RE: [ws-tx] Issue 087 - WS-BA: Meaning of 'Expires' attribute incoordination context is unclear

[Ram Jeyaraman <Ram.Jeyaraman@microsoft.com>]

Modified proposed resolution:

"A coordination context MAY have an Expires attribute. This element specifies the period, measured from the point in time at which the context was first created or received, after which a long-running activity MAY be terminated solely due to its length of operation. From that point forward, the coordinator MAY elect to unilaterally compensate the activity, so long as it has not made an outcome decision. Similarly a participant MAY elect to exit the activity so long as it has not already decided to complete."

________________________________
From: Ram Jeyaraman
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 10:50 PM
To: ws-tx@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [ws-tx] Issue 087 - WS-BA: Meaning of 'Expires' attribute in coordination context is unclear


This is identified as WS-TX issue 087.



Please ensure follow-ups have a subject line starting "Issue 087 – WS-BA: Meaning of 'Expires' attribute in coordination context is unclear".


From: Ram Jeyaraman [mailto:Ram.Jeyaraman@microsoft.com]
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 10:44 PM
To: ws-tx@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [ws-tx] NEW Issue - WS-BA: Meaning of 'Expires' attribute in coordination context is unclear

Protocol:  WS-BA

Artifact:  spec

Draft:  BA specification CD 02

Link to the document referenced:

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/18818/wstx-wsba-1.1-spec-cd-02.pdf

Section and PDF line number: lines 152-155

Issue type: design

Related issues:

Issue Description:
The BA specification states the following: “A coordination context may have an Expires attribute. This attribute specifies the period, measured from the point in time at which the context was first received, after which a long-running activity may be terminated solely due to its length of operation. A participant could terminate its participation in the long running activity using the Exit protocol message.”

This definition does not explain how the timeout composes with the complete/completed messages.  One would presume that, like the two-phase-commit protocol, the timeout ceases to apply when the activity enters the Completed state.

By not constraining this particular behavior, BA opens itself up to something along the lines of heuristic decisions, justified on the basis of timeout interpretations.

Proposed solution:

Reword the definition of ‘Expires’ as follows:


“A coordination context may have an Expires attribute. This attribute specifies the period, measured from the point in time at which the context was first created or received, after which a long-running activity may be terminated solely due to its length of operation. From that point forward, the coordinator may elect to unilaterally compensate the transaction, so long as it has not made an outcome decision. Similarly a participant may elect to exit the activity so long as it has not already decided to complete.”