Issue i020, subissue iv

I took an action to start a discussion on issue 020, subissue iv [1] . 
This email fulfills that action item. Subissue 020 states:

"WS-Addressing talks about an Endpoint Reference, but does not say what
an endpoint is. So what does an EPR refer to? WSDL also has the concept
of an endpoint. What is the difference between the two, if any."

WS-Addressing Core [2] states:

"A Web service endpoint is a (referenceable) entity, processor, or 
resource to which Web service messages can be addressed."

WSDL 2.0 also defines a component called Endpoint [3] which is scoped to 
a specific service. It defines the details of a specific endpoint at 
which a particular service is available.

Clearly (at least to me), there are instances where they mean the same 
thing, but it is also possible that they mean quite different things. 
For example, an EPR may contain the value of [address] which is a URN 
and also contains a [service endpoint] (without a designated port). Such 
a [service endpoint] may in fact contain multiple ports (or WSDL 2.0 
endpoints). Such an EPR would not be confined to a single WSDL 2.0 endpoint.

Given that most folks who read WSDL 2.0 will also read WS-Addressing 
(and vice versa), the use of the same term with different meaning is a 
source of confusion. I would like to suggest that we add wordings that 
point out that an endpoint component in WSDL 2.0 and an endpoint that is 
referenced by an EPR can be different beasts.

Comments?

-Anish
--

[1] http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/addr/wd-issues/#i020
[2] http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/2004/ws/addressing/ws-addr-core.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-wsdl20-20040803/#Endpoint

Received on Monday, 7 February 2005 07:13:35 UTC