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Subject: question regarding conformance statement for KMIP
Hi - Rather than convening a meeting on conformance (as I'd suggested a couple of meetings ago), I'd like to pose the question I've been wondering about and see if there is an issue or not: - Should we modify the language in Section 5 of the Usage Guide to clarify what "support all objects etc" means? In particular, do we need to clarify whether this means a) the server has to implement all mandatory objects etc or b) the server has to understand requests related to all mandatory objects etc (but can return back an "object not supported" message). In drafting the conformance language currently included in the Usage Guide, I followed the advice expressed in the Conformance Testing document available at http://xml.coverpages.org/conform20000112.html: that is, "the requirements or criteria for conformance must be specified in the standard or specification. This is usually in a conformance clause or conformance statement..." The conformance statement in section 5 of the KMIP Usage Guide distinguishes between conformance requirements for KMIP servers and clients: "Server implementations of the KMIP protocol must support all objects, attributes, operations and profiles not specified as "optional" in the KMIP Specification in order to be conformant to the specification. Server implementations that do not support objects, attributes, operations and profiles defined as "optional" can claim KMIP conformance, though they may be limited in terms of interoperability with other KMIP implementations. Client implementations of the KMIP protocol may implement any subset of the KMIP protocol. For example, a client may implement only the Get and Locate operations for symmetric keys. In order to claim conformance, however, such a client must implement all aspects of any elements of the protocol (objects, attributes, operations, profiles) that it claims to support. In the example of Get/Locate support for symmetric keys, therefore, a conforming client implementation must support all required attributes for symmetric keys." In re-reading the conformance statement for server implementations, it looks to me that I made it more restrictive than I intended - that the language should perhaps have been something like: "Server implementations of the KMIP protocol shall accept and respond to client requests for all objects, operations and profiles not specified as 'optional' in the KMIP Specification in order to be conformant to the specification; a conformant response can be 'this object etc is not supported.'" But perhaps it's better to have the more restrictive language, after all? I'd appreciate your thoughts! Regards, Bob
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