RE: Requesting WSDL Files

Either it's OK to create URIs on the client, or not.  

For a client to create a URI, it needs data + metadata on how to create the URI.  By definition, if the client doesn't know the URI construction rules metadata, it can't construct a URI.  Hence Google, or any other site for that matter, can never construct a client side URI without the metadata/algorithm.  

Whether the metadata or URI is sent as a response to a request (your HEAD + InterfaceDescription header response), or as a normative specification asserted by the authority ( it supports ?wsdl), is optimization.  And tuning/optimization is a fine discussion to have, but it's not a matter of RESTful or not.  

Cheers,
Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Baker [mailto:distobj@acm.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 11:10 AM
> To: David Orchard
> Cc: www-ws-arch@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Requesting WSDL Files
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 06, 2004 at 10:22:58AM -0700, David Orchard wrote:
> > I strongly disagree that normatively specifying a 
> convention for client-side construction of URIs is any ways 
> not restful.
> 
> Me too.
> 
> > > It certainly uses a uniform method (GET), which is great. 
>  But as I
> > > tried to describe below, having a convention whereby one needs to
> > > append "?wsdl" to a Web service URI is not RESTful since 
> it doesn't
> > > respect the "hypermedia as the engine of application state" 
> > > constraint.
> 
> By "convention" I specifically meant the "?wsdl" bit, not a framework
> with which "?wsdl" could be constructed (which I believe is RESTful,
> since I've designed one[1] for automata).  So even if there was a
> WS-spec which instructed clients to append '?wsdl' to a Web 
> service URI
> to yield a URI identifying the WSDL, that wouldn't be RESTful.
> Consider, for example, that Google wouldn't be able to find those
> WSDL documents, since it doesn't know of that convention.
> 
>  [1] http://www.markbaker.ca/2003/05/RDF-Forms/
> 
> Mark.
> -- 
> Mark Baker.   Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.        http://www.markbaker.ca
> 
>   Seeking work on large scale application/data integration projects
>   and/or the enabling infrastructure for same.
>

Received on Tuesday, 6 July 2004 14:41:48 UTC