TBTF: SOAP MEP vs TMEP

Following on from our discussion on the TBTF call today I would like to 
raise a point that I alluded to in a previous message [1]. I think that 
current text does not draw enough distinction between SOAP message 
exchange patterns and transport message exchange patterns and as a 
result is rather confusing.

In order to address the confusion I would propose that when we refer to 
MEPs in the specification we refer to SOAP MEPs, i.e. patterns of 
exchange of SOAP messages rather than underlying protocol exchanges. We 
would define an open ended set of such MEPs: outbound one-way, inbound 
one-way, request-response, ... The purpose of a binding specification 
would be to describe how an underlying protocol is used to support a set 
of these SOAP MEPs plus any other features desired. Our HTTP binding 
specification would describe how HTTP is used to provided the SOAP MEPs 
that we decide we want to support.

We also need to decide a number of issues including:

(i) Can a SOAP MEP be split over multiple bindings ? E.g. request 
response with request via HTTP, response via SMTP.
(ii) Are SOAP MEPs single hop or multi-hop in nature ?

and what bearing the answers to these questions have on bindings 
"supporting" a given MEP.

Regards,
Marc.

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-dist-app/2002Jan/0194.html

Received on Tuesday, 29 January 2002 12:54:50 UTC