Re: Web service definition

Geoff,

Hmmm... I hadn't thought that my proposal only addressed how discovery
takes place. In fact, I had thought that there shouldn't be much 
specificity
in addressing how discovery takes place.

Allow me to try again with a slight edit to my previous proposal:

       Definition: A Web service is a software application identified by a
       URI, whose interfaces and bindings are defined and described
       using XML artifacts. This definition can be discovered by other 
software
       applications. These applications may then interact with the Web 
         service, through the exchange of XML based messages via internet 
         protocols, in a manner prescribed by its definition.

Again, I don't think that we necessarily want to narrow the possibilities
of how the description/definition is discovered.

Cheers,

Christopher Ferris
Architect, Emerging e-business Industry Architecture
email: chrisfer@us.ibm.com
phone: +1 508 234 3624

www-ws-arch-request@w3.org wrote on 08/12/2002 08:17:41 AM:

> 
> On Monday, August 12, 2002, at 07:22  AM, Christopher B Ferris wrote:
> 
> >       Definition: A Web service is a software application 
> > identified by a
> >       URI, whose interfaces and bindings are defined and described
> >       using XML artifacts. This definition can be discovered by 
> > other software
> >       applications which may then interact with the Web service, 
> > through
> >       the exchange of XML based messages via internet protocols, in a
> >       manner prescribed by its definition.
> 
> In my last email I wondered if we ought to say *something* about the
> nature of the interface to a Web Service. The original stipulated
> that interaction (actually "direct interaction") took place "using XML
> based messages via internet-based protocols". However the latest 
> iterations
> have specified only how service discovery takes places, If we plug
> the interaction model back in, we get:
> 
> "A Web service is a software application identified by a URI, whose 
> interfaces and
> bindings are defined using XML artifacts. Its definition can be 
> discovered by other
> software applications by the exchange of XML-based messages 
> transferred by internet
> protocols. These applications may then interact with the Web 
> service in a manner
> prescribed by its definition, using XML-based messages transferred 
> by internet
> protocols."
> 
> This is wordy, and repetitive, but quite unambiguous. One can 
> factor out the
> common technology, thus:
> 
> "A Web service is a software application identified by a URI, whose 
> interfaces and
> bindings are defined using XML artifacts. Its definition can be 
> discovered by other
> software applications, which may then interact with the Web service 
> in a manner
> prescribed by its definition. All interactions, including service 
> discovery, use
> XML-based messages transferred by internet protocols."
> 
> This feels right. It avoid the "generic" trap, and makes a strong 
> statement
> about the relationship to web technologies. (Indeed the last 
> sentence provides
> a convenient hook to hang other conformance assertions.)
> 
> Geoff Arnold
> Sun Microsystems Laboratories
>