- From: Christopher Ferris <chris.ferris@sun.com>
- Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 15:11:05 -0500
- To: noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com
- CC: xml-dist-app@w3.org
- Message-ID: <3C0D2DD9.1010906@sun.com>
Noah,
In general, I like the direction that this has taken. A few
nits/comments/suggested edits follow.
Cheers,
Chris
SOAP header block
A syntactic construct or structure used to delimit data that logically
constitutes a single computational unit as seen by a SOAP node within
the SOAP H eader. SOAP header blocks are direct children of the SOAP
Header ( 4.2 SOAP Header
<http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/1/10/11/soap12-part1.html#soaphead> )
or Body ( 4.3 SOAP Body
<http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/1/10/11/soap12-part1.html#soapbody> )
element information items. The type of a SOAP header block is identified
by the fully qualified name of the outer element for the block, which
consists of the namespace URI and the local name. A block encapsulated
within the SOAP header is called a header block and a block encapsulated
within a SOAP body is called a body block.
there can be only one SOAP Header element, so the phrase "within a
SOAP header" is somewhat
ambiguous IMO.
SOAP header
A collection of zero or more SOAP header blocks which may be targeted at
any SOAP receiver within the SOAP message path.
SOAP body
A collection of zero or more element information items targeted at the
ultimate SOAP receiver within the SOAP message path.
SOAP fault
A special SOAP block which contains fault information generated by a
SOAP node....
Not sure what to do about this last bit. Since there is no longer a
term SOAP block, what is
the SOAP:Fault? Should it be described as" a "special element
information item..."?
1. Determine the set of roles in wh ich the node is to act. The
contents of the Envelope, including header blocks and the body , MAY be
inspected in making such determination. [[...this change goes beyond
my mandate, but I think it deals cleanly and effectively with the
concern raised by Doug. We would need a vote of the group to accept
this change ...it's completely separate from all the others...Noah]]
I've always felt that there was a missing step here. Specifically
something along the lines of:
2. Identify all targeted SOAP header blocks that are mandatory.
The reason that I believe this step to be necessary is to allow for
the likes of the "processing order" header described elsewhere in
the spec. It seems reasonable to me that this be a REQUIRED step in
the process that MUST preceed processing. If we are to expect that
any SOAP processor will be capable of handling such a case as the
"process order" header, then clearly, the processor needs to be
capable of predetermining if indeed there is such a header that is
going to (possibly) alter the processing of the message. Granted,
this doesn't preclude the case whereby a SOAP processor would
encounter such a SOAP header block and rollback all of the
processing to that point and begin anew using the semantics implied
by such a header.
1.3. Identify any SOAP header blocks targeted at the SOAP node
that are mandatory and that are not understood by that node and generate
a single SOAP MustUnderstand fault (see 4.4.2 MustUnderstand Faults
<http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/1/10/11/soap12-part1.html#mufault> ) .
If such a fault is generated, any further processing MUST NOT be done.
Faults relating to the existence or contents of the body MUST NOT be
generated in this step.
I have never been comfortable with the wording of the above step
that had previously begun: "Generate a single SOAP Fault..."
4. Process all SOAP header blocks targeted at the node and, in the
case of the ultimate recipient, the SOAP body.
A SOAP node MUST process all SOAP header blocks targe tted at to it. A
SOAP node MAY choose to ignore the processing implied by a SOAP header
block targeted to it but not identified as mandatory.
The change above is to make it clearer as to what the MAY refers to.
IMO, the MAY applies to the node's choice to ignore a non-mandatory
block which implies that unless it has chosen to ignore it, it will
be processed. [NOTE: should there or is there an issue related to
clarification of what it means to "process" a SOAP header block?
5. Remove all SOAP header blocks targeted at the SOAP node (whether they
were processed or ignored) if the message is to be further relayed along
the SOAP message path.
I'm uncomfortable with having this last step in the process lost in
the lengthy prose that ensues.
noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com wrote:
>I sent this out this morning, and it didn't get into the archive. Perhaps
>it was because of the three large file attachments. This time, I'm trying
>one zip file.
>
>====Original note follows=======
>
>The attached files fulfill the action item that I took at the ftf to
>prepare proposed edits to cover the new decisions on header body
>distinction. I've supplied three forms: HTML with and without "diffs", and
>the base MS word file on which I did the edits. The presumption is that,
>if any of these changes are adopted, the editors will cut/paste them into
>the base specification documents. It's for David to say, but I think
>we'll be discussing this on the Wed call. The changes are significant
>enough that I suggest you take 15-20 minutes over the next couple of days
>to review them. The main changes are in chapter 2, and in chapter 4
>(changes in chapter 4 are mainly to delete text that has been merged into
>chapter 2.) The "diffs" are not 100% reliable, but they should be a good
>guide to where I made changes.
>
>I suggest reading without the diffs first (or turn off change tracking in
>Word), as they chop up the text. If you're worried about how much I
>changed, then go back to the diffs.
>
>As agreed at the ftf, I've also made some proposals that go beyond the
>basic header/body distinction, as all these edits are somewhat
>interrelated. The following notes explain what I've done (they're also in
>the documents).
>
>At the Burlington FTF I took an action item to draft the changes that would
>reflect our agreements on Body processing. In trying to do this, I've
>realized that the changes hit several parts of the document, so I've
>entered them as revisions to the editors copy of the Framework.
>
>Notes by me are in this orange color (you won't see the orange if you're
>looking at a copy with "diffs" - the diffs generally show as green). The
>actual proposed changes are marked with MS word change tracking?Word users
>can see "the diffs" by turning on change highlighting. I'll supply HTML
>with and without diffs.
>
>If you're reading the HTML versions, you'll notice that Word has done some
>random paragraph formatting during the conversion. The intention is that
>the editors will copy and paste text from this draft into their base
>version, and will update paragraph formatting as necessary. You should be
>able to make out what's going on. I have no idea how this all looks in
>Netscape, but I presume something more or less legible will show up. If
>not, let me know and I'll send PDF.
>
>Some decisions I've made in doing this work:
>
>* The primary purpose of this draft is to implement the action item
>assigned to me at the FTF regarding header and body elements. The goal is
>to make clear that body is not symmetric with header, and that the ultimate
>receiver can use a variety of means to determine the structure and
>processing rules for the body.
>
>* As suggested by several WG members, the term "Body Block" is gone. We
>now have "Header Block" and "Body"
>
>*At Mark Hadley's request, and approved at the ftf, I have done a bit of
>the moving that we agreed from chapter 4 to 2. The editors must still take
>responsibility for ensuring that they are comfortable with these
>suggestions, and if so, for carrying them forward to the WG as formal
>proposals.
>
>I took the liberty of making some other changes that go a bit beyond my
>mandate, but that seemed best done as part of the same editing pass. All
>of these therefore should be viewed as proposals from me?there is no
>obligation on the part of the group to adopt them. If the group disagrees,
>I think it is clear how to revert back to the status quo in each case.
>Some of these probably should have corresponding issues openned. I've
>marked them (issue?):
>
>*(issue?) I've taken the liberty of putting in a placeholder that rules out
>actor="" (null string). We should really open an issue to resolve this.
>The question is: if we were to allow the null string, is that different
>from a missing actor (the original spec described a missing actor as
>referring to the ultimate receiver, but said nothing about actors with a
>null string.)
>
>*(issue) I have taken the liberty of flagging a few areas where I noticed
>other issues, some of which may or may not be recorded in the issues list.
>For the most part, these are not intimately bound to my action item, and
>can be ignored if the WG prefers. That said, I would recommend that we
>review the issues list and make sure that all of them are
>recorded/resolved.
>
>*(issue) we've been vagure in our terminology and references to the schema
>spec regarding our use of schema datatypes. The schema spec distinguishes
>value from lexical space, yet we do not clearly distinguish our use of the
>two in, e,g. modelling the value of boolean attributes.
>
>* I put in a third step in the processing model (it actually comes first),
>to deal with the concern of Doug and others that we were unclear on whether
>you can look at the message to determine what roles to play. I know I
>fought this change, and we decided to put it in the primer, but this is a
>proposal to put it in this document after all. It's a single bullet in
>(what's now) chapter 2.6, and is easily deleted. We should have a formal
>poll to determine whether this proposal is indeed acceptable.
>
>Hope this is helpful.
>
>
>(See attached file: NoahBodyHeaderChanges.zip)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Noah Mendelsohn Voice: 1-617-693-4036
>Lotus Development Corp. Fax: 1-617-693-8676
>One Rogers Street
>Cambridge, MA 02142
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
Received on Tuesday, 4 December 2001 15:15:25 UTC