The World Wide Web Consortium has published a charter for a Working Group to undertake an activity to standardize a SOAP-like protocol.

Slated for development over the next one and a half years, the working group will address the design of:

• An envelope for encapsulating XML data for messaging
• A convention for using the content of the envelope an RPC mechanism
• A mechanism for serializing data representing non-syntactic data models
• A mechanism for using HTTP as the transport for the XML protocol

The group intends to use SOAP 1.1 as a basis for their work:

The Working Group shall start by developing a requirements document, and then evaluate the technical solutions proposed in the SOAP/1.1 submission against these requirements. If in this process the Working Group finds solutions that are agreed to be improvements over solutions suggested by SOAP 1.1, those improved solutions should be used.

On the point of using HTTP as a transport, the W3C intends to work closely with the IETF: the WG may also work with the IETF's BXXP group. Other liasons will be conducted with the ebXML and RosettaNet initiatives.

The establishment of this activity follows a long period of consultation, both publicly and with W3C members.

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• SOAP 1.1 becomes W3C Note
• W3C advances investigation of XML protocols