RE: Issue 6404 - proposal

Geoff,
  whether or not the WG decides to define a way to retrieve multiple 
dialects at once has nothing to do with the fact that "just the dialects 
defined in MEX" doesn't work as a solution for 6404.  As I said, its an 
arbitrary list, most of them are meaningless, and since it boils down to 
just "wsdl" anyway, people would be better off (and less confused) to just 
asking for the WSDL.  This leaves us with the MEX dialect being unusable 
in any meaningful/interoperable way - hence the original issue and 
proposal - let it be the default and mean "everything I'm allowed to see".

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com



Geoff Bullen <Geoff.Bullen@microsoft.com> 
02/23/2009 01:57 PM

To
Doug Davis/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS
cc
"public-ws-resource-access@w3.org" <public-ws-resource-access@w3.org>, 
"public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org" 
<public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org>
Subject
RE: Issue 6404 - proposal






OK, Doug.  Based on your comments below, we should wait to see your new 
issue and its resolution before moving forwards on this one.
 
From: Doug Davis [mailto:dug@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 6:01 PM
To: Geoff Bullen
Cc: public-ws-resource-access@w3.org; 
public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org
Subject: RE: Issue 6404 - proposal
 

There are two problems with this. If "no dialect" means "everything I can 
see" we'd still need to define a dialect for this - not a big deal but, 
like I said, "no dialect" should just be a short cut for something more 
explicit/verbose. 

But the real issue I have with this is that the definition of the MEX 
dialect is a bit screwy.  First it seems totally arbitrary.  The dialect 
URIs defined in MEX aren't really chosen for any particular reason other 
than they're the list of dialects that the MEX authors just happen to 
choose when they penned the spec.  Not the most thoughtful approach.  As 
proof... what does the "policy" dialect mean?  Policy by itself is 
meaningless.  It needs to be attached to something - like WSDL elements. 
And what about the "policyAttachment" dialect?  What metadata does that 
return?  So, out of the 5 dialects defined in MEX we'd only return 2 - 
wsdl and xsd.  But even then - what schema are we returning? The xsd of 
the resource that would be returned by a Transfer Get()? The xsd of the 
enum items?  The xsd of the events if its an event source? All of these? 
Some of them? This dialect feels a little like a better defined "whateva" 
but still pretty useless since after removing all of the 
meaningless/undefined URIs you're left with just WSDL anyway. 

This however does raise another issue.... should people be forced to 
define a dialect in order to get a bunch of metadata returned?  For a 
moment let's assume we defined MEX to mean "the dialects defined in the 
MEX spec" - this one grouping is now well defined and 'special'.  Sure 
some other spec/profile could do the same thing but since we're talking 
about a bootstrapping mechanism how do I know whether or not the other 
side knows about this new special dialect URI?  It seems we should allow 
for people to define a grouping on the fly and be allowed to specify a 
list of dialect URIs instead of just one.  I think I've mentioned this 
before but I think I'll finally get off my duff and actually open an issue 
this time.  :-)  This would remove the need for a dialect that means "what 
those crazy MEX author's thought was important even though more than half 
of those dialects are meaningless" - which means we can go back to my 
current proposal of having MEX/nodialect == "everything I'm allowed to 
see". 

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com 


Geoff Bullen <Geoff.Bullen@microsoft.com> 
Sent by: public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
02/20/2009 07:23 PM 


To
Doug Davis/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS 
cc
"public-ws-resource-access@w3.org" <public-ws-resource-access@w3.org>, 
"public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org" 
<public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org> 
Subject
RE: Issue 6404 - proposal
 








Doug, 
Trying to use your words to describe the two cases we propose, I get the 
following: 
1.      ?no dialect? = "everything I'm allowed to see" 
2.      ?MEX dialect? = just the dialects defined in MEX 
This way point 2 remains the same definition as it is now.  It allows a 
client to return only the MEX dialects if required (rather than all of 
them), which can be a useful subset grouping.  Point 1 allows the client 
to return all dialects (including app specific ones).  If there are no 
application dialects then point 1 and point 2 will return the same thing. 
Does that make sense? 
--Geoff 
  
  
From: Doug Davis [mailto:dug@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 5:13 PM
To: Geoff Bullen
Cc: public-ws-resource-access@w3.org; 
public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org
Subject: RE: Issue 6404 - proposal 
  

I think "no dialect" should be a shorthand for something and that 
'something' needs to be some dialect.  We can change it from the 'mex' 
dialect to something else, but since we're talking about a bootstrapping 
situation where we (as a client) are talking to a bit of an unknown entity 
(which is why we're using mex in the first place), having the value of "no 
dialect" be something random doesn't sound like an interoperable solution 
- we'd be back to the 'whateva' case - which we determined is pretty 
useless.  I don't see any reason not to have "no dialect" == "the mex 
dialect" and have the mex dialect mean "everything I'm allowed to see". 

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com 

Geoff Bullen <Geoff.Bullen@microsoft.com> 
Sent by: public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
02/16/2009 05:26 PM 
 


To
Doug Davis/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS 
cc
"public-ws-resource-access@w3.org" <public-ws-resource-access@w3.org>, 
"public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org" 
<public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org> 
Subject
RE: Issue 6404 - proposal

 
 









Hi Doug, 
Our intent is slightly different here.  We would prefer that returning 
metadata associated with the dialect: 
 
[Body]/mex:GetMetadata/mex:Dialect=http://www.w3.org/2009/02/ws-mex 
 
remain consistent and ONLY ever return metadata associated with dialects 
defined in the MEX specification. 
 
The changes we suggest would only apply to the default case where no 
dialect is specified. 
In this case it would normally return the same as above, unless it has 
been redefined by a profile to return something else, including Profile 
specific metadata dialects. 
 
Does that makes sense? 
--Geoff 
 
 
From: Doug Davis [mailto:dug@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:48 AM
To: Geoff Bullen
Cc: public-ws-resource-access@w3.org; 
public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org
Subject: RE: Issue 6404 - proposal 
 

Geoff, 
Actually, the "default value" doesn't change - its the meaning of the MEX 
dialect, no? 
So, we really should be tweaking the other paragraph - the one starting 
with "barring...".  And doesn't that cover the possibility of someone else 
further constraining it? 

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com 

Geoff Bullen <Geoff.Bullen@microsoft.com> 
Sent by: public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
02/10/2009 02:41 PM 
 
 


To
Doug Davis/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS, "public-ws-resource-access@w3.org" 
<public-ws-resource-access@w3.org> 
cc

Subject
RE: Issue 6404 - proposal


 
 
 









Doug, 
It does not appear that the wording: 

?When this element is not present, the implied value is the MEX dialect.? 

correctly expresses the sentiment that we agreed too earlier.  Can we 
suggest using something more like: 

?When this element is not present, the implied value is the MEX dialect. 
However, the actual value may be defined by communities within the context 
of particular application domains and could include application specific 
metadata.? 

--Geoff 


From: public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
[mailto:public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Doug Davis
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 5:49 PM
To: public-ws-resource-access@w3.org
Subject: Re: Issue 6404 - proposal 


Resending since the html doesn't show up in the archives. 

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com 

__________________ 

With no more chatter on this one... here's my proposal: 

Define the absence of a Dialect to mean the MEX dialect - something like: 
[Body]/mex:GetMetadata/mex:Dialect 
   When this element is present, the response MUST include only Metadata 
Sections with the indicated dialect; if the receiver does not have any 
Metadata Sections of the indicated dialect, the response MUST include zero 
Metadata Sections. When this element is not present, the implied value is 
the MEX dialect.   
<delete> there is no implied value and so the response may include 
Metadata Sections with any dialect. </delete> 

And define the MEX dialect - add the following after the above text: 
[Body]/mex:GetMetadata/mex:Dialect="http://www.w3.org/2009/02/ws-mex" 
   Barring some additional constraints, not defined by this specification, 
specifying the MEX dialect in a GetMetadata request message means that the 
service SHOULD return all available metadata formats that this client is 
allowed to retrieve. 

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com 

Doug Davis/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS 
Sent by: public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
01/29/2009 10:11 PM 
 
 
 


To
Geoff Bullen <Geoff.Bullen@microsoft.com> 
cc
"public-ws-resource-access@w3.org" <public-ws-resource-access@w3.org>, 
public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
Subject
Re: Issue 6404 - use of "whatever"


 
 
 
 










Along those line, it would seem that saying something like "barring some 
negotiation, the absence of a Dialect value is equivalent tousing  the MEX 
dialect".  Gives the freedom for someone to profile it later - but 
otherwise we make sure "null" is well defined. 

thanks
-Doug
______________________________________________________
STSM |  Standards Architect  |  IBM Software Group
(919) 254-6905  |  IBM 444-6905  |  dug@us.ibm.com 

Geoff Bullen <Geoff.Bullen@microsoft.com> 
Sent by: public-ws-resource-access-request@w3.org 
01/29/2009 09:06 PM 
 
 
 
 


To
"public-ws-resource-access@w3.org" <public-ws-resource-access@w3.org> 
cc

Subject
Issue 6404 - use of "whatever"

 
 
 
 










This issue is about defining the MEX dialect and defining what gets 
returned. 

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=6404 

In particular, I was asked to provide an example of why it might be 
useful, in the case where no dialect is specified in the GetMetadata 
request, for the service itself to be able to decide what it would return 
(the so-called ?whatever? case).  The other option would be for this case 
to return all MEX sections. 

The best example I can provide for the ?whatever? case is this: 

If the MEX specification gets ?profiled? for a specific purpose, it would 
be very useful to allow the profile to be able to specify what metadata is 
to be returned in this default case (especially the non-MEX defined 
metadata sections).  If you do not do this then each profile would have to 
define some separate dialect to mean ?give me all the metadata within my 
profile?.  Thus the default case gives you an over-loadable definition of 
?all? or perhaps ?normal?, which can include non-MEX defined sections. 

In a typical profiled case: 
Nothing = ?return all metadata within my profile? 
MEX = ?return all MEX dialects? 

If it is not a profiled implementation, the spec could be recommend that 
the implementation return: 
Nothing = MEX = ?return all MEX dialects? 
 

Received on Monday, 23 February 2009 20:47:03 UTC