An abbreviation for internationalization, used in the context of preparing products, especially software and documentation, for use in more than one national locale and language.

The message being processed by the processors in the route.

A message passed from a service consumer to a service. When mapped into Java, the parts of an input message are mapped into a method's parameter list. Input messages are defined using the input element in a WSDL document.

See Also request-response operation, solicit-response operation, one-way operation.

The external touch point between applications to collaborate or share functional behavior. Interfaces are completely described by the combination of logical and physical portions of a WSDL document.

Once defined in a contract, an interface is the abstract boundary that a service exposes. A service's interface is the set of message types and message exchange patterns through which service consumers can interact with that service. In a WSDL 1.0 document, interfaces are defined using the portType element.

A service whose main role is to process all received messages in a value-added way, such as converting them from one data format to another, or routing them to another service. An intermediary has characteristics of both a service provider and a service consumer. Most intermediaries have an intermediary contract, which is similar in form to a service contract, except that it includes rules for processing messages.