RE: WSDL Requirements

Paul,

	Have a quick question : Isn't WSDL a configuration time artifact ? i.e. it
is a description of stuff than the actual stuff (incl functionalities) Looks
like the capabilities you define are run time artifacts which is outside the
WSDL's realm.

	Having said that, are you envisioning, elements like <stateURI/> or
<referenceLinks/> in WSDL ?

	How would one perform type checking in WSDL as it is only the description.
Also, do you see WSDL pre-defining these types and having elements like
<referenceType/> in the above elements ? Or do you see an extensible dynamic
reference type system ?

cheers

 | -----Original Message-----
 | From: www-ws-desc-request@w3.org [mailto:www-ws-desc-request@w3.org]On
 | Behalf Of Paul Prescod
 | Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 2:11 PM
 | To: www-ws-desc@w3.org
 | Subject: WSDL Requirements
 |
 |
 | 1. WSDL should be at least as functional as IDL languages (or the
 | current Web) in its handling of persistent state that is known to both
 | clients and servers.
 |
 | It should be possible for a service to return a URI that represents some
 | state (i.e. data and associated methods). It should be possible for the
 | resource associated with that URI to be strongly type-checked within
 | WSDL so that the set of methods applicable to it are predefined.
 |
 | For example, a programming language should be able to statically type
 | check something like this:
 |
 | po = service.createPO(...)
 | total = po.total()
 |
 | Garbage collection is not required. The owner of a reference could
 | define its lifetime (just as with implicit objects managed by UUIDs, or
 | in the C programming language etc.).
 |
 | If WSDL does not support this then it seems to me that it will not scale
 | to solving real-world problems.
 |
 | 2. I should also be able to hand a web service references to objects
 | created by other services, again by URL. Once again, it should be
 | possible to strongly type check these. The service should be able to
 | depend upon the strong type checking to know what methods will be
 | available on the data objects.
 |
 | If WSDL does not support this then again it seems to me that it will not
 | solve real-world problems.
 |
 | Summary:
 |
 | WSDL needs a concept of reference with strongly typed-referents. The
 | reference syntax should be URIs. The referents must be describable
 | within WSDL as services in and of themselves.
 |
 |  Paul Prescod
 |
 |

Received on Saturday, 16 February 2002 00:26:50 UTC