Batch Lookup (was "Re: ReadOnlyProfile")

[Gary Cole <gary.cole@oracle.com>]

Anil,

On Mar 29, 2011, at 7:43 AM, John, Anil wrote:
> We also need to re-read the specs to see if there is overlap between  
> lookup() and search on what we need to accomplish.

Remind me again please what you need to accomplish.  I may be able to  
help.

For instance, I may be able to clarify something about your  
requirements for "SPML Operations on an Attribute Service".  You  
originally thought that you needed "batch pull" capabilities because  
SAML Attribute Query could not answer the following questions:
   * "Give me the unique id's of all users with Attribute X"
   * "For all users (whose unique id's I just got), give me listing of  
attributes for each (in one shot)"

SPML's Search Capability (section 3.6.7.1 of the main spec) gives you  
all of that in one shot.  You can request one search() and in that  
request use the 'returnData' attribute to specify how much information  
you want back for each matching object:  nothing, identifier-only,  
data (which would include all schema-defined attributes) or  
everything, which would add capability-specific data to schema-defined  
data.  Another parameter allows you to specify which capabilities  
interest you.  In your case, you would specify "returnData='data'", so  
that you would get all of the attributes.  Or you could take the  
default, which is 'everything'.  Unless you have capability-specific  
data, 'everything' is equivalent to 'data'.  A client can also specify  
a maximum limit on the number of matching objects to return.

The Provider may send all of the matching objects in a single  
SearchResult, or the provider may break the results into chunks that  
the requestor can iterate.  Logically, it's still part of a single  
search result, although a series of iterate() requests may be  
necessary to return all matching objects.

So, please help me to understand what a batch operation would add to  
this?  Search gives you by default the equivalent of a batch lookup.

Gary