RE: Requirements WSP02, WSP03 & WSP08 (was Re: Web Service Defini tion)

As just discussed, here is a simple general definition of Web Services
independent of any particular protocol.

	Self-contained, self-describing, loosely coupled software
components that can be described, published, discovered and invoked over a
network using standard web protocols.

Regards,
Sharad
--

-----Original Message-----
From: Hugo Haas [mailto:hugo@w3.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 12:12 PM
To: www-ws-arch@w3.org
Subject: Requirements WSP02, WSP03 & WSP08 (was Re: Web Service
Definition)


* Joseph Hui <jhui@digisle.net> [2002-02-25 11:43-0800]
>   A web service is a computing entity with the following properties
>   (which incidentally sound like requirements also).
[..]

A few comments about your list requirements:

>   WSP02: A web service MUST provide standards-based programmatic
>   interface with well defined input/output parameters.
>   (For the sake of simplicity, RPC returns may be deemed output 
>   parameters in web services.)
>   
>   WSP03: A web service MUST be sufficiently well formulated such
>   such it can be unambiguously described using WSDL.  

I think that WSP02 and WSP03 are not clearly separated.

They both talk about clear description. I would separate them as:

  WSP02: A Web service MUST provide standards-based programmatic
  interface.

  WSP03: A Web service MUST be sufficiently well formulated such it
  can be unambiguously described using a service description language.

Two changes:
- "with well defined input/output parameters" has been removed from
  WSP02; I believe that WSP03 covers this.
- "WSDL" is replaced by "a service description language"; I am still
  unhappy about this but here is my train of thoughts: which
  specification does the current WSP03 refer to? WSDL 1.0? WSDL 1.1?
  The output of the Web Services Description Working Group? The
  description technology that our group will identify for the Web
  services framework? My modification implies that it is the latter.

[..]
>   WSP08: A web service MAY advertise itself in as many public
>   directories as appropriate, such as those operated by the
>   UDDI consortium.  

We should be careful about centralization:

  The Web is by design and philosophy a decentralized system, and its
  vulnerabilities lie wherever a central facility exists.
  -- http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Architecture#schemes

I don't think that WSP08 is really necessary, or at least not
formulated as such. What about:

   WSP08: Web services MUST be able to advertize themselves.

Regards,

Hugo

-- 
Hugo Haas - W3C
mailto:hugo@w3.org - http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/ - tel:+1-617-452-2092

Received on Thursday, 28 February 2002 15:59:52 UTC