Web services interface policy constraints may be specified in a policy
constraints language and policy processing, such as generating an
intersection policy of two policies may be automated by a
policy-processing engine. A policy constraint may be a specification of a
value, range of values, or set of values that a particular requirement or
offering is allowed to have. Hierarchies of requirements and/or offerings
may also be expressed and matched such that a more specific case of a
requirement or offering may be matched against a more general case of the
same requirement or offering. Also, preferences among vocabulary items,
vocabulary item values, policy constraints, and other elements of a
policy may be specified and automatically determined by a
policy-processing engine. Automated matching of consumer requirements
against provider offerings may allow a policy-processing engine to
process policies with specifications of requirements or offerings from
any domain-specific schema.