The UR Trout: Web Services, REST, SOAP

The WSA seems to be getting close to being able to decide this issue. 
To test the waters, I am making the following proposal. 

The point, for now, is to see if some text similar to this could go into
the conceptual background section-2.x. +1, -1 and questions would be
appreciated.

The point is NOT start another long debate. If there is general agreement,
then
the text an be worked on. If not, then we will continue with other sections
and
try to make this definition again later.

DaveH

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The UR trout in the WSA trout pond is the definition of what is a web
service and if soap, WSDL or Uniform Interface is required to be a web
service. This proposal is less focused on a formal definition as would
appear in the actual architectural document and more in the intent of the
text that would appear. It is my personal proposal, but thanks to everyone
for helping to define the problem and educating me about possible solutions.


Goal

Web services are about machine to machine (M2M) communication. Communication
whose complexity can range from simple access to data to complex
conversations whose outcome must be predictable, reliable and persisted.

The diverse range of needs in M2M communication has fosters a variety of
design solutions and architectural approaches. The challenge to the WSA is
to select between them and/or synthesize new architectural style. The
proposed solution strives to seek the following balance between the needs:

* Make common needs simple to implement. 
* Make it possible to achieve complex needs. 
* Make the interface as uniform as possible. 
* Assure information about the interface is readily visible and
identifiable. 
* Conform to REST when possible and practical. 
* Assure all functionality currently implemented M2M communications
technologies can be implemented 	using conforming interfaces. 

Proposal

Web services are machine to machine communications using interfaces based
standards associated with the World Wide Web. For simple communications, the
HTTP and XML standards are sufficient for interface definition. For more
complex communications, the interface must use well establish standards to
identify the schema for the payload and methods within the binary exchanged
data. The method of providing viability and access to this data must be well
defined by standards such that all applications that implement the standard
are able to locate that data within any conforming a message.

Received on Wednesday, 2 July 2003 19:46:59 UTC