Re: Web Object Services

Jim,

> Object services should address:
> 
> - instantiation and naming
> - locations, copy control, caching and mobility
> - reference management and garbage collection
> - metadata management
> - access control
> - object and object class versioning and update control
> - introspection
> - transaction control
> - event (and fault) monitoring
> - security
> - licensing
> 
> URN services could be an umbrella for these services, but I have found
> almost nothing on URN services.  UDI and WSDL provide a good services
> model, but only address web services, not web objects.  They do provide
> a domain where standard web object services might be defined.
> 
> Am I missing something? Are these issues addressed somewhere?
I think that once the above issues are addresses, "web services" will be
similar to CORBA over XML...

I'm not trying to start a corba vs web services debate - just that:
 (1). corba is a good place to look for ways of addressing these issues, and we
can learn from what worked, and what didn't.  (This is in terms of basic
research, rather than standards, of course).
 (2). One lesson of corba is that distributed garbage collection etc is complex
and difficult.  A strength of web services is simplicity - they are pretty
close to being the simplest remote method invocation possible.  But when all
the above features are added, will it still be attractive?

Also, your point:
> - object and object class versioning and update control
is especially interesting to me.  Evolution of classes/objects is very
important for any long-term solution, and also for loose coupling across
different applications.  One solution is to make an entirely separate "data
layer", which handles the translation of objects into a canonical form, and
which switches on different versions, to select different translation code.

It sounds like the work you are doing is interesting!  I'm not sure that my
comments really address your question in the way you wanted, but I hope they
are useful anyway  ;-)


Cheers,
Brendan
-- 
e:  bren@mail.csse.monash.edu.au                    v:  +61 (3)  9905 1502
Email is checked daily                              Phone is rarely attended

Received on Wednesday, 29 August 2001 02:29:25 UTC