Get an Overview of the GXA Specifications

GXA is an umbrella for several new specifications, including WS-Routing, WS-Referral, WS-Transaction, and WS-Security. A summary of these four specifications' key aspects can help you determine which ones are relevant to your development projects.

WS-Routing

  • Provides a structure to describe a message path
  • Defines how to represent the message path from original sender forward to final recipient, and from final recipient back to original sender
  • Doesn't require forward and reverse path to be identical
  • Specifies that intermediaries can route messages dynamically and insert additional intermediaries in the path dynamically as appropriate
  • Specifies that transport protocols used between servers can vary between any two connected points

WS-Referral

  • Defines how to alter a message's path based on if…then type rules
  • Defines how to refer a message to an intermediary based on these rules
  • Defines the syntax for SOAP routers to initiate and respond to other intermediaries' queries of these rules
  • Defines elements that identify when a referral is "stale" or is invalidated

WS-Transaction

  • Supports two types of transactions—Atomic Transactions (ATs) and Business Activities (BAs)
  • ATs are all-or-nothing, with rollback on failure
  • BAs commit actions immediately, with fault messages on failure
  • ATs allow participants to register for a number of coordination protocols that provide notifications to the registered participants at different points
  • BAs support protocols that inform participants when each of their tasks in a transaction is complete, or send notification when they've completed all their required tasks

WS-Security

  • Primary goals are to protect messages from interception or illegal modification, and to ensure specified caller has the privileges to make the request
  • Provides end-to-end message-level security (unlike traditional SSL implementations that provide security for the transport only)
  • Provides support for multiple security tokens, multiple trust domains, and multiple encryption technologies
  • Tokens can be unsecured (username, password) or secure (X509, Kerberos)
  • Headers and message body can be signed digitally