Alastair,
Thanks for the thoughts. Yep, we are thinking in the
same lines.
We need a framework at a super-context level so that
context is exchanges in a uniform manner across web services. As Mark and Sanjay
pointed out, I think we could define our little world and move forward. The BT
group might be the first to *require* a context.
cheers
Krishna,
I also agree with limiting the context to the needs of a cohesion (BT)
protocol. The super-context is a) outside our scope/powers and b) arguable. I
like the SOAP approach (or the GIOP approach) where many unrelated contexts
can travel, and it is a matter of cooperation between different pairs of
actors as to how they are interpreted, delegated/retransmitted etc. To take a
concrete case in point: what if the rules for delegation are different for
security and transactions? I may want to stop propagation in one case, and
allow it (or enforce it) in the other.
Where I do strongly agree with your approach is that context information
should be freely capable of being written by frameworks or application
instances, as well as standardized services of the kind we're working on
defining.
So I guess I would only want to see a framework for placing and identifying
contexts (perhaps with an IANA like scheme for allocating unique ids for
well-known standard contexts), rather than an attempt to tie them all into a
super-context. Now, a framework where links are defined (or not defined), and
elements may or may not be present may amount to the same thing ...
Alastair
Sanjay Dalal wrote:
<Mark>
. 2.
Context is information other than the actual transaction data and can
include the user credentials, any previous state, time of day,
geographic location of the calling entity,
...
I think that the general context should be a
series of specific context instances, one for transactions (which only
talks about transaction related stuff), one for security,
etc.
I agree, for us, context has the scope of business transaction
only. Of course, it will be good if BT context can sit inside a larger
context structure defined somewhere else (like W3C). I agree with Mark,
we should concentrate on addressing only the transaction
context.sanjay
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