[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]
Subject: Re: [soa-rm-ra] The Service Interface
Folks,
The key here is to separate the information needed by the
service participants (i.e., service consumer and service provider)---which are
typically humans---from their respective software or hardware agents that
are used to perform the interaction. In the latter case, we're talking
about the communication between the consumer agent and the provider agent (or
service or, if you prefer, service agent). [Note that for the RA, we
have agreed that the service (or service agent) is synonymous with provider
agent.] For that reason, I prefer the Item 7 articulation of Service
Interface from Ken's latest message, which of course is just one of the many
references to Service Interface from the RM. Unfortunately, many of
these articulations of Service Interface in the RM are misleading, inconsistent,
or ambiguous.
Clearly, the Service Description artifact and all its linkages
are necessary for consumers---again, typically humans---to determine whether or
not a service offering provides the capabilities and qualities of services
it's looking for, plus policy & contract information, etc. But the
meta-level aspects of the Service Interface also need to be captured in some
manner in order for the consumer to either manually develop or use
tools to automagically generate the consumer agent at design-time in
order for the consumer agent to communicate with the service agent at
run-time.
Looking forward to a spirited discussion during the
telecon. In any event, we need to nail this down soon!
Cheers...
- Jeff, JPL |
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]