Issue - 53 - Should include Business Transaction Management (BTM) programming constructs compatible with WS-T, BTP and WS-TXM

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Issue - 53 - Should include Business Transaction Management (BTM) programming constructs compatible with WS-T, BTP and WS-TXM

Status: open
Date added: 26 Aug 2003
Origin: Choreology submission on business transaction management  (document details), issue A
Submitter: Alastair Green
Date submitted: 26 August 2003
Description: There are three multi-vendor specifications which address the needs of business transaction management for Web Services: Business Transaction Protocol 1.0 (OASIS Committee Specification, June 2002); WS-Transaction (proprietary consortium, August 2002), and the very recently published WS-TXM (proprietary consortium, August 2003).

In our view BTP Cohesions, WS-T Business Activity, and WS-TXM Long-Running Actions are the most relevant aspects of these specifications for WS-BPEL. These aspects overlap to a very high degree, each effectively utilizing a two-phase (promise/decide) outcome protocol. (We should emphasize that there has been little time to analyze or assimilate WS-TXM, so this is a provisional conclusion with respect to that specification).

WS-BPEL should be equipped with the ability to create and terminate business transactions, and to define process participation in such transactions, in a way which is compatible with the intersection of these three capabilities. This will minimize dependence on future standardization efforts in the BTM area.
Submitter's proposal: Syntax should be added to WS-BPEL to permit

1. Business transaction creation, manifested by the creation of a business transaction context variable.

2. Business transaction context reception and transmission (propagation) via invoke/receive/reply, allowing sub-transaction or pass-through behaviour.

3. Process involvement in business transactions as participants, which can handle positive and negative transaction finalization messages (by means of confirm and cancel handlers).

4. Two-phase termination of business transactions by selection of participants to be prepared, to be cancelled and to be confirmed.

These facilities are all portable over products implementing WS-T BA, BTP and WS-TXM outcome protocols.

The WS-Coordination specification (proprietary consortium, August 2002) is able to support context passing for multiple coordination protocols, and its use will support the goal of compatibility with WS-T, BTP and WS-TXM.
Changes: 26 Aug 2003 - new issue

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