RE: On WSDL "operation"

• From: Jim Webber <jim.webber@arjuna.com>
• Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 14:55:36 +0100
• To: "'Champion, Mike'" <Mike.Champion@SoftwareAG-USA.com>, "'WS Description List'" <www-ws-desc@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <001e01c37c5a$348a5e10$880a090a@kyle>

Mike:

> Yeah, but a WSDL "operation" presumably DOES something.  It's 
> not just a
> message for the sake of sending bits around.  How about 
> "serviceInvocation"
> or "serviceRequest" or something along those lines? If a WSDL 
> message does
> anything, it does request that a service be performed by the 
> provider on
> behalf of the requester [the current WSA terminology, IIRC].  

As you point out, it presumably does something (though we can't be sure
about that). However the fact that a service probably does something with
that message is not important at this level. What is important is describing
the messages going in and coming out and describing that. Trying to apply
"invocation" semantics to this violates encapsulation, and encourages
developers to view services as invokable objects rather than entities which
merely exchange messages.

So I'll stand by "messageExchange."

Jim

Received on Tuesday, 16 September 2003 09:55:41 UTC