There are a variety of specifications associated with web services. These specifications are in varying degrees of maturity and are maintained or supported by various standards bodies and entities. These specifications are the basic web services framework established by first-generation standards represented by WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI. Specifications may complement, overlap, and compete with each other. Web service specifications are occasionally referred to collectively as "WS-*", though there is not a single managed set of specifications that this consistently refers to, nor a recognized owning body across them all.

Web service standards listings

These sites contain documents and links about the different Web services standards identified on this page.

XML specification

Messaging specification

Metadata exchange specification

Security specification

Privacy

Reliable messaging specifications

Resource specifications

Web services interoperability (WS-I) specification

These specifications provide additional information to improve interoperability between vendor implementations.

Business process specifications

Transaction specifications

Management specifications

Presentation-oriented specification

Draft specifications

Other

Standardization