[ogsa-wg] AI: Proposal for OGSA-WG policy regarding EPRs, WS-Names and such

[Maguire_Tom at emc.com]

Sorry for the delay.  It has been an exceptionally long day.....

An OGSA compliant service when returning a reference MUST use a
WS-Addressing EndpointReference (EPR).
An OGSA compliant service MAY return a profiled usage of a WS-Addressing
EndpointReference (EPR).
An OGSA compliant service SHOULD return a WS-Naming profiled WS-Addressing
EndpointReference (EPR) where appropriate.
An OGSA compliant service MUST NOT require that a specific profiled usage of
a WS-Addressing EndpointReference (EPR) be returned.
Therefore an OGSA compliant service MUST NOT require that a WS-Naming
profiled WS-Addressing EndpointReference (EPR) be returned.

The reasoning for this is quite simple.  The architectural construct for
OGSA is a WS-Addressing EndpointReference.  WS-Naming presupposes a
particular client interaction.  Clients may or may not use this particular
interaction style (equivalence checking).  In particular, placing the
requirement that all implementations of a particular portType must return a
WS-Naming profiled EPR may be onerous, especially considering that the
interaction being fulfilled by the service might never be exercised by the
consumer.  In general, OGSA would be better served if clients that required
such profiled use selected only services that can provide that information.
This area, metadata discovery and exchange, is something that OGSA should be
addressing.

There were further arguments that were raised during the telecon discussion
that would be more appropriately addressed to the WS-Naming WG.

Thanks,
Tom

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