[Guidelines] NEW ISSUE 4198: Policy assertion semantics independent of attachment mechanism

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=4198


        Title

Policy assertion semantics independent of attachment mechanism


        Description

A policy can be attached to a policy subject as external attachment, 
directly included, or referenced by the policy subject. The assertions 
contained in the attached policy maintain their semantics independent of 
the chosen attachment mechanism. The guidelines should make that explicit.


        Justification

Assertion authors are constrained from designing assertions that change 
their semantics based on the attachment mechanism. Policy tools must 
have the liberty to choose the most appropriate or feasible attachment 
mechanism at any time without having to analyze the contents of the 
attached policy.


        Target

Guidelines for Policy Assertion Authors


        Proposal

Include in the Guidelines section 4.1:

WS-PolicyAttachment provides various mechanisms to attach a policy to a 
policy subject. Independent of the employed attachment mechanism, 
constraints may be defined to which policy subject an assertion may be 
attached [Web Services Policy Framework, section 3.4]. The semantics of 
a policy assertion may not depend on the mechanism by which a policy is 
attached to a policy subject. This allows policy tools to choose the 
most appropriate mechanism to attach a policy without having to analyze 
the contents of the policy.

-- 
Fabian Ritzmann
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Stella Business Park             Phone +358-9-525 562 96
Lars Sonckin kaari 12            Fax   +358-9-525 562 52
02600 Espoo                      Email Fabian.Ritzmann@Sun.COM
Finland