XP->SOAP/1.1 requirement mappings for R8xx (Intermediaries)

[comments/additions/corrections welcome.]

* R803 - "... must not preclude the use of transport bindings that
          define transport intermediary roles..."

         The relationship between the transport binding and message
         is implied in "Using SOAP in HTTP":
           http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/#_Toc478383526

         SOAP doesn't have a firm conception of a protocol binding or
         the requirments placed upon it - HTTP is assumed.

* R811 - "... must define and accommodate processing intermediaries."

         SOAP accommodates processing intermediaries, but does not
         define them. See also R806 and R808.

* R806 - "... must define mechanisms that allow XP processors, including
         intermediaries, to identify XP blocks which they are
         eligible to process."

         SOAP allows targeting through the "actor" attribute. 
           http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/#_Toc478383499

         The value of the attribute may be underspecified; currently,
         there is no standard way to refer to intermediaries with a
         URI.  Additionally, it may be desireable to target an XP
         Block by means other than direct reference or 'hop-by-hop',
         as described.

         Also, SOAP's processing model does not dictate the order in
         which multiple headers should be processed, if targetted at
         the same processor.

* R808 - "... must enable the generation of status and/or error messages by
         processing intermediaries, and enable propogation..."

         SOAP provides error and status reporting through SOAP Faults:
           http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/#_Toc478383507

         The 'faultactor' subelement satisfies this requirement. See
         notes in R806 regarding the value of this element. Also, it
         should be noted that the mechanism for communicating a SOAP
         Fault is necessarily transport binding-dependent.

* R802 - "... must also enable processing intermediaries to locate and
         process XP blocks intended for them without processing the
         entire message."

         SOAP does not explicitly address this requirement, but it
         should be addressed by the 'actor' attribute, in that XP
         Blocks which were not targetted could be skipped over,
         depending on the processor implementation.


--
Mark Nottingham, Research Scientist
Akamai Technologies (San Mateo, CA)




----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Mark Nottingham, Research Scientist
Akamai Technologies (San Mateo, CA)

Received on Tuesday, 30 January 2001 20:15:36 UTC