Re: [sca-bpel] Issue 3 - An amended proposal (take 2) - CorrelationDisagreement between SCA and BPEL proposal

[Alex Yiu <alex.yiu@oracle.com>]

Hi all,

Here is an amended proposal (take 2) for this Issue 3.

Let me repeat a few points here:

• "bpel:correlationViolation" is for BPEL's CorrelationSet lifecycle violation - not CS mismatch. I am not sure we want to overload it. All existing "bpel:*" fault thrown are for internally consumption only. Not directly visible through BPEL partnerLink.
  
• We need to address the difference in one-way or request-response MEP.

The proposal has two parts: background (non-normative) text and normative text.

My proposal is to add both parts into the spec text:

The background text will be added as a non-normative appendix titled: "Background about Dead Letter Messages in BPEL: (Non-normative)"
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[background text begins here ...]
When an inbound message comes into the SCA and BPEL infrastructure, such a message is normally consumed by a matching inbound message activity (IMA)(e.g. a <receive> activity). However, due to process model error or runtime message data error, there is no matching IMA at all or a matching IMA is not enabled within the expected time limit of the (system/business level) protocol between the message sender and receiver. This kind of messages, which do not have a matching IMA, are termed as "dead message messages"

Examples of process model error are:

• matching IMAs are skipped by faults
  
• matching IMAs blocked by other activities within a sequence or an impossible-to-fulfill control link transition condition.
• IMAs cannot receive message due to incorrect usage of message correlation mechanism, including BPEL correlation set and SCA conversational interface
  

Examples of runtime message data error are similar to above, as the above error are not inside the process definition itself but caused by incorrect data values.

There might not be a universal way to determine a message is truly a "dead letter message" without any additional protocol between message senders and receivers. Consider the following example, an message is dispatched to a BPEL process instance by SCA conversational mechanism. At the moment when the message is matched with the BPEL process instance, there might be no <receive> activity enabled for the matching partnerLink and operation at all, or there is a <receive> activity enabled for the matching partnerLink and operation but with a mismatched correlation set. Some users might think this is certainly a dead letter message situation. However, a matching IMA may be enabled minutes, hours, or days later, as the matching IMA might be blocked in the process model.

On the other hand, there might be some cases that the BPEL infrastructure can determine there will never be a matching IMA enable in future. And, some advanced features in BPEL infrastructure (e.g. process instance repair or process definition repair) might make the detection of "dead letter message" cases more difficult. However, with some additional system-level protocol coordination between the message sender and receiver, it might make detection easier.
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[normative text begins here ...]
If the SCA or BPEL infrastructure is able to determine that a message, that has been sent to an endpoint address of a business process, will never be matched with a corresponding inbound message activity (IMA) (i.e. receive, onMessage or onEvent), then:

• If the message is sent through a request-response operation, "sca:DeadLetterMessageError" fault SHOULD be replied to the message sender
• If the message is sent through a one-way operation and additional system-level protocol is  used between the message sender and receiver, this error situation MAY be notified to the message sender, according to the protocol used.

If the message endpoint address of a business process leverages or participates a (transport or above transport level) protocol that has a timeout or expiration duration value specified, and if no IMA can be matched with the inbound message within the timeout / expiration duration, then:

• If the message is sent through a request-response operation, "sca:DeadLetterMessageError" fault MAY be replied to the message sender
• If the message is sent through a one-way operation and additional system-level protocol is used between the message sender and receiver, this error situation MAY be notified to the message sender, according to the protocol used.
  

For example, if a message is sent through a request-response operation and HTTP is used as a transport protocol with the timeout duration set as 60 seconds, and if SCA/BPEL infrastructure can determine ino IMA can be matched within 60 seconds, a SCA+BPEL infrastructure might reply "sca:DeadLetterMessageError" fault as the response to pre-empt the transport level timeout error.
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Besides using the "never" wording suggested by Michael Rowley, there are some minor fine tuning of wordings in the first half of the normative text.

The second half of the normative text is newly added. The logic and style are very similar to the first half. It is explicitly targeting the "protocol time out" situation that Danny mentioned in the last email. If people do NOT want the spec to deal with "protocol time out" situation explicitly, I am OK to remove it.


Thanks!



Regards,
Alex Yiu