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Subject: Re: [soa-rm-ra] about Contract definition


Boris,

I do not mean a legal contract, I am talking about regular service contract, which we define in the RAF. Anyone may use it as a legal contract if needed. I do not understand what does mean technical contract - if I hire a service that provides business value to me, I deal with it as with a business contract. Technically, the only "contract" between code and code is an interface, IMO.

As of "common usage of service contract term", I also anticipated your response in this point. As we know, the term contract initially was set for Web Services; when OASIS struggled for contract that includes policies for 3 years, then Thomas Erl stood back and admitted policies to be included but WSDL was not modified for this; now the same Erl talks about "service contract (has nothing to do with WS and/or WSDL)" in different words, of cause. So. We see a slow transition of service contract in public to what we define as service contract, which I am very glad with.

- Michael



-----Original Message-----
From: Lublinsky, Boris <boris.lublinsky@navteq.com>
To: mpoulin@usa.com <mpoulin@usa.com>; boris.lublinsky@navteq.com <boris.lublinsky@navteq.com>; soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org <soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Wed, Jan 12, 2011 2:13 am
Subject: RE: [soa-rm-ra] about Contract definition

Michael,
Once I send the message, I was anticipating something like this.
Lets agree, that there may be 2 types of contracts – technical service contract (has nothing to do with WS and/or WSDL), that is the ne that I am referring too and which is common usage of service contract term and legal contract on the service usage, the one that you are referring too. Both are important, but the reference has to be explicitly qualified, so that the reader is not confused.
When it reads service contract, no one (me included) has any idea what it refers too.  
 
From: mpoulin@usa.com [mailto:mpoulin@usa.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 6:41 PM
To: boris.lublinsky@navteq.com; soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [soa-rm-ra] about Contract definition
 
Boris, your interpretation of service contract seems to me regards Web Services or related definition of 'interface contract'. To my knowledge, RAF defines two things: Service Description - public announcement of the service abilities and related constraints - and Service Contract - an agreement between the service provider and one or several consumers about what service abilities, related communication means and constraints may be used by the this (or these) consumers. Thus, the service provider knows exactly who uses its service and what obligations in each case the service provider has to provide for.
 
"The way consumer uses this  contract might be specific for a given consumer. " Any consumer may use Service Contract or service in any way consumer wants. However, upon signing the Service Contract, the consumer may enter into legal relationship with the service provider. That is, 'doing anything with contract' is still under the legal constraints. If you meant that the consumer may use _service_ in the way "specific for a given consumer", then I do agree with you -  Ken and me are writing related recommendations on the tests that the consumer might need to perform in such case because this use of the service may be in different EC that the service was guaranteed by the service provider.
 
Regarding "Creating a service contract for a group of consumers does not seem to be practical... and might not be aware which consumers are going to use it"  Indeed, the service does not know and does not need to know who uses it. However, the service provider is interested in this matter very much. If the service provider requires Service Contracts, this means that it is not obliged to provide service to any requests sent to the public service interfaces from those who had not signed the contracts. At the same time, there are may examples where Service Description may serve as a default service contract, e.g. for security services - all must use them under their conditions and there is nothing to agree on. Another example, in some geographical areas or in communities of consumers defined based on other criteria, certain services may be available in only one version for all, i.e. all consumers in one will have the Service Contract that may differ from the Service Contract for the same service available in another area (e.g., economical sanctions).
 
- Michael
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Lublinsky, Boris <boris.lublinsky@navteq.com>
To: mpoulin@usa.com <mpoulin@usa.com>; soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org <soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Tue, Jan 11, 2011 2:04 pm
Subject: RE: [soa-rm-ra] about Contract definition
What confuses me in all these definitions is mentioning of multiple participants.
A service contract is defined by service provider and specifies service’s characteristics and usage/invocation policies.
The way consumer uses this  contract might be specific for a given consumer. Creating a service contract for a group of consumers does not seem to be practical. Remember a service is created not for a specific consumer(s), but rather to produce a certain RWE and might not be aware which consumers are going to use it.
 
From: mpoulin@usa.com [mailto:mpoulin@usa.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 3:51 AM
To: soa-rm-ra@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [soa-rm-ra] about Contract definition
 
Here is an alternative definition of the service contract (I think that trying to define a general term we compromise our goal - service contract. I refer to the Service Contract because we do not mention any other contracts in the document):
 
1071 Service Contract
1072 A contract represents an agreement made by two or more participants 
1073 (the contracting parties) on a set of announced service characteristics and to be used policies applied to this service interactions.
 
- Michael
 

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