Syntax proposal for Issue 7728

This proposal suggests a simplified syntax for attaching Metadata to MEX 
GetMetadata.  The proposal adds detail as a followup to the first point 
in the original statement of this issue.  The second point has been 
addressed via other issues.
We discussed this on our last telcon.  I'm following up with a specific 
proposal.

The proposal for issue 6463 which we are close to accepting has three 
levels of wrapping for the metadata, viz:

<wsa:ReplyTo>
  <wsa:Address> http://ibm.com </wsa:Address>
  <wsa:Metadata>
    <mex:Metadata>
      <mex:MetadataSection Dialect="wsdl">
        <mex:Location> http://ibm.com?wsdl </mex:Location>
      </mex:MetadataSection>
    </mex:Metadata>
  </wsa:Metadata>
</wsa:ReplyTo>

We think that this is too many layers of wrapping and suggest that one 
or two layers be removed.

Proposal 1

Remove both the <mex:Matadata> and the <nex:MetadataSection> wrappers.  
The above example would then look like:

<wsa:ReplyTo>
  <wsa:Address> http://ibm.com </wsa:Address>
  <wsa:Metadata>
      <mex:Location Dialect="wsdl"> http://ibm.com?wsdl </mex:Location>
  </wsa:Metadata>
</wsa:ReplyTo>

This syntax without any mex wrappers is already allowed by WS-Addressing.

Note that the Dialect attribute has been moved to the <mex:Location> 
element.  The Identifier attribute could be moved similarly.  
Alternatively, extension facilities could be used to add these 
attributes to the <was:Metadata> element.  The above example would then 
look like:

<wsa:ReplyTo>
  <wsa:Address> http://ibm.com </wsa:Address>
  <wsa:Metadata Dialect="wsdl">
      <mex:Location> http://ibm.com?wsdl </mex:Location>
  </wsa:Metadata>
</wsa:ReplyTo>

Proposal 2

The above proposal does simplify the syntax but requires the Dialect and 
Identifier attributes to be made available on other elements.  If we 
keep the <mex: MetadataSection> this is not necessary although the 
proposal gets a bit more verbose:

<wsa:ReplyTo>
  <wsa:Address> http://ibm.com </wsa:Address>
  <wsa:Metadata>
     <mex:MetadataSection Dialect="wsdl">
        <mex:Location> http://ibm.com?wsdl </mex:Location>
     </mex:MetadataSection
  </wsa:Metadata>
</wsa:ReplyTo>

-- 
All the best, Ashok

Received on Tuesday, 29 December 2009 16:51:07 UTC