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Posted to soap-user@xml.apache.org by "Lau, Annie" <An...@team.telstra.com> on 2001/04/05 01:30:34 UTC
WSDL: meaning of methods
Hi,
I am just wondering with the WSDL1.1 specification, is there any way to
understand the meaning of the methods? I.e. what the methods are
supposed to do?
E.g. how would I know whether the method 'getStockQuote' in a WSDL schema
would return the current stock price or the stock price from yesterday?
Is it based on a general, standardised vocabulary for developers to follow
when developing their method names? Or is there a meta-data system for
describing methods on WSDL?
Thanks for any help and clarifications,
Annie
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RE: WSDL: meaning of methods
Posted by Sameer Vaidya <sa...@talkingblocks.com>.
Annie,
The short answer is no, the spec itself does not deal with semantics of
operations.
The best one could do today, is to embed any such information in the
<documentation>
tag for the operation.
Now in defense of the WSDL folks as to why they left such an important
aspect of
defining an operation completely outside of WSDL..
If you think about classical programming language constructs, then the same
problem exists today. If someone gave you an interface to a component, the
method definitions on the interface only define the technical details of
what you would need to do to be able to make the method invocation. They
provide no real guarantee that the method will work or exactly what the
functional semantics of that method invocation are. You need some additional
means (usually outside the scope of most mainstream programming languages
today)
to define exactly what the semantics of the method are - like in your
example
where you need to know exactly what would 'getStockQuote' return.
Additionally,
by also exchanging detailed information about pre-conditions,
post-conditions,
technical requirements (eg.should I have to call this method within some
security
context and transactional context), etc you increase your probability of
success for
correctly understanding and making the method invocation.
Well, the moral of this long story is that all this information can be
included in
some form of documentation - we call this a "contract". And neither WSDL nor
any
classical Component architecture today addresses this problem today. You are
more
or less on your own to ensure that contract details are provided along with
the
technical specification of an interface.
Cheers,
Sameer
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lau, Annie [mailto:Annie.Lau@team.telstra.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 4:31 PM
> To: soap-user@xml.apache.org
> Subject: WSDL: meaning of methods
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I am just wondering with the WSDL1.1 specification, is there
> any way to
> understand the meaning of the methods? I.e. what the methods are
> supposed to do?
>
> E.g. how would I know whether the method 'getStockQuote' in a
> WSDL schema
> would return the current stock price or the stock price from
> yesterday?
>
> Is it based on a general, standardised vocabulary for
> developers to follow
> when developing their method names? Or is there a meta-data system for
> describing methods on WSDL?
>
> Thanks for any help and clarifications,
> Annie
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: soap-user-unsubscribe@xml.apache.org
> For additional commands, email: soap-user-help@xml.apache.org
>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: soap-user-unsubscribe@xml.apache.org
For additional commands, email: soap-user-help@xml.apache.org
RE: WSDL: meaning of methods
Posted by Sameer Vaidya <sa...@talkingblocks.com>.
Annie,
The short answer is no, the spec itself does not deal with semantics of
operations.
The best one could do today, is to embed any such information in the
<documentation>
tag for the operation.
Now in defense of the WSDL folks as to why they left such an important
aspect of
defining an operation completely outside of WSDL..
If you think about classical programming language constructs, then the same
problem exists today. If someone gave you an interface to a component, the
method definitions on the interface only define the technical details of
what you would need to do to be able to make the method invocation. They
provide no real guarantee that the method will work or exactly what the
functional semantics of that method invocation are. You need some additional
means (usually outside the scope of most mainstream programming languages
today)
to define exactly what the semantics of the method are - like in your
example
where you need to know exactly what would 'getStockQuote' return.
Additionally,
by also exchanging detailed information about pre-conditions,
post-conditions,
technical requirements (eg.should I have to call this method within some
security
context and transactional context), etc you increase your probability of
success for
correctly understanding and making the method invocation.
Well, the moral of this long story is that all this information can be
included in
some form of documentation - we call this a "contract". And neither WSDL nor
any
classical Component architecture today addresses this problem today. You are
more
or less on your own to ensure that contract details are provided along with
the
technical specification of an interface.
Cheers,
Sameer
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lau, Annie [mailto:Annie.Lau@team.telstra.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 4:31 PM
> To: soap-user@xml.apache.org
> Subject: WSDL: meaning of methods
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I am just wondering with the WSDL1.1 specification, is there
> any way to
> understand the meaning of the methods? I.e. what the methods are
> supposed to do?
>
> E.g. how would I know whether the method 'getStockQuote' in a
> WSDL schema
> would return the current stock price or the stock price from
> yesterday?
>
> Is it based on a general, standardised vocabulary for
> developers to follow
> when developing their method names? Or is there a meta-data system for
> describing methods on WSDL?
>
> Thanks for any help and clarifications,
> Annie
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: soap-user-unsubscribe@xml.apache.org
> For additional commands, email: soap-user-help@xml.apache.org
>
>
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