WSO2 Tungsten

WSO2 Tungsten 1.0 has been released by WSO2 (well okay, duh). It's an open-source ESB-like thing that bundles an impressive range of WS-* standards from Apache (of which WSO2 are contributors) as well as AXIS2 tools, but that's about it. Samples are unimpressive (java Stocktrader client) - this was stereotypical example around 2001 and their ilk.

When I first heard of Apache Synapse what seems like years ago, I was kind of interested. The JBI spec was just about to come out with the 1.0 version. JBI is good for tool / runtime vendors like Cape Clear (where I work) cos it provides a standard platform for developing the bits and pieces of an ESB/Web Services stack - much like Eclipse does and J2EE patently didn't. Pity JBI isn't quite there, but I have faith that it will get there once JAX-WS and JBI can align themselves so they play nicely together (hurry up and align the Normalized Message format!). What JBI patently doesn't do is say anything about the non-Java world. Sure you can bundle other service languages like BPEL inside Service Engines, but that's so long as they are implemented in Java. Nor does it say anything beyond a single server (it's a single host model). This is why SCA (Service Component Assembly) is so much more interesting.

Anyway initially the teasingly scant information about Apache Synapse published when it was first announced eons ago did initially hold out some hope of producing a open-source Web Services Stack at the O.S. platform level (if you closed your eyes and squinted real hard). Imagine, a standard Web Services stack on say a Linux platform, where WS-Reliability and WS-Security (cos they are the useful WS-* at the moment) as well as standard WS-Addressing compatible transports (Email, JMS, etc, etc) were available for any interested component in any language to register with and use. Imagine being able to register a component with a platform level version of a JBI-style NMR, via of course Web Services. You could then truly have an interesting platform-level stack, rather than a Java-only WS stack. Clearly my imagination got the better of me. Anyway JBI came out, then ServiceMix and everyone forgot about WSO2/Apache Synapse.

So now it's back and well - it's not very exciting at all. Should we care? No. It's way too basic. The WS-* stack has quickly become a commodity and this is just illustrates why the game has moved out of the plumbing. That apache is producing good WS-* implementations is good news for everyone. That WSO2 Tungsten does little more than bundle them together is uninteresting.