WS-Policy is a model and syntax you can use to communicate the policies associated with a web service. Policies describe the requirements, preferences, or capabilities of a web service. You attach a policy to a policy subject, for example, a service, endpoint, operation, or message. After attaching a policy to a policy subject, the policy subject becomes governed by that policy.

webMethods Integration Server provides support for Web Services Policy Framework (WS-Policy) Version 1.2.

In Integration Server, a policy is specified using policy expressions in an XML file called a WS-Policy file (more simply called policy file). Integration Server comes with some policy files out of the box. Additionally, you can also create policy files. For more information, see Web Services Developer’s Guide.

To have a web service governed by the policy in a WS-Policy file, you attach the policy to the web service descriptor. You can attach WS-Policies at the binding operation message type level, such as input, output, and fault, in a web service descriptor.