Re: [ebxml-bp] Groups - New Action Item #0036 Monitoring for ebBP-Provide Boundaries

["David RR Webber" <david@drrw.info>]

Monica,

OK.  There's two levels to look at this.  The bit-n-byte one
and potential deployment components - which you hit on a
few of those aspects - and then the actual mission
profile.

We need to think of choice points and linking and switching
as a blackbox - and see what services that blackbox
provides WRT a BPSS template.

There's several identified in the BCM specification : -

1) ThreadID management
2) Status tracking
3) Audit trail
4) Context parameter values (assertion / retraction)
5) Signal handling
6) Branch and process management (linking / switching)

Now - whether the blackbox is locally resident - or
accessed globally as a web service, and has a
WSDL binding - all those are implementation details.

What is more important is the roles and functions
being provided.

It may help to think of an actual use case.  The
classic one is the IBM example of the booking
agent for a travel itinery.  The agent queries
various services to discover flight, room, car
rental and other aspects, and then at some
point makes a decision.  All the resulting
threads can track progress of their
individual processes - via interaction with
the choice point 'blackbox'.  So if the
agent has already purchased an item -
then that thread can be marked as
complete - or dependent threads can
be marked as closed - and the
choice point coordinates it.

Another use is in tracking and
auditing interchanges - and being
able to determine when and why
a decision was made.

This is a bigger picture model.  So
far we have focused on multi-party
collaborations where there is a
single BPSS - but what if there are
several BPSS models - and you
need to coordinate those?

This is where BCM choice points
and linking and switching becomes
essential.

Hope that helps!

It's definately V3.0 stuff - but
if we are starting
a dialogue with WS-CAF - then
this is the right time to understand
the deployment models and
interactions.  My sense is that
WS-CAF started at a very
lowlevel - coordinating WS
interactions on the wire - and
now are moving up the ladder.
BPSS sits in the middle, while
BCM is at the top - providing
the business coordination and
rule management.

Thanks, DW

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Monica J. Martin" <Monica.Martin@Sun.COM>
To: "David RR Webber" <david@drrw.info>
Cc: <ebxml-bp@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: [ebxml-bp] Groups - New Action Item #0036 Monitoring for
ebBP-Provide Boundaries


> David RR Webber wrote:
>
> >Monica,
> >
> >In this respect, and also WS-CAF aspects - please consider the BCM
Linking
> >and Switching
> >specification - (Appendix B of BCM) - that details mechanisms for state,
> >monitoring, auditability
> >and tracking - deployed as Choice Points.
> >
> >I believe this design could provide the underpinning for BPSS needs, and
> >more.
> >
> >At this juncture I'm seeing it would make strong sense to develop this as
a
> >joint
> >thread between CAF, BPSS and BCM - a rare example of OASIS TC
> >coordination!?!  ; -)
> >
> >
> mm1: David, I did briefly review the BCM Appendix B that talks about
> choice points and linking/switching. Can you please explain to me the
> basis for use of an inference engine with rules of all shapes and sizes?
> It appears the choice points are based in XML but require a WSDL
> definition - can you explain why you assume that a WSDL interface will
> be required for each transition?  Frankly, I am not sure what this says
> to me. Thanks.
>
>