NEW ISSUE: Normalization should make empty nested policy elements equivalent to policy statements without nested policy element

Title - Normalization should make empty nested policy elements  
equivalent to policy statements without nested policy element

Description - An empty policy element should be removed upon  
normalization

Justification - Need to define additional normalization step to  
enable interoperability.

I initially raised this issue in WS-SX (Security Policy) [1], but it  
should be addressed in WS-Policy.

The WS-SecurityPolicy spec states (at line 372) "An assertion with an  
empty nested policy does not intersect with the same assertion  
without nested policy."

Since both mean exactly the same thing, this opens a possibility for  
policy interop issues.

<assertion /> and <assertion><policy /></assertion> should mean the  
same thing. An engine should treat them as equal, and the  
normalization process should account for this.

Target - WS-Policy Framework [2]

Proposal - add new section to 4.3, "Nested Policy Normalization",  
with following as the text in the section:

"Any nested policy element of the form <assertion><wsp:Policy /></ 
assertion> will be normalized by removing the policy element,  
producing <assertion /> as the normal form. An empty policy element  
SHOULD NOT have attributes but if it does, they will be ignored and  
the element removed."

Test Case -

The intersection of the following two policy expressions should match  
as true:

  <wsp:Policy
   xmlns:test="http://www.example.com/example"
   xmlns:wsp="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/09/policy" >
   <test:SimpleAssertion />
  </wsp:Policy>

<wsp:Policy
   xmlns:test="http://www.example.com/example"
   xmlns:wsp="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/09/policy" >
   <test:SimpleAssertion><wsp:Policy /></test:SimpleAssertion>
  </wsp:Policy>

regards, Frederick

Frederick Hirsch
Nokia

[1] Related Work, WS-SX Issue 87, http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ 
issues/Issues.xml#i087

[2] http://www.w3.org/Submission/WS-Policy/

Received on Tuesday, 11 July 2006 16:27:12 UTC