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<td><b><font size=+2>Introduction</font></b></td>
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<p>NEWS (June 16, 2003) : Axis <a href="./axis/download.cgi">1.1 
  Final </a> is now available (read the <a href="http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs/%7Echeckout%7E/ws-axis/java/release-notes.html">release 
  notes</a>)! 
<hr>
<p>Apache Axis is an implementation of the SOAP ("Simple Object Access
Protocol") <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP" target="_top">submission</a>
to W3C.
<p>From the draft W3C specification:
<blockquote>SOAP is a lightweight protocol for exchange of information
in a decentralized, distributed environment. It is an XML based protocol
that consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for
describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding
rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes, and a
convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses.</blockquote>
This project is a follow-on to the <a href="./soap" target="_top">Apache
SOAP project</a>.
<p>Please see the <a href="ref.html">Reference Library</a> for a list of
technical resources that should prove useful.
<p>The latest list of <a href="http://cvs.apache.org/viewcvs/%7Echeckout%7E/ws-axis/java/docs/requirements.html?content-type=text/html">requirements</a> 
  is also available. 
<hr>
<h3>Rationale for Releasing Axis 1.0</h3>

Many users have requested a v1.0 so that they can work from a relatively
stable base. Some users have even remained on Apache SOAP until v1.0 of
Axis is available. Now Axis has surpassed Apache SOAP in function,
performance, and interoperability and, in particular, has passed Sun's 
JAX-RPC and SAAJ compliance tests, we decided to ship v1.0 as it 
currently stands.
<p>
However, this is far from the end of the road for Axis: there is more
documentation to be written; the SOAP v1.2 spec. needs to be tracked to
completion and implemented fully; major functional enhancements and
architectural improvements are being considered. We particularly encourage
you to submit improvements to the documentation, however large or small and
in any format, to axis-dev@ws.apache.org. Also, interoperability
is always a concern, so please report all <i>replicatable</i> bugs.

<p>
The Axis Development Team
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