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Subject: RE: [wsbpel] Issue - 2 - A subfunction proposal


I can't be sure without seeing a more fleshed out version of your thinking
but I believe we are actually thinking along similar lines.

As I stated in my original proposal "A subfunction can be defined...in
another file and imported into the global scope." So this provides exactly
the feature you are looking for, the ability to define subfunctions in a
separate file. I think the problem is that I didn't provide an example. I
will provide one in a separate e-mail.

You also stress in your mail your desire to base the new feature on scopes
because they provide the machinery needed to make the whole thing work. I
couldn't agree more which is why I said in my original proposal "Other than
specifying the input parameters and optional return value a subfunction's
body looks more or less identical to a scope activity's body." I used the
qualifier 'more or less' because of issues around the use of joinCondition
that I have yet to describe.

In terms of substantive differences between your preferred approach and my
proposed approach I see three, but I will address each of them in separate
e-mails so as to keep this e-mail from becoming unbearably long.

	Yaron

P.S. Who is Yoland and why do people keep sending me his mail? =)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Keller [mailto:chris.keller@active-endpoints.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 6:43 AM
> To: ygoland@bea.com; 'Trickovic, Ivana'; wsbpel@lists.oasis-open.org
> Cc: B.Eckenfels@seeburger.de; arkin@intalio.com; 'Liu, Kevin'
> Subject: RE: [wsbpel] Issue - 2 - A subfunction proposal
>
>
> Yoland,
>
> I appreciate your rigor in pursuing this example and I understand this
> is a rough draft.  However, I think this syntax is not the right
> approach.  First I think the usage of a sub-function where it can be
> called as an expression introduces issues because an
> expression can now
> be long running and the process may need to be persisted
> mid-expression.
> Secondly this whack of syntax doesn't address the reusability
> concern of
> external snippets of processes since it doesn't describe the
> export and
> import of these sub-functions.  Generally I think this issue
> should have
> been titled "subprocess" rather than "sub-function" and
> should probably
> be addressed as a scope extension.
>
> My rough thoughts are we change our process types from only
> abstract and
> executable to abstract, executable and subprocess.  And a subprocess
> type introduces a list of supplied parameters for mapping variables,
> correlation sets, partners and partner links.  We then add a
> the ability
> to call it at a scope level <scope subprocess="tns:process(inputVar,
> plink1, corrset, ...)"/> type syntax.  The process being
> itself a scope
> already has the necessary pieces to be the nested scope.  We may need
> restrictions, like all partner link types need to be mapped
> in order to
> avoid complicating potential deployment issues of subprocesses.  Also
> the newly introduced import syntax could be used to help
> implementations
> find the subprocess.
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yaron Goland [mailto:ygoland@bea.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 6:56 PM
> To: 'Trickovic, Ivana'; wsbpel@lists.oasis-open.org
> Cc: B.Eckenfels@seeburger.de; arkin@intalio.com; 'Liu, Kevin'
> Subject: [wsbpel] Issue - 2 - A subfunction proposal
>
> Here is a very rough, rough draft of a possible solution to Issue 2.
>
> This rough draft introduces three new elements into BPEL -
> subfunction,
> return and function.
>
> The subfunction XML element is used to define a subfunction. It takes
> parameters as arguments and those parameters can be variables,
> partnerLinks
> or correlationSets. subfunctions can return values but only variables,
> not
> partnerLinks or correlationSets. If a subfunction returns a value then
> the
> return activity is used to specify the value to return. Other than
> specifying the input parameters and optional return value a
> subfunction's
> body looks more or less identical to a scope activity's body.
>
> A subfunction can be defined in the global scope, inside of a scope
> activity
> or in another file and imported into the global scope. The normal BPEL
> naming rules apply so you can only call a sub-function you can 'see'.
>
> To call a subfunction you would use the function activity. All
> parameters
> are passed by reference so any changes to those parameters in the
> subfunction are reflected back in the host. Returned values
> however are
> always passed by value. Subfunctions that return values can only be
> called
> inside of expressions. This requires changing expressions to allow
> elements
> as arguments but we already have that problem in Issue 13.
>
> If a subfunction throws a fault that isn't caught by the subfunction's
> fault
> handler then the fault is propagated into the host.
>
> If the host starts compensation then the compensation handler on the
> subfunction is called through the function activity in the
> same way one
> calls a compensation handler on a scope.
>
> In the example given below a one-way message is received
> which contains
> a
> math problem. The process calls the IsAddOne subfunction
> which looks at
> the
> type of math problem that has been received and determines if it is a
> request to add one to a value in the input message. If it is then the
> process calls the AddOne subfunction which will calculate the desired
> result
> and send it back to the student using a one-way message. If
> the request
> is
> not to add one then the process will use a one-way to return
> an error to
> the
> student. In either case the process ends when the logger is
> sent a copy
> of
> the message that was sent to the student. Notice that even if
> the AddOne
> subfunction was called the final invoke to the logger still sees the
> value
> sent to the student because the mathProblem variable was passed by
> reference
> to the AddOne subfunction.
>
> <process>
>    <partnersLinks>
>       <partnerLink name="mathStudent"
> partnerLinkType="a:mathStudent"/>
>       <partnerLink name="loggingService"
> partnerLinkType="b:loggingService"/>
>    </partnerLinks>
>
>    <variables>
>       <variable name="mathProblem" messageType="a:mathProblem"/>
>    </variables>
>
>    <subfunction name="IsAddOne">
>       <parameters>
>          <parameter name="problemType" type="xsd:string"/>
>       <parameters>
>       <returnValue type="xsd:boolean"/>
>       <return expression="getVariableData('problemType') ==
> 'AddOneProblem'"/>
>    </subfunction>
>
>    <subfunction name="AddOne">
>       <parameters>
>          <parameter name="MathMessage" messageType="a:mathProblem"/>
>          <parameter name="Student" partnerLinkType="a:mathStudent"/>
>       </parameters>
>       <sequence>
>          <assign>
>             <copy>
>                <from
> expression="getVariableData('MathMessage','partOne','/TheNumbe
> r') + 1"/>
>                <to variable="MathMessage" part="partOne"
> query="/TheNumber"/>
>             </copy>
>          <assign>
>          <invoke partnerLink="Student" portType="a:AsynchResponse"
>                  operation="mathProblemSolution"
> inputVariable="MathMessage"/>
>       </sequence>
>    </subfunction>
>
>    <sequence>
>
>       <receive partnerLink="mathStudent" portType="a:MathProblem"
>                operation="a:AsynchProblemRequest"
> variable="mathProblem"/>
>
>       <switch>
>          <case>
>             <condition>
>                <function functionName="IsAddOne">
>                   <parameter variable="mathProblem"
> property="problemType"/>
>                </function>
>             </condition>
>             <function functionName="AddOne">
>                <parameter variable="mathProblem"/>
>                <parameter partnerLink="mathStudent"/>
>             </function>
>          </case>
>          <otherwise>
>             <sequence>
>                <assign>
>                   <copy>
>                      <from>
>                         <requestFailedCannotHandleProblemType/>
>                      </from>
>                      <to variable="mathProblem" part="partTwo"/>
>                   </copy>
>                </assign>
>                <invoke partnerLink="mathStudent"
> portType="a:AsynchResponse"
>                        operation="mathProblemSolution"
> inputVariable="mathProblem"/>
>             </sequence>
>          </otherwise>
>       </switch>
>
>       <invoke partnerLink="loggingService" portType="b:loggingService"
>               operation="logProblemSolution"
> inputVariable="mathProblem"/>
>
>    </sequence>
>
> </process>
>
>
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