Call for Experts: JSR-147 (Workspace Versioning and Configuration Management)

The Executive Commitee of the Java Community Process (www.jcp.org)
has recently approved the Java Specification Request,
JSR-147: "Workspace Versioning and Configuration Management".
The purpose of this specification is to provide a client-side
Java library for using DeltaV/WebDAV to communicate with a
versioning server.

The full text of this JSR, as well as instructions for volunteering
for the Expert Group for this JSR, can be found at 
<http://www.jcp.org/jsr/detail/147.jsp>.

The "expert group" is similar in function to an IETF design team.
Note that you must be a member of the JCP in order to serve as an
expert, which basically requires you to send in annual dues and sign
an agreement about public usage of your submissions to the JCP
(details at http://www.jcp.org).

I encourage anyone with expertise in DeltaV or Java (preferably both)
to volunteer for this effort.  The expert team will be selected by the
end of September (9/30/01).

I've appended a description of JSR-147 to this message.

Cheers,
Geoff

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JSR-147: Workspace Versioning and Configuration Management

Collaborative authoring tools, including tools targeted for software
development, document management, and web content management, need
access to a variety of services for versioning and configuration
management of the files and web resources being created and
modified. The DeltaV protocol (which is an extension to the WebDAV
protocol, which itself is an extension of the HTTP/1.1 protocol)
provides a standard protocol for versioning and configuration
management of web resources. The DeltaV protocol is the result of a
three-year collaborative effort by a wide range of participants from
the open source community, academics, and industry (e.g. IBM, Oracle,
Merant, Microsoft, Rational). But this protocol has the following
problems when used by a client:

- The client often needs to maintain copies of the web resources in
  the client file system (e.g. for disconnected use and performance
  improvement). Unless clients agree on how that local file system
  state is maintained, it is impossible for multiple clients to
  maintain correct local file system state.

- DeltaV (since it is a client-server protocol) provides no standard
  mechanism for requesting information from the user to complete a
  requested operation.

- There is a large amount of boilerplate coding required to generate
  and receive HTTP messages. It is far simpler and less error prone
  for a client application to simply invoke Java routines.

- There are two significantly different variants of the DeltaV
  protocol: the client-workspace package and the server-workspace
  package.  From a client's perspective, these two packages provide the
  same functionality, and only differ by whether or not persistent state
  is maintained on the client.

This specification will address these problems by defining a client
side library that will expose the full DeltaV functionality and will
use the DeltaV protocol to communicate with a server, but will:

- automatically provide client-side file maintenance required by any
  DeltaV operation

- define GUI callbacks for requesting from the user any information
  required to complete an operation

- generate the DeltaV messages and parse the DeltaV responses

- hide the distinction between a client workspace and a server
  workspace in the client side library implementation, so that a user of
  the library is presented with a single uniform workspace interface.

Received on Tuesday, 11 September 2001 13:41:38 UTC