Are gateways SOAP intermediaries?

The current definition of a SOAP intermediary says;

  "A SOAP intermediary is both a SOAP receiver and a SOAP sender and is
   targetable from within a SOAP message. It processes the SOAP header
   blocks targeted at it and acts to forward a SOAP message towards an
   ultimate SOAP receiver."

"SOAP message path" is defined as;

  "The set of SOAP nodes through which a single SOAP message passes.
   This includes the initial SOAP sender, zero or more SOAP
   intermediaries, and an ultimate SOAP receiver.

"Ultimate SOAP receiver" includes this in its definition;

  "An ultimate SOAP receiver cannot also be a SOAP intermediary for the
   same SOAP message"

The second definition suggests that the ultimate SOAP receiver cannot
itself be a SOAP intermediary.  The third point explicitly says this,
though with the qualification "for the same SOAP message" (which is
unclear).  But the first, in the first sentence, would seem to include
gateways in its definition, as they meet all three criteria; SOAP
receiver, SOAP sender, targettable.

At this late stage, I'm only going to ask that the specification be
clear about how gateways fit, or don't, as the case may be.

Thanks.

P.S. section 2.1 redefines "SOAP intermediary" in the second sentence of
the first paragraph, differently than in section 1.4.3.  I suggest it be
removed from 2.1.

(speaking only for myself)

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

Received on Friday, 27 September 2002 14:36:14 UTC