Proposed changes to resource-metadata doc re WSDL

[Kevin Benson]

All very good points Guy, I will state though the current agreed upon for 
AccessURL is to put in the service end point.  Then if you need to go to 
the wsdl by default a "?wsdl" can be added if necessary.  Most of 
Astrogrid should have changed over by now to only using the service end 
point. (I have recently noticed the "Community" component though does 
still put the "?wsdl" in the AccessURL). As you say Astrogrid will return 
the AccessURL contents when asked, but will get it from the wsdl if a 
"?wsdl" is on the end of the url.

On another point that Ray also brought up and something I brought up in 
Pune.  We do need to think about storing a few more url's in the "Registry 
type" resource.
Such as:
Publishing Web Service url (may or may not exist)
Publishing Web Browser url (required)
Searchable Web Service url (may or may not exist depending on type of 
registry full, publish only, special)

Final note is we agreed to add a "OwnedAuthority" element on the "Registry 
type" resource as well.  I don't forsee using this element for at least a 
few more months, but would be good to go ahead and add into the schema.

Cheers,
Kevin

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Guy Rixon wrote:

> Hi,
>
> at the WGL/exec meeting in Pune, we discussed briefly some clarification of
> how WSDL and AccessURL work in service registrations.
>
> Current situation is:
>
> 1. RM document specifies Service.InterfaceURL as being the web resource
>    describing the interface, i.e. WSDL or a web-form; by implication,
>    the value is NOT the service endpoint, although the doc doesn't say this.
>
> 2. XML schema doesn't cover InterfaceURL but does include AccessURL.
>
> 3. AstroGrid people are unsure about what goes in AccessURL and have chosen
>    to put the URL for the WSDL rather than the service endpoint.
>
> Puting the WSDL location in AccessURL makes the registrations inconsistent
> between SOAP and CGI services. For SOAP services, every client has to get and
> parse the WSDL to find the service endpoint, which is wasteful. For CGI
> services, there is nowhere to denote the WSDL if any were available (it IS
> possible to write WSDL for CGIs and might be very useful).
>
> I suggest that we make two additions to the the RM document:
>
> 1. Add Service.AccessURL. Specify that it MUST contain the URL for the service
> endpoint and MUST not contain a URL for anything that pints indirectly to the
> endpoint, such as WSDL. State that AccessURL is mandatory such that a client
> of the registry can always find the service using that one metadatum.
>
> 2. Add Service.WsdlURL. Specify that it is optional but, if present, it MUST
> contain the URL for the WSDL contract of the service. Furthermore, specify
> that the contract MUST include a WSDL port element stating the service
> endpoint. (I.e. if WSDL is present, the client may assume that it defines the
> service location, not just the syntax of the interface.
>
> We should retain Service.InterfaceURL but change the RM document to state that
> this URL is not to be used for invoking the service but rather for getting a
> human-readable description of the interface.
>
> We need to add WsdlURL to the schema, too.
>
> Cheers,
> Guy
>
> Guy Rixon 				        gtr at ast.cam.ac.uk
> Institute of Astronomy   	                Tel: +44-1223-337542
> Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK, CB3 0HA		Fax: +44-1223-337523
>