Web Services Atomic Transaction for WebSphere Application Server

A technology preview that enables Web service applications, and the resources they use, to take part in distributed global transactions by implementing the WS-AT and WS-COOR specifications on WebSphere Application Server.

Date Posted: October 23, 2003

Overview Requirements Download FAQs Forum Reviews 1. What are the Web Service Atomic Transaction (WS-AT) and the Web Service Coordination (WS-COOR) specifications? 2. Why do I need to use WS-AT? 3. What modifications does my application need in order to take advantage of WS-AT? 4. Does this technical preview interoperate with Microsoft's .NET environment? 5. Who will be interested in this technology? 6. What if I'm using XA resources in my Web service application? 1. What are the Web Service Atomic Transaction (WS-AT) and the Web Service Coordination (WS-COOR) specifications? These two specifications define a set of Web services that enable Web service applications to participate in global transactions distributed across the heterogeneous Web service environment. WS-COOR specifies a CoordinationContext and a Registration service with which participant Web services may enlist to take part in the protocols offered by specific coordination types. WS-AT is a specific coordination type that defines protocols for atomic transactions. Further information is available at this Web site. Back to top 2. Why do I need to use WS-AT? WS-AT provides the ability for your Web service applications to participate in global transactions. It maintains the atomic, consistent, isolated, and durable properties of the data your applications use and your business relies upon. Back to top 3. What modifications does my application need in order to take advantage of WS-AT? None at all. Not only are there no coding requirements for existing Web service applications, there is no need to redeploy them. Note: The transactional quality of service for Web Service applications is not enabled by default. Web service applications do not take advantage of the WS-AT support until WS-AT for WAS is enabled on the host server (see installation instructions). Back to top 4. Does this technical preview interoperate with Microsoft's .NET environment? Yes it does. IBM and Microsoft performed a live demonstration featuring, among other things, interoperation of their WS-AT implementations running on WebSphere and .NET respectively. Further information is available here. Back to top 5. Who will be interested in this technology? Anyone who wants his Web service applications to participate in global transactions, as well as anyone looking to connect disparate systems in a transacted manner and who is looking at Web services to facilitate this. Back to top 6. What if I'm using XA resources in my Web service application? No problem; in fact, you may well need WS-AT for WAS. Simply let WS-AT for WAS take care of distributing the transaction between your Web service applications, while the J2EE programming model takes care of registering the XA resources with the transaction. Back to top