Web Services Internationalization (WS-I18N)

This document (hereafter referred to as "WS-I18N") describes enhancements to SOAP messaging to provide internationalized and localized operations using locale and international preferences. These mechanisms can be used to accommodate a wide variety of development models for international usage. By itself, WS-I18N does not ensure internationalized operation or that localized operation will occur nor does it provide a complete internationalization solution. WS-I18N is a building block that is used in conjunction with other Web services and application-specific protocols, and which can accommodate a wide variety of locale and international support models. Implementing this specification does not by itself enable international functionality in a Web services interaction, but it does provide a framework for globalization that enabled products can leverage, as well as a way for enabled products to interact with systems that are not enabled.