Chapter 10. Service Advertising and Discovery with UDDI

The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) specifications represent a step beyond simply describing web services. They outline methods by which services can take the initiative to seek out and identify other services with which they want to interact. Relationships ranging from the simply functional to the complete business lifecycle can be established and implemented.

This chapter introduces the basic concepts behind UDDI. The topic is complex enough to warrant its own book, so we encourage you to take the information presented here and use it as a basis for further research.

Unlike the XML, XML Schema, SOAP, and WSDL protocols described previously, the UDDI protocols are potentially hindered by intellectual property issues. While the final words on IP claims have yet to be written, you should be aware that such claims exist. The technologies described in this chapter aren't under consideration as potential Technical Recommendations by the W3C, at least partly for reasons of possible IP encumberment.