[jsdl-wg] DataStaging concerns

[Donal K. Fellows]

Karl Czajkowski wrote:
> Donal: did we lose the xsd:any child of the top-level JSDL document
> element?

Not from rev 18 of the spec, and having xsd:any##other everywhere
(except in RangeValueType of course) is certainly our intention.

> If we decided to have a WS-GRAM dialect of JSDL where we just
> transliterated some of the biggies like our staging clause, I would
> expect there to be, for example, a single (or three) "RFT element" at
> the top-level as a peer to the POSIX application and resource sections
> and zero jsdl:FileStaging elements.

Sounds fine to me actually. I'm personally intending to use JSDL in an
overall workflow document where the datastaging bits are peers to the
JSDL document-lets. Obviously this is a scope way outside the classic
scope of JSDL, but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. :^)

[much very sensible stuff elided]

> I certainly thought this would be possible.  Note, this is a technical
> question in my mind.  I realize there is an entirely orthogonal
> concern about when one "should" use the extension mechanisms in a
> particular way... in these hypothetical discussions we all bring a lot
> of assumptions about how other standards will appear. For example, I
> assume BES will not include staging nor define how BES services
> respond to FileStaging elements. A BES client expecting interop would
> not use the JSDL staging nor any other non-BES extensions. Therefore,
> I do not see a BES + WS-GRAM staging extension as described above to
> really be more or less interoperable than one that tries to use the
> JSDL staging syntax.  It would be specifically for transitional/legacy
> use by applications not content to use the interop profile(s).

I suspect that JSDL 1.0's very simple data staging stuff is not going to
be anything like the end of the story. The problem is that I think doing
anything better at the common standard level (as opposed to in some
system-specific extension) will require us to take on the tangle of
workflow. Anyone up for rechartering? :^)

To cut a long story short, do something sensible with data staging.
Getting the standard to a point where it won't be necessary in most
situations will require enough effort that an interim solution is a
recommended strategy. Well, in my opinion anyway.

Donal.