Re: [soa-rm] Definition of "Service Consumer"

[Don Flinn <flinn@alum.mit.edu>]

Greg

Following the concept in the "Web Services Architecture" specification
we should should separate the owner (human), from the agent that is
defined in that spec as software.  This is implied in your definition 2.
The spec further divides the owner and agent into a requester and
provider.  

Putting those pieces together:

An Agent is a software program acting on behalf of an owner. 
(Note that there can be indirection in the control by the owner.  For
example, the owner might control the agent by means of policy, directly
invoke the agent, put control directly into the agent code, etc.)

A Service Consumer is an agent that wishes to interact with a service. 

I would lean more to the former spec's use of Requester Agent rather
than Service Consumer since the request might not be successful and thus
not consumed.

Symmetry seem to demand similar constructs on the service side.

Don

On Thu, 2005-04-07 at 16:23 +0200, Gregory A. Kohring wrote:
> Matthew,
> 
> OK, here a fewer other choices which might be deemed more
> "respectful"...
> 
> Service Consumer:
> 
> 1) End-user of a service.
> 
> 2) An agent which, acting on behalf of its owner, uses a service.
> 
> 3) An entity which utilizes a service
> 
> 4) An entity which consumes the product or information produced by a
>     service.
> 
> 
> Note all of these definitions depend upon the definition of the
> term "service".  Have we agreed on this already? Perhaps we should
> start there first...
> 
> 
> -- Greg
> 
> 
> 
> Matthew MacKenzie wrote:
> > I think services deserve respect, lets try not to exploit them :-)
> > 
> > Gregory A. Kohring wrote:
> > 
> >> Thomas,
> >>
> >> Perhaps one should use a somewhat broader definition which captures
> >> the human user as well:
> >>
> >> Service Consumer: An entity which exploits a service.
> >>
> >>
> >> -- Greg
> >>
> >>
> >> Thomas Erl wrote:
> >>
> >>> Now that we've decided on the term "service consumer" it may be 
> >>> useful to formally define it. The term "consumer" is used by the WS-I 
> >>> Basic Profile wherein it is simply defined as "Software that invokes 
> >>> an instance."
> >>>
> >>> Thomas
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> > 
> 
> 
-- 
Don Flinn
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