[Bug 3721] New Attribute keyword to identify 'local' policies

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=3721

           Summary: New Attribute keyword to identify 'local' policies
           Product: WS-Policy
           Version: FPWD
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Framework
        AssignedTo: william.henry@iona.com
        ReportedBy: william.henry@iona.com
         QAContact: public-ws-policy-qa@w3.org


Title: New Attribute keyword to identify 'local' policies

Justificaiton:
As WS-Policy becomes more popular in use, policies not related to
consumer/provider interaction are being defined by implementors. e.g. a
provider processes use of caching data, or a consumers private identity
management information. Though such policies should not be used in WSDL
contract it is likely that such polices could make themselves visible where
they are not to be used through attachment mechanisms (external XML files or
UDDI etc.)

I understand that his issue may have been raised before and the argument was
that it was out of scope and that domains are responsible for defining such
attributes. (e.g. WSDM) However this puts a burden on consumers to understand
certain domain specifications or certain proprietary implementer policies. A
service might be deemed unusable just because consumer doesn't understand some
policy that is actually just a configuration policy for a local server.

A more consistent and also efficient mechanism is required. Having a keyword
e.g.  wsp:local (or wsp:providerOnly, wsp:consumerOnly) allows consumers to
ignore such policies. 

What an implementor does inside that policy then is up to them and is
"invisible" to the consumer of the the policy as it will be ignored.

So though it seems like it is not clear that we should do this in the charter
it does allow a mechanism to make consumer/provider policies clearer - i.e.
anything tagged with this attribute (e.g. wsp:local) can be ignored for
consumer/provider interaction. Pushing it out to the domain specifications can
leave a lot of ambiguity and therefore could effect our charter.

Proposal Description
Introduce the wsp:local attribute and explain that policies with this attribute
do not effect consumer/provider interaction and should be ignored from
calculating assertions for such interaction.

Received on Wednesday, 13 September 2006 17:41:05 UTC