"The tangible results will be that vendors will actually build solutions according to those profiles," with users assured that the systems will work together, Bechauf said.

Basic Profile 1.2 is the revision of the Basic Profile 1.1, which offers guidance on basic interoperability of the Web services stack. Version 1.2 incorporates errata and includes requirements pertaining to serialization of Web services envelopes and their representation in messages from the WS-I Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0.

The new profile was constructed mostly using WS-Addressing, which defines a standard mechanism for identifying and exchanging Web services messages between endpoints. Specifications incorporated into Basic Profile 1.2 include Core, SOAP Binding, and WSDL Binding specifications pertinent to WS-Addressing 1.0.

Comments on Basic Profile may be e-mailed here: wsbasic_comment@ws-i.org

WS-I Basic Profiles make life easier for developers by focusing on what they need to know to make Web services work, said analyst Anne Thomas Manes, vice president and research director at Burton Group.