IBM Updates Web Services Software Developer Kit

IBM

IBM also said Tuesday it will donate the source code for two Web services technologies to the Apache Software Foundation.

The WebSphere Software Developer Kit (SDK) for Web Services will be available Thursday free on IBM's developerWorks site, www.ibm.com/developerworks, said Scott Hebner, director of WebSphere product marketing for IBM.

In addition to the inclusion of a lightweight app server, an SQL database and UDDI registry in the SDK, the new product also contains the latest Web services APIs and additional samples and design patterns to help developers build Web services, said Hebner.

The new version of the SDK also will be the basis for interoperability profiles the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) will use to ensure Java-based Web services will be standardized across the industry, said Hebner.

"We are delivering a reference platform for building Web services within a Java environment," said Hebner. "If you choose to go down the Java road [for Web services, this is an SDK that lets you get involved very easily."

The two technologies IBM is donating to Apache are the Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF) and the Web Services Inspection Language for Java (WSIL4J).

WSIF enables developers to create Web services that are independent of network protocol, said Hebner. WSIL4J, which IBM has been working on with Microsoft, enables developers to identify and inspect Web services that are not in a UDDI repository, he said.