A priori; the big secret

I'm having a really bad day today, so I thought I'd try to liven it up
by describing the interface that I had in mind for the recently accepted
draft requirement that I proposed about "a priori".

In order to build the most general interface, we need to look at what
things are common about *all* Web services.  Here's a rough list;

- each is identifiable by a URI (or at least that's what our working
definition says).
- each will have a lifetime; at some point it will be created, and some
will eventually disappear.
- each will have state, if you count the "null" state for stateless
services
- each should be able to be restricted to authorized users.
- sometimes, a Web service might have to relocate
- sometimes, by mistake or intent, a Web service might just not be there

So, here's my stab at the methods and responses.

Proposed methods;

- GET() - used to return a representation of the identity and state of
the Web service.  For example, a GET on a Web service that controls a
lightbulb might return an XML document describing whether the lightbulb
is on or off; <lightbulb state="on"/>
- PUT() - used to set the state of a Web service.  For example, we could
change the lightbulb document, and then PUT() it back, thereby turning
the lightbulb off; <lightbulb state="off"/>
- POST() - used to hand a document to a Web service for processing.
Only the Web service gets to decide what to do with the document.
- DELETE() - requests that the Web service be deleted.  It doesn't have
to delete itself if it doesn't want to.

Faults
- unauthorized - you aren't yet authorized, but here's what you have to
know in order to be.  Fill it in and respond back.
- forbidden - sorry, you're not allowed
- not found - sorry, can't find this Web service
- relocated temporarily - for now, please use this other Web service,
but keep checking back here
- relocated permanently - please use this new Web service, and you might
as well forget about the URI you used to get here, since it ain't coming
back
- gone - sorry, this Web service has been removed

Hopefully you now understand why I'm such a big fan of HTTP and Web
architecture.

MB
-- 
Mark Baker, CTO, Idokorro Mobile (formerly Planetfred)
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.               distobj@acm.org
http://www.markbaker.ca        http://www.idokorro.com

Received on Wednesday, 22 May 2002 14:26:16 UTC