Re: First Class Headers - Proposed Resolution for LC76d

I'm sorry to rain on the parade, but I don't think this is a good direction.

First of all, we've been here before; I made a similar proposal when I made
the <message> elimination proposal. Then we decided to remove it ..

The problems with this proposal are:
- what's the intended programming model for this? I know that's out of scope
  for us, but do you expect that a stub, for example, would have an additional
  parameter for each header? Having this messes up the nice clean simple
  programming model one can derive from WSDL as it stands now.

- One of the reasons @headers was removed IIRC was because it was too weak:
  you cannot say there's an optional header or a choice or a repeating
  thing. This proposal has the same problems (and in fact that was part
  of the motivation for dropping <message>).

- Putting this feels to me like we are basically inlining <message> inside
  the <input> etc. elements. Its like the doc/lit rule that WS-I came up with ..
  only 1 body part and any # of header parts. I don't like it one bit because
  it loses the clean and simpleness we achieved with a lot of work over a very
  long time.

I'm sure I can think of more problem over time ;-).

Sanjiva.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Prasad Yendluri 
  To: www-ws-desc@w3.org ; asirv@webmethods.com 
  Cc: jeffsch@windows.microsoft.com 
  Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 4:24 AM
  Subject: Re: First Class Headers - Proposed Resolution for LC76d


  Hi Asir,

  I echo the remarks of Jean-J and Kevin on simple and easy to follow nature of the proposal. It is pretty comprehensive as well. 

  As I reviewed, I came up with a few comments.

  Regards, Prasad

  General Comments:
  -------------------

  1. This proposal does not address if all headers that can be exchanged via input, output or fault messages in an interface (operations) MUST be declared. Or if this is only a subset of all the potential headers (including things that are added dynamically) that the definer of the interface chose to declare.

  2. The  @required of the {header} component and the @disableHeaders at the {binding} component level are in total contradiction.

  The "REQUIRED" @required on the {header} component is defined to be:  
  "An xs:boolean. If the value of this property is true, then the Web Service consumer/client MUST use the Header that is identified by the {element declaration}."

  Where as, the purpose of the disableHeadersDefault AII at the binding level is to "disable" header generation at the binding level.

  So, if @required on a {header} component at the interface/operation level says the "header MUST be used", a binding can arbitrarily override that to ignore that (and even all) header(s)? 

  I am not sure that is desirable at all.

  3. Somewhat related to the above. Headers concept is not native to many of the potential bindings; and the HTTP binding already identifies issues/difficulties with binding {header} components at the abstract level. Any proposal that introduces headers needs to speak to this aspect of, if bindings that have no concept of headers *can* be used with interfaces that specify {header} components and if so, a general guidance on how the header components can be bound would be helpful.

  Specific Comments on individual parts:

  Section (1) Introduce a NEW Header Component
  ---------------------------------------------------

  4. In the proposal, the Header component is defined recursively  using the term header to define itself.  

  "A Header Component describes an abstract piece of *header* that is associated with the exchange of messages between the communicating parties."

  We need to fix this.

  5. The {namespace name} on the header REQUIRED but no defaulting is defined. I believe we need to permit the use of elements declared locally in the default (local) namespace as headers. Perhaps that is the intent but that is not clear from the proposal.

  6. {mustUnderstand} OPTIONAL. An xs:boolean. If the property is true, then the bindings that support expression of mandatory data should mark them as mandatory in an appropriate way.

  Why is it a "should mark them as mandatory" and not a "must"?  
  With this it seems a specific SOAP binding can choose not to mark the headers with "mustUnderstand=true" even when at the interface/operation level {header} components sets this attribute to true.
   
  Section (4) Syntax Level Default Mechanism to Disable Header Construction
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  7. The proposal states, "disableHeaderDefault AII (at the binding component level) is a syntax level convenient mechanism and does not contribute anything to the component model."

  Is that really so? Does it not specify the default value for this attribute for all sub-components unless explicitly overridden? 

  Also, I hope we would add some actual description of disableHeaderDefault AII is all about. The proposal is drafted in a form that can be inserted in the spec in appropriate sections, hence I ask.

  Section (5) Mechanism to Disable Header Construction for the Binding Fault Component
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  8. "{disable headers} OPTIONAL. An xs:boolean. If this property exists and is true, then header construction is turned off." 

  We need to be more specific here. Does turned off mean, the {header} components are not serialized at all or not serialized as headers? Can they go as some other piece of the serialized message?

  Section (7) Add to SOAP Binding's Default Binding Rules
  -----------------------------------------------------------
  9. "Default value of the Binding Operation Component's {disable headers} property is false."

  The  {operation} component in binding is not shown to have this AII (e.g. in section (6) of the proposal).

  Section (8) Add to HTTP Binding's Default Binding Rules
  -----------------------------------------------------------
  10. "an Header component's {element} property in the {headers} property MUST be turned into HTTP header if possible."

  Eliminate use of MUST and "if possible" in the same sentence above. 

  -------- Original Message -------- Subject:  First Class Headers - Proposed Resolution for LC76d 
        Resent-Date:  Mon, 24 Jan 2005 13:47:15 +0000 
        Resent-From:  www-ws-desc@w3.org 
        Date:  Mon, 24 Jan 2005 08:46:20 -0500 
        From:  Asir Vedamuthu <asirv@webmethods.com> 
        To:  'www-ws-desc@w3.org' <www-ws-desc@w3.org> 
        CC:  'jeffsch@windows.microsoft.com' <jeffsch@windows.microsoft.com> 

  LC76d - http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/desc/4/lc-issues/#LC76d

  #1: At the Melbourne F2F, I observed a simple majority to explore header proposals that are independent of the Features and Properties framework. This draft is one such mechanism. It accommodates SOAP 1.1, SOAP 1.2 and HTTP Bindings. AFAIK, this draft resolves all the sub issues raised by Jeffrey Schlimmer in LC76d.

  The number two driving force behind this proposal is the desire for simplicity. I bet the user community will enthusiastically receive a product that simplifies their work and reduces their time to market.

  This is the first draft. I made it as brief as possible. If there is sufficient interest, I will continue to produce newer versions that will accommodate your requirements and issues. At the least, this proposal will provide sufficient information to the WSDL Working Group to make an informed decision.

  Comments, suggestions, corrections, thumbs up, thumbs down .. are greatly appreciated.

  Regards,

  Asir S Vedamuthu
  asirv at webmethods dot com
  http://www.webmethods.com/



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  First Class Headers - Proposed Resolution for LC76d
  Lets begin with a simple example. The following example shows the WSDL definition of a simple service providing stock quotes. This service supports a single operation called GetLastTradePrice, which is deployed using the SOAP 1.2 protocol over HTTP. I added 3 statements to turn on WS-Security header support. Again, just 3 statements - import schema statement, header in input message reference component and header in output message reference component.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<wsdl:definitions name="StockQuote" xmlns:wsdl="http://www.w3.org/@@@@/@@/wsdl"
  targetNamespace="http://example.com/stockquote"
  xmlns:tns="http://example.com/stockquote"
  xmlns:wsoap="http://www.w3.org/@@@@/@@/wsdl/soap"
  xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd">
    
  <xs:import
   namespace="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd"
   schemaLocation="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd"/>
     
  <wsdl:types>
    <xs:schema targetNamespace="http://example.com/stockquote"
      xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
      <xs:element name="TradePriceRequest">
        <xs:complexType>
          <xs:all>
            <xs:element name="tickerSymbol" type="xs:string"/>
          </xs:all>
        </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
      <xs:element name="TradePrice">
        <xs:complexType>
          <xs:all>
            <xs:element name="price" type="xs:float"/>
          </xs:all>
        </xs:complexType>
      </xs:element>
    </xs:schema>
  </wsdl:types>
  
  <wsdl:interface name="StockQuoteInterface">
    <wsdl:operation name="GetLastTradePrice" 
      pattern="http://www.w3.org/@@@@/@@/wsdl/in-out">
      <wsdl:input element="tns:GetLastTradePriceInput">
      	<wsdl:header element="wsse:Security" required="true" mustUnderstand="true"/>
      </wsdl:input>
      <wsdl:output element="tns:GetLastTradePriceOutput">
        <wsdl:header element="wsse:Security" required="true" mustUnderstand="true"/>
      </wsdl:output>
    </wsdl:operation>
  </wsdl:interface>
  
  <wsdl:binding name="StockQuoteSoapBinding" interface="tns:StockQuoteInterface"
    type="http://www.w3.org/@@@@/@@/wsdl/soap" 
    wsoap:protocol="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap/bindings/HTTP/">
    <wsdl:operation ref="tns:GetLastTradePrice" 
      wsoap:action="http://example.com/GetLastTradePrice"/>
  </wsdl:binding>
  
  <wsdl:service name="StockQuoteService" interface="tns:StockQuoteInterface">
    <wsdl:documentation>My first service</wsdl:documentation>
    <wsdl:endpoint name="StockQuoteEndPoint" binding="tns:StockQuoteBinding" 
    address="http://example.com/endpoint/stockquote"/>
  </wsdl:service>
  
</wsdl:definitions>Proposed solution has nine parts:

  (1) Introduce a NEW Header Component
  Header Component
  An Header Component describes an abstract piece of header that is associated with the exchange of messages between the communicating parties. The presence of an Header Component in a WSDL description indicates that the service supports the header and may require a Web Service consumer/client that interacts with the service to use that header. Zero or more such headers may be used.

  Header Component has 5 properties:
    a.. {namespace name} REQUIRED. An xs:anyURI. This URI MUST be absolute as defined by [IETF RFC 2396]. 
    b.. {local name} REQUIRED. An xs:NCName. 
    c.. {element} REQUIRED. A reference to an XML element declaration in the {element declarations} property of The Definitions Component. This element represents a header. 
    d.. {required} REQUIRED. An xs:boolean. If the value of this property is true, then the Web Service consumer/client MUST use the Header that is identified by the {element declaration}. 
    e.. {mustUnderstand} OPTIONAL. An xs:boolean. If the property is true, then the bindings that support expression of mandatory data should mark them as mandatory in an appropriate way. 
  Header Component's XML Representation is,
<header element="xs:QName" mustUnderstand="xs:boolean"? required="xs:boolean"?>
  <documentation />?
</header>Header Component's mapping is,
    a.. {element} = The element declaration from the {element declarations} property of The Definitions Component resolved to by the value of the element attribute information item if present, otherwise empty. It is an error for the element attribute information item to have a value and that value does not resolve to a global element declaration from the {element declarations} property of The Definitions Component. 
    b.. {namespace name} = actual value of the {element declaration}'s [namespace name] property. 
    c.. {local name} = actual value of the {element declaration}'s [local name] property. 
    d.. {mustUnderstand} = actual value of the mustUnderstand attribute information item if present, otherwise absent. 
    e.. {required} = actual value of the required attribute information item if present, otherwise "false". 
  (2) Hook Header Component into the Interface Fault Component
  Add the property {headers}
  Add the property {headers} to the Interface Fault Component: {headers} OPTIONAL. A set of Header components.

  Modify the XML Representation of Interface Fault Component
<definitions>
  <interface>
    <fault
          name="xs:NCName" 
          element="xs:QName"? >
      <documentation />?
      [ <header /> | <feature /> | <property /> ]*
    </fault>
  </interface>
</definitions>Modify the Mapping of Interface Fault's XML Representation to Component Properties
  Addition to Table 2-3:

  {headers} = The set of Header components corresponding to the header element information items in [children], if any.

  (3) Hook Header Component into the Message Reference Component
  Add the property {headers}
  Add the property {headers} to the Message Reference Component: {headers} OPTIONAL. A set of Header components.

  Modify the XML Representation of Message Reference Component
<definitions>
  <interface>
    <operation>
      <input
            messageLabel="xs:NCName"?
            element="union of xs:QName, xs:Token"? > 
        <documentation />?
        [ <header /> | <feature /> | <property /> ]*
      </input>
      <output
            messageLabel="xs:NCName"?
            element="union of xs:QName, xs:Token"? >
        <documentation />?
        [ <header /> | <feature /> | <property /> ]*
      </output>
    </operation>
  </interface>
</definitions>Modify the Mapping of Message Reference's XML Representation to Component Properties
  Addition to Table 2-6:

  {headers} = The set of Header components corresponding to the header element information items in [children], if any.

  (4) Syntax Level Default Mechanism to Disable Header Construction
  Modify the XML Representation of Binding Component
<definitions>
  <binding
        name="xs:NCName" 
        interface="xs:QName"?
        type="xs:anyURI"
        disableHeadersDefault="xs:boolean"? >
    <documentation />?
    [ <fault /> | <operation /> | <feature /> | <property /> ]*
  </binding>
</definitions>disableHeaderDefault AII is a syntax level convenient mechanism and does not contribute anything to the component model. 
  (5) Mechanism to Disable Header Construction for the Binding Fault Component
  Add the property {disable headers} to Binding Fault Component
  {disable headers} OPTIONAL. An xs:boolean. If this property exists and is true, then header construction is turned off. Scope of {disable headers} is limited to the WSDL Header components defined for the Interface Fault Component in {fault reference}. This property does not interact with any other WSDL feature, Bindings, Extensions or Feature and Properties framework.

  Modify the XML Representation of Binding Fault Component
<definitions>
  <binding>
    <fault
          ref="xs:QName" disableHeaders="xs:boolean"? >
      <documentation />?
      [ <feature /> | <property /> ]*
    </fault>
  </binding>
</definitions>Modify the Mapping of Binding Fault's XML Representation to Component Properties
  Addition to Table 2-11:

  {disable headers} = The actual value of the disableHeaders attribute information item, if present. If not, the actual value of the disableHeadersDefault attribute information item of the parent wsdl:binding element information item, if present. If not the value as defined by the concrete binding, if applicable.

  (6) Mechanism to Disable Header Construction for the Binding Message Reference Component
  Add the property {disable headers} to Binding Message Reference Component
  {disable headers} OPTIONAL. An xs:boolean. If this property exists and is true, then header construction is turned off. Scope of {disable headers} is limited to the WSDL Header components defined for the Interface Operation component being bound by the containing Binding Operation component. This property does not interact with any other WSDL feature, Bindings, Extensions or Feature and Properties framework.

  Modify the XML Representation of Binding Message Reference Component
<definitions>
  <binding>
    <operation>
      <input
            messageLabel="xs:NCName"? disableHeaders="xs:boolean"? >
        <documentation />?
        [ <feature /> | <property /> ]*
      </input>
      <output
            messageLabel="xs:NCName"? disableHeaders="xs:boolean"? >
        <documentation />?
        [ <feature /> | <property /> ]*
      </output>
    </operation>
  </binding>
</definitions>Modify the Mapping of Binding Fault's XML Representation to Component Properties
  Addition to Table 2-11:

  {disable headers} = The actual value of the disableHeaders attribute information item, if present. If not, the actual value of the disableHeadersDefault attribute information item of the ancestor wsdl:binding element information item, if present. If not the value as defined by the concrete binding, if applicable.

  (7) Add to SOAP Binding's Default Binding Rules
  SOAP Header block construction
  Default value of the Binding element's disableHeadersDefault AII is false. Default value of the Binding Operation Component's {disable headers} property is false. 

  If the {headers} property exists and non empty, and {disable headers} is false, element information item conforming to an Header Component's {element} property in the {headers} property MUST be turned into a SOAP Header block. 

  These elements are serialized according to their schemas, and if the Header Component's {mustUnderstand} property exists with the value "true", that particular SOAP header should be marked as "mustUnderstand='true'" or "mustUnderstand='1'" as per the SOAP specification.

  (8) Add to HTTP Binding's Default Binding Rules
  HTTP Header construction
  Default value of the Binding element's disableHeadersDefault AII is false. Default value of the Binding Operation Component's {disable headers} property is false.

  If the {headers} property exists and non empty, and {disable headers} is false, element information item conforming to an Header component's {element} property in the {headers} property MUST be turned into HTTP header if possible.

  Only element information items of type "xs:string" or "xs:anyURI" may be serialized. All complex data types are ignored. Attributes on data elements are ignored.

  Each such element information item is serialized as follows:

  The HTTP header name used is the element information item local name. The element information item local name MUST follow the field-name production rules as specified in section 4.2 of [IETF RFC 2616]; if not, the element information item MUST be ignored. If an HTTP header corresponding to the element information item local name is set by a different mechanism other than the HTTP Binding, such as the HTTP stack or another feature, then an error MUST be raised.

  The HTTP header content is serialized from the corresponding element information item value in UTF-8. If this serialization is NOT possible, then the element information item MUST be ignored.

  (9) Changes to XML Schema for WSDL 2.0
  PENDING