL changes on BPEL 

Changes: 8 Aug 2003 - new issue

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