Re: too many extension points (was Re: [Bug 6692] New: Remove Mode from the specification)

Gil,

Thanks for this discussion. It also brought something back to my mind  
that has worried me about Mode. If in the end we keep it, it will need  
to be enhanced to provide even the minimal required support. Reasoning  
follows, very incomplete at this stage, but would form the basis of a  
new issue should we retain Mode.

So assuming Mode stays, we should encourage (at least SHOLD) ALL  
extensions to the semantics of Eventing to use the same mechanism. As  
soon as this logical step takes place, meeting the simple queuing use  
case becomes problematic not to mention more interesting cases. Where  
do we put queuing limits etc? The Mode attribute is only a URI. As Gil  
points out there are a number of places to stuff extension  
information, but to support Mode properly, we would need a  
<wse:PutModeExtensionDataHere/> element so people could use the  
extension points consistently.

I don't want this can of worms opened at all, as the specification  
starts to become very complicated (folks from the WS-Notification WG  
will remember painful discussions when this kind of bloat was  
discussed there). Eventing is a really good simple specification with  
clean semantics. Retaining Mode in (a clean and functional manner)  
will probably change all that.

Please let's get rid of Mode.


On 03 Apr 2009, at 21:31, Gilbert Pilz wrote:

> Let's look at the schema for the wse:Subscribe message and it's  
> included DeliveryType element (I've taken the liberty of  
> highlighting the existing extension points - you need to view this  
> as HTML to see what I'm talking about):
>  <xs:element name="Subscribe">
>   <xs:complexType>
>     <xs:sequence>
>       <xs:element name="EndTo" type="wsa:EndpointReferenceType"
>                   minOccurs="0" />
>       <xs:element name="Delivery" type="tns:DeliveryType" />
>       <xs:element name="Expires" type="tns:ExpirationType"
>                   minOccurs="0" />
>       <xs:element name="Filter" type="tns:FilterType"
>                   minOccurs="0" />
>       <xs:any namespace="##other" processContents="lax"
>               minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
>     </xs:sequence>
>     <xs:anyAttribute namespace="##other" processContents="lax" />
>   </xs:complexType>
> </xs:element>
>
> <xs:complexType name="DeliveryType" mixed="true">
>   <xs:sequence>
>     <xs:element ref="wse:NotifyTo" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
>     <xs:any namespace="##any" processContents="lax"
>             minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
>   </xs:sequence>
>   <xs:attribute name="Mode" type="xs:anyURI" use="optional"
>                 default="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/eventing/DeliveryModes/Push 
> " />
>   <xs:anyAttribute namespace="##other" processContents="lax" />
> </xs:complexType>
> If I was a developer interested in extending WS-Eventing, I would  
> find this situation confusing. Ignoring the fact that the  
> wse:NotifyTo element is an EPR and can itself be extended, there are  
> five (5) different ways I can extend the wse:Subscribe message (or,  
> if you count element/attribute extension of the same element as a  
> "single way", there are three (3)). What makes this even more  
> confusing is that not all of these extension points have the same  
> processing rules. The XML extension points (in black-bold) are  
> subject to the following, recently accepted, language:
>  The elements defined in this specification MAY be extended at the  
> points
> indicated by their outlines and schema. Implementations MAY add  
> child elements
> and/or attributes at the indicated extension points but MUST NOT  
> contradict the
> semantics of the parent and/or owner, respectively. If a receiver  
> does not
> recognize an extension, the receiver SHOULD ignore that extension.  
> Senders MAY
> indicate the presence of an extension that has to be understood  
> through the use
> of a corresponding SOAP Header with a soap:mustUnderstand attribute  
> with the
> value "1".
>
> Whereas the WS-Eventing specific extension point (in blue-bold) is  
> subject to the following:
> If the event source does not support the requested delivery mode,  
> the request MUST fail, and the event source MAY generate a  
> wse:DeliveryModeRequestedUnavailable fault indicating that the  
> requested delivery mode is not supported.
> I think the common reaction to this situation would be "WTF?" This  
> needs to be simplified so that, if you want to extend WS-Eventing,  
> you aren't required to navigate through a maze of different  
> extension points that may or may not result in different processing  
> behavior (i.e. "What is the difference between extending / 
> wse:Subscibe/wse:Delivery or just /wse:Subscribe?").
>
> Clearly the "Mode" attribute, with its conflicting semantics, should  
> be removed. In addition to this, we need to remove the "Delivery"  
> element and it's extension points (obviously we would move the  
> wse:NotifyTo element up into the wse:Subscribe element). What we  
> would be left with would look like this:
>  <xs:element name="Subscribe">
>   <xs:complexType>
>     <xs:sequence>
>       <xs:element ref="wse:NotifyTo" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
>       <xs:element name="EndTo" type="wsa:EndpointReferenceType"
>                   minOccurs="0" />
>       <xs:element name="Expires" type="tns:ExpirationType"
>                   minOccurs="0" />
>       <xs:element name="Filter" type="tns:FilterType"
>                   minOccurs="0" />
>       <xs:any namespace="##other" processContents="lax"
>               minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
>     </xs:sequence>
>     <xs:anyAttribute namespace="##other" processContents="lax" />
>   </xs:complexType>
> </xs:element>
> What you have now is really two ways to extend the wse:Subscribe  
> request. You can extend the wse:Subscribe message (through either an  
> attribute or an element) if you want an extension that is specific  
> to WS-Eventing, or you can extend the NotifyTo EPR if you want an  
> extension that operates at the WS-Addressing level (i.e. across any  
> technology that uses WS-Addressing).
>
> - gp
>
> Chou, Wu (Wu) wrote:
>>
>> Doug,
>>
>> Mode attribute in WS-E is to specify the additional required event  
>> delivery behavior or required application/business logic extensions  
>> that the event source must understand/support before being allowed  
>> to accept the event subscription.
>>
>> My understanding is: "push_event_thru_proxy" is for all events  
>> delivery from the Subscribe. As such, it covers SubscriptionEnd  
>> event. The Mode attribute also allows to specify fine grained  
>> application logic to control the event delivery.  If you want, more  
>> fine grained event delivery logic/procedure can be easily added to  
>> Mode attribute to control the event delivery, e.g.   
>> "push_thru_proxy_for_subscriptionend_event_only",  
>> "push_thru_proxy_for_non_subscriptionend_event", etc.
>>
>> Mode attribute in WS-E provides a standard extension point to add  
>> application specific logic and behavior to event delivery, so that  
>> it can enforce the required procedure/logic for business  
>> applications when using WS-Eventing for event delivery.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> - Wu Chou.
>>
>> >Wu,
>>  > since its too easy for things to get lost in these long  
>> messages, let me
>> focus on one particular aspect of this.
>>
>> >Surely the idea of using a proxy
>> for sending messages is not WS-Eventing specific.  How do you support
>> sending any other asynchronous message (non-NotifyTo messages) thru a
>> proxy?
>> >Need a clarification on th, e.g. a general question, a question  
>> for WS-E or a question for WS-E plus Mode.
>>
>> >For example, the SubscriptionEnd message.
>>
>> thanks
>> -Doug
>>
>>
>> Wu Chou, IEEE Fellow, Ph.D. | Director |Dialogue System Research |  
>> AVAYA | 233 Mt. Airy Road| Rm. 2D48 | Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 |  
>> Voice/Fax: 908-696-5198 / 908-696-5401 | wuchou@avaya.com
>>

Take care:

     Dr. David Snelling < David . Snelling . UK . Fujitsu . com >
     Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Limited
     Hayes Park Central
     Hayes End Road
     Hayes, Middlesex  UB4 8FE
     Reg. No. 4153469

     +44-7590-293439 (Mobile)








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Received on Thursday, 9 April 2009 09:27:44 UTC