Re: [ebxml-cppa] BPSS to WSDL mapping

[bhaugen <linkage@interaccess.com>]

Some people have touched on this angle, but
just to make it explicit:  there is a big difference
between one-shot messaging or RPC use cases
for Web services on the one hand, and longer
business conversations on the other.

Most of the Web services gurus I know of
understand that there are problems with long
conversations, although their solutions vary
from replacing HTTP (Don Box) to an explicit
model for long conversations that works over
many mechanisms (ebXML).

One problem with long B2B conversations
is business state alignment.  For example,
was that offer accepted or rejected?  Was
that order fulfilled correctly?  Did you
receive that payment?  Is the claim settled?
Etc.

So you are building a business protocol
stack over the technical protocol stack.
The business protocol stack starts with
the business transactions (offer-acceptance,
notify-confirm, etc.) and builds other
business protocols like commitment-
fulfillment and claim-settlement on
top of them.  

WSDL is a puny mechanism for the
business conversation protocols.

BPSS is a good start in the correct
direction, in my biased opinion.

-Bob Haugen

P.S. I think the conversations apply
to B2C as well as B2B - don't you
want your order to be fulfilled?
But the B2C people have worked out 
a set of patterns using standard HTTP
methods that seem to be approaching
defacto standard status.