[wsrp-wsia] [wsia][wsrp-interfaces] Entities and Sessions

[Rich Thompson <richt2@us.ibm.com>]

In mulling over the recent discussions, I'm wondering if we mostly are
tripping over terms again. The thing we have been calling an entity seems
to represent the logic that generates output & deals with user interactions
relative to the current state. As such it is neither transient nor
persistent, though references to such a thing can be ... perhaps the API
should be createEntityRef(bPersist, ...). Likewise, the thing we have been
calling a session seems to represent a storage mechanism where an entity
should keep user specific state. The scope desired for such a thing could
range from a pair of invocations (what would state mean with only a single
invocation?) to persistent. Since session is so strongly tied to a
transient storage mechanism for todays web app developers, perhaps the API
would be cleaner if it were createDataScope or createStateScope.

Anyway .... thoughts to ponder.