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

["Chiusano Joseph" <chiusano_joseph@bah.com>]

Someone down in the thread wrote:

> 2) An agent which, acting on behalf of its owner, uses a service.

If we hypothetically agree on the concept that an agent uses service, is
an agent always acting on behalf of its owner? I would assert that it is
acting on behalf of whomever invoked (directed, requested, whatever term
we believe is most appropriate) it.

The more concrete point being: A service owner and a service "invoker"
are, oftentimes, not one and the same.

Joe

Joseph Chiusano
Booz Allen Hamilton
Visit us online@ http://www.boozallen.com
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Don Flinn [mailto:flinn@alum.mit.edu] 
> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 12:22 PM
> To: Gregory A. Kohring
> Cc: Matthew MacKenzie; Thomas Erl; soa-rm@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: [soa-rm] Definition of "Service Consumer"
> 
> 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
> President, Flint Security LLC
> Tel: 781-856-7230
> Fax: 781-631-7693
> e-mail: flinn@alum.mit.edu
> http://flintsecurity.com
> 
>