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Subject: Re: [ebxml-iic] Use Case #2 Termination Cases (Nesting)


Title: RE: [ebxml-iic] Use Case #2 Termination Cases (Nesting)
Jacques,
 
 
    Thinking some more about the need to pass parameter values between concurrent Threads.  Also, I am not sure that we could "synchronize" so that two concurrent Threads would not asume that THEY are the first to get a response (and set mutex="true").. (i.e. two Threads both receiving a different/unique response could set the variable value, and continue execution while other Threads would read that variable value, and exit/fail if they also received a response)  As a result, two different response messages could still be received without being detected.  Synchronization issues between concurrent threads modifying a "global" variable is something we were trying to avoid by restricting scope of variables to their local Thread only.
 
    One could avoid that situation by performing any "common" action between all the Threads (single PutMessage, followed by a single GetMessage) outside of those child Threads, and performing any logical branching at a higher level, before splitting a Thread to perform some specific set of transactions. For example, doing a PO Request, while possibly getting back multiple different types of a response ( similary to your scenario of concurrrent child threads)
 
 
<TestCase>
<PutMessage>...PO  request message ...</PutMessage>
<Sleep>....some number of seconds to receive all response messages... </Sleep>
<GetMessage>.. a generic response filter ....</GetMessage>
 
<TestAssertion><VerifyContent> /FilterResult/Message[count()=1]</VerifyContent></TestAssertion>   ...verify that only one business response message was received.. exit fail by default if more than one type of response is received
 
<SetXPathParameter><Name>ResponseType</Name><Expression>/FilterResult/Message/@responseType</Expression></SetXPathParameter> ... store response type in a variable ...
 
<TestAssertion>
<VerifyParameter><Name>ResponseType</Name><Value>OutOfStockResponse</Value></VerifyParameter>
<WhenTrue>
    <Split>
    <Thread name="BackOrderRequest">
</Split>
<WhenFalse>
    <Continue>
</TestAssertion>
 
<TestAssertion>
<VerifyParameter><Name>ResponseType</Name><Value>Invoice</Value></VerifyParameter>
<WhenTrue>
    <Split>
    <Thread name="CompletePurchase">
    </Split>
<WhenFalse>
    <Continue>
</TestAssertion>
 
<Join type="orJoin">
    <ThreadRef nameRef="BackOrderRequest"/>
    <ThreadRef nameRef="CompletePurchase"/>
</EndJoin>
 
.... proceed to other testing threads.......
 
Scripting this way would avoid the synchronization issue of concurrent Threads modifying the same global variable...
 
Comments?
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 4:24 PM
Subject: RE: [ebxml-iic] Use Case #2 Termination Cases (Nesting)

Mike: inline
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kass [mailto:michael.kass@nist.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 11:13 AM
To: Jacques Durand; 'Monica J. Martin'
Cc: ebXML IIC - main list (E-mail) (E-mail); tsakach@certivo.net; phogan@sinotechnologies.com; Dale Moberg
Subject: Re: [ebxml-iic] Use Case #2 Termination Cases (Nesting)

Jacques and all,
 
   My comments in italics
 
Mike
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 12:15 AM
Subject: RE: [ebxml-iic] Use Case #2 Termination Cases (Nesting)

inline <JD>

-----Original Message-----
From: Monica J. Martin [mailto:Monica.Martin@sun.com]
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 4:17 PM
To: Jacques Durand
Cc: 'Michael Kass'; ebXML IIC - main list (E-mail) (E-mail);
tsakach@certivo.net; phogan@sinotechnologies.com; Dale Moberg
Subject: Re: [ebxml-iic] Use Case #2 Termination Cases (Nesting)



>         24 August 2004:
>
>             [MIKE2] - Additionally, I would suggest (just to keep the
>             rules as simple as possible) that <AbortThread> be
>             permitted for "serial" Threads as well. I do not see any
>             reason why/how this would have a negative effect on
>             execution flow. Basically, this would say that an
>             "aborted" serial Thread simply exits ( for whatever
>             <TestAssertion> result in that Thread) and workflow
>             continues wiht the next instruction after that Thread.
>             This can be thought of as the serial version of the
>             "dangling concurrent thread", whose result is not
>             consequential to the ultimate result of the Test Case.
>             This keeps the rules simple for all Threads.
>
>             Comments?
>
>             [Jacques Durand] Everything above and before is OK to me,
>             with some reserve on the notion of "serial" thread. I
>             assume "serialization of threads" has the following
>             semantics (since I assume that splitting/joining are the
>             only way to combine threads here):
>
mm1: In workflow (process), you may have several concurrent threads that
when one becomes active, the others are disabled. It seems this still
follows your logic, Mike, I believe.

<JD> I believe Mike has more in mind the fact that threads could just be chained
one after the other (no concurrency assumed like in the "exclusive-or" fork of BPSS)
so I suspect just a convenience feature from Mike... (right Mike?), as threads others
than the "root" or main, must always be forked (split), so "serial" just means some
implicit way to split them (that I previously described).

[MIKE3]- That was my intention with <Abort> of a "serial" Thread. However, we have now introduced "<Return> as well ( your symmetric counterpart to <Abort>).  My question now is: what would be the difference between <Abort> or <Return> for a "serial" Thread?  (Since their meaning only applies to a <Join> operation).  Both exit the Thread, both kill that Thread.  Since a "serial" Thread is not "joined" is there any semantic difference between <Abort>ing or <Returning>ing a serial Thread? Perhaps this is a "moot'" point, and the test writer can use either one, since both permit continued execution of workflow.
[Jacques Durand] Mike: my understanding is that your "serial thread" actually correspond to an implicit pattern in using split/join (please confirm):

Thread main

split T1

join T1

split T2

join T2

end Main

Thread T1...

end T1

Thread T2...

end T2 

If taht is so, then we still need to define what it means to join an "aborted" thread. The issue does not exist for "Return", which just completes the thread right away.

 

>             (2) if for some reason you want the thread to jump
>             directly to "successful completion" if TestAssertion =
>             True/False, then we need a 4th action besides "continue",
>             "abort", "exit[testcase]": we could call it "endthread".
>             In that case that is just one more way to terminate
>             positively a thread (so join semantics is same as for
>             normal completion)
>

[MIKE3] - We chose <Return> instead of <EndThread>.. but the semantics you describe above are the same.
So you have your "symmetry" of <Abort> and <Return>.. which have different meanings for a <Join> operation.
[Jacques Durand] OK 
 


mm1: This follows what we discussed as endsWhen, re: ends when
'endthread.' However, I'll have to think a bit more about the Main
thread and containing threads because of this in the previous v1.1 ebXML
BPSS (I've cc: Dale Moberg so he can comment as well):

[MIK3] - The "main" Thread is now the <TestCase> in the specifcation.  Rules would be: <Abort>ing the <TestCase> (i.e. the "main thread")  sets a final <TestCase> result of "undetermined".  <Return>ning at the <TestCase> level sets a final state of "pass".
[Jacques Durand] OK , we still have to make it clear that there is always such thing as a "main" or top thread, whether explicitly declared or not. The "TestCase container" is the main thread, if no other explicit declaration is made. It is just a convenience feature to not have to declare a main thread.

 

<JD> the main thread can be implicit, as Mike suggests (but then the container of
the test case script still has thread semantics) again a convenience feature.</JD>

"The Success and Failure elements represent an aggregation of a state
and a transition to this particular state. This transition like regular
transitions can be guarded by a conditionGuard. The conditionGuard can
be used to indicate that a binary collaboration ends in success or
failure based on the fact that the last business transaction activity
response is a business document of a particular type, or based on the
content of the response. It is important to note that the success or
failure of the collaboration does not affect the success or failure of
the individual business transaction activities, which compose the binary
collaboration. In particular, the nature of the commitments is not
changed when the collaboration ends in a specific state. The success or
failure of a collaboration is rather an indication, which can be
reported on, or acted upon to initiate other collaborations. If several
completion states are specified within a collaboration definition, the
business collaboration run-time instance state is "complete" as soon as
one of the completion state is reached. It is the responsibility of the
designer to ensure that all completion states are mutually exclusive and
that once one of them is reached there are no further Business Activity
open. A timeout exception will be generated by the BSI in such a case."

<JD> Using variables, our script can verify mutual exclusive threads execution:
i.e. as soon as a thread is "elected", it sets a variable, say mutex="true".
Each mutually exclusive thread tests this var in a TestAssertion somewhere at their beginning,
and exit on failure if mutex="true" at the time it does the verification.

[MIKE3] - I believe our <Split> and <Join> operations, together with the <Abort> and <Return> operations available within <Thread>s will handle the above scenario (multiple, mutually exclusive succcess/failure states).  If there are multiple concurrent branches, any one of which may signal "success" for the current Binary Collaboration (i.e. the "parent" Thread)... those branches can be represented as concurrent <Thread>s, any one of which may <Return> or <Abort>.. signaling "success" or "failure".   Providing an <OrJoin> for those mutually exclusive <Thread>s would allow immediate determination of success of the parent <Thread>  (i.e. the Binary Collaboration) and also immediate termination of all other <Thread>s  that are part of that <OrJoin>.
[Jacques Durand] Using Or-join is not enough to exit on failure if more than one of these threads is executing. (Or-join does not preclude joining several threads) . When you split several "exclusive" threads, they may still run concurrently up to a point (say a GetMessage) where only one of them should proceed further (say each thread handles a particular message profile, e.g. based on company type). Now the business process under test is supposed to generate a single message of this kind. If more than one is generated, several threads will proceed further and that is what we want to detect. So far I don't see other ways than setting a variable and getting every thread to check this var at the right step... but I believe we can do that in our release - assuming different threads can share a var , e.g. from parent thread (right Mike?)

[MIKE3] - We are staying away from "variable driven" execution.. primarly because of the "side effect" issue of permitting concurrent Threads to modify "global" variable values.  Variable scope is currently limited to the <Thread> in which it is defined, and any "descendent" <Thread>s.

 

>         - when threads are joined, an aborted thread will
>         automatically cause failure of an and-join (which aborts the
>         container thread) [MIKE2] - My question is, why abort the
>         container Thread as well? If a Join simply allows/disallows
>         (gates) workflow continuation based upon the result of the
>         Join, then it appears that in either case (whether Join
>         condition is satisfied or not), there is no reason to "abort"
>         the parent Thread. There is no "error" (that I can see) either
>         way with the Join that would require an "abort" of the parent
>         Thread. If the and/or Join result allows continuation of
>         workflow , then the parent Thread would simply finish its
>         workflow execution, and return control to IT's parent Thread
>         (ther parent's parent).
>
mm1: Only as long as one contained thread completed successfully correct?

<JD> at the bottom of this, we have to decide whether:
(1) a thread can have three states only: not started, in execution (including hanging),
and complete.

[MIKE3] - We've implemented this..


(2) a thread can have one more state: aborted. If that's the case, we need
to escalate the semantics of a thread "aborting" ,for the container thread,
and I'd suggest that it depends on the way the thread is split and joined.
This "abort" is a little like an exception.

[MIKE3] - One could add this to the spec, but it is really the equivalent of a "hanging" (or "in execution" ) Thread.  And although it is "like' an exception, it is not semantically treated that way by the Test Driver.. but simply as part of the logic flow.

Now, my main priority at this point, is ease of implementation, and avoid
unnecessary complexity - and delay. So if we feel time is a little short to do (2) properly, I'd rather skip the "abort" for now - remember that there is room for other releases.
 
 
[MIKE3] - We've already implemented <Abort>.. but  we can leave it out of the spec.  I see it has having great value, particularly for the scenario Monica described above (mutually exclusive "Success" states, any one of which signals an end to the other <Thread>s)  That is how our <Abort>, <Return> and <Join> operations work.
[Jacques Durand] we need to define precisely the semantics of Abort, and in case we can't agree quickly on this, we should leave it out of this release. 

 

We may also choose to just introduce a simpler operator to complete the thread, instead
(like jumping to its end).

[MIKE3] - That would be equivalent to what we have now really (i.e. <Abort> and <Return> essentially do that now).
[Jacques Durand] so your interpretation of Abort seems to overlap largely with Return, so we could keep "Return" for this release (semantics is straightforward). 


>         If the and/or Join result precludes workflow continuation...
>         fine... The logic rules have been followed, and again, control
>         is returned to the "parent's parent Thread". No abort is
>         necessary. The only scenario that I can see that would require
>         the parent Thread to "abort" is if a <TestAssertion> operation
>         run IN THAT Parent Thread implicilty or (as I would prefer)
>         explicitly sets an <AbortThread> instruction based upon the
>         result of that <TestAssertion>.
>
>             [MIKE] - There are a couple of issues here: The only way a
>             "Main" Thread could abort (based on your suggested logic
>             for concurrent Threads) is if it is concurrently run (i.e.
>             the Main Thread is <Split>). But if it is the Main thread,
>             why would you <Split> it?
>
mm1: We did have a case on start that there was a split in the previous
specification (fork).

<JD> there is always a "top" thread, whether it is called "main" or not. Every other thread
is "split" from there (or from previously split thread).

[MIKE3] - Agreed.  As written now, <TestCase> is the "main" <Thread> .. from which all others are <Split>

>             [MIKE2] - I would like to suggest setting the final state
>             of the Test Case to "undetermined" if a child (of the
>             <TestCase>) <TestAssertion> encounters an <AbortThread>
>             instruction during its workflow. Otherwise, all other
>             <Thread>s simply "abort" and pass control back to their
>             parent Thread. If execution proceeds to logical conclusion
>             without an exception conditions or explicit exits, then
>             the Test Case final result is "pass".
>
<JD> again - if we introduce abort - I would not give test case termination semantics
to occurrences of abort: I woudl only give it "flow" semantics (i.e. affecting
the way the tset case executes, somewhat similarly as an exception).

 
[MIKE3] - Agreed and implemented
[Jacques Durand] so lets define precisely the Abort semantics, and see if we can agree on it.
But I wouldn't spend much time on it for this release. 


So only when the top (main) thread is itself aborting (either from one of its
TestAssertion, or from and-joining an aborted child thread), then I would worry about
the meaning for termination, and favor "undetermined" here.

[MIKE3] - Agreed
 


So it appears we might need more time to reach a consensus on "abort" and I would not
have problem postponing this to a future release.

 

[MIKE3] - We can exercise it in use cases with our implementation.

Jacques


mm1: I've referenced the original section for Dale's benefit for comment
(if he has time). Thanks.
Reference:
http://www.oasis-open.org/archives/ebxml-iic/200408/msg00023.html (at
least the start of a long trail of comments)


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