Patent ID: 8549474

Claim:
A Web services framework comprising: an application program interface (API) for processing WS-Policy expressions, the API to provide a common interface for one or more WS-Policy classes; one or more Web Service Policy expressions stored in an array, the array stored in at least one hardware device, the WS-Policy classes further comprising: an all operator class to define policy assertions having an <wsp:all> operator; an exactly one operator class to define policy assertions having an <wsp:ExactlyOne> operator; an assertion class of one or more functions including: retrieving a nested policy element from the array; retrieving an assertion from an element of the array; creating an element in the array and its properties; editing an element in the array and its properties; and removing an element in the array and its properties; and a policy class of one or more functions including: normalizing a policy; retrieving a policy element from a document object model (DOM); merging policies; and intersecting policies; and a protocol for processing messages in accordance with one or more of the Web Services Policy expressions and configured to enable an instance of the protocol to process a plurality of message pairs in a non-serial manner.