I did a little digging
through the issues list and meeting
minutes to see where the initializePartnerRole attribute came into the
spec. Here’s
the original issue: http://www.choreology.com/external/WS_BPEL_issues_list.html#Issue139.1
The text for
this issue was added to the
spec in version 1.77: http://wsbpeltc.cvs.sourceforge.net/*checkout*/wsbpeltc/specifications/wsbpel-specification-draft.doc?revision=1.77
One of the
points of contention with this
attribute is that partner link initialization through EPR schemes like
WS-Addressing are grouped in with initialization through an
<assign>
activity. It’s worth noting that the final proposal for 139.1 did not
introduce this concept. In fact, the intent of 139.1 was the exact
opposite.
Initialization through an EPR scheme would be considered something that
the
BPEL programmer would want to declare as a requirement for deployment.
This was
the intent according to Yaron’s emails related to the issue (i.e. http://www.oasis-open.org/archives/wsbpel/200506/msg00047.html).
As it turns out, the adopted resolution is not explicit with regard to
defining
how a partner link gets initialized and why a programmer would want to
use this
attribute. While it seems clear from the emails what the intent was, it
didn’t
make it into the spec text.
This was
changed in version 133 by grouping
partner link initialization through WS-Addressing was with
initialization
through an <assign>. This was during the face to face in Stuttgart so
it’s possible that it was
discussed in the room but I don’t see any record of it nor do I recall
any references back to 139.1.