WS-EventDescriptions: need for an easy way to locate and retrieve event description files

Hi,

I'm a member of the OASIS SCA Assembly TC [1] and we are working on the 
next version of the SCA Assembly model which includes event processing 
[2]. The TC has currently defined an event description language that is 
very close to WS-EventDescriptions [3]. There seems to a general 
consensus in the TC (although, it should be noted that I'm *not* 
speaking for the TC, but only as a TC member) to try and reuse the 
WS-EventDescriptions spec in the SCA Assembly spec. There is already an 
issue [4] filed against the SCA Assembly spec for this. To that end I 
have two comments/feedback:

1) The WS-EventDescriptions spec does not specify/recommend/encourage 
any specific file extension for event descriptions. Without an agreed 
upon extension, the event descriptions could potentially be specified in 
an .xml file. That means when trying to find the definition for a QName 
of an event type, one would have to potentially go through all the .xml 
files (which can be very large) within one's scope of resolution to see 
which one contains event descriptions. This is a potential problem for 
the SCA Assembly spec [2] and other specifications/applications that may 
want to reuse event descriptions. A standard extension, for example, 
.evd, would also help wrt associating event description files with tools 
that work with those files. For example, appropriate editors.

2) The WS-EventDescriptions spec recommends the use of 
WS-MetadataExchange and WS-Policy for retrieving event description. This 
might be appropriate for applications that already use those 
specifications, but is an unnecessary burden for applications and 
specifications (such as SCA) that do not require Mex or WS-Policy. An 
additional mechanism similar to something like 
schemaLocation/wsdlLocation would be more useful, simpler, and would 
promote reuse of WS-EventDescriptions.

Thanks and regards.

-Anish
--


[1] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=sca-assembly
[2] 
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/36509/sca-assembly-1.2-spec-wd01.pdf
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-ws-event-descriptions-20100330/
[4] http://osoa.org/jira/browse/ASSEMBLY-245

Received on Tuesday, 16 November 2010 20:23:12 UTC