Re: [xacml-users] why do AbstractPolicy constructors not havePolicyMetaData argument?

[Seth Proctor <Seth.Proctor@sun.com>]

Hi Hao. Please keep these SunXACML-specific discussions off the xacml-users
list, since that list is for general XACML questions. I've set the
reply to take further discussion only to the sunxacml list.
 
> I wonder why AbstractPolicy constructors do not have PolicyMetaData argument but PolicyReference constructor contains it? It looks like odd and not consistent.

When you construct a Policy or PolicySet you specify things like the
XACML version being used, either directly or because you're parsing an
XML instance that specifies this via the namespace. In other words,
creating a Policy or PolicySet is what in turn generates the PolicyMetaData.

When you instantiate a PolicyReference, all you have is a URI. This element
needs to know what version of XACML is being used, so the meta-data is
supplied. If you're parsing an XML instance, this is provided by the
parent elements. If you're generating a the policy Refefence programatically
then you need to supply the detail directly.


seth