New issue: WS-AT: Register/Preparing in coordinator state table problematic

["Peter Furniss" <peter.furniss@erebor.co.uk>]

Issue name -- WS-AT: Register/Preparing in coordinator state table problematic

 

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Target document and draft:

 

Protocol:  WS-AT

 

Artifact:  spec

 

Draft:

 

AT spec cd 1

 

Link to the document referenced:

 

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/17325/wstx-wsat-1.1-spec-cd-01.pdf

 

Section and PDF line number:

 

section 10, lines 503/504: table row Register, column Preparing

 

Issue type:

 

Design / Editorial

 

Related issues:

 

New issue: WS-AT: Coordinator state machine incomplete

 

Issue Description:

 

The cell Register/Preparing cannot be interpreted in a way that is consistent with both the rest of the state table and with section 4.3.1 (lines 178-180).

 

Issue Details:

 

The states of the WS-AT have to be interpreted as the state of the multi-lateral coordinator  - events occur that change the state of a bilateral relationship, but do not not change the state in the table (see issue Coordinator state machine unclear and incomplete).

 

Of the three cells that have different behaviour for volatile and durable protocols, the two in the None state have to be understood to mean that a message from a durable participant causes the Durable: behaviour, from a volatile participant the Volatile: (since there is no modelled knowledge of the participant, this has to be the case).

 

However, according to section 4.3.1 (and common practice in other protocols), new registrations are permitted while volatile participants are being prepared. The only way to interpret the Register/Preparing cell to align with that would be to declare that the "Preparing" state is that of a bilateral relationship, and the Volatile/Durable refers to the type of that relationship, and not that in the Register.

 

This contradicts both the meaning of Volatile: Durable: in the other cells, and the multi-lateral interpretation of the states.              

 

Proposed Resolution:

 

This will be resolved if separate tables for the multilateral and bilateral relationships are created as proposed for the issue WS-AT: Coordinator state machine unclear and incomplete issue.