The WS-Resource Framework

The WS-Resource construct has been proposed as a means of expressing the relationship between stateful resources and Web services. We introduce here the WS-Resource framework, a set of proposed Web services specifications that define a rendering of the WS-Resource approach in terms of specific message exchanges and related XML definitions. These specifications allow the programmer to declare and implement the association between a Web service and one or more stateful resources. They describe the means by which a view of the state of the resource is defined and associated with a Web services description, forming the overall type definition of a WS-Resource. They also describe how the state of a WS-Resource is made accessible through a Web service interface, and define related mechanisms concerned with WS-Resource grouping and addressing. This paper provides an architectural overview of the WS-Resource framework. It motivates, introduces, and summarizes the interrelationships among five separate specification documents that provide the normative definition of the framework: WS-ResourceProperties, WSResourceLifetime, WS-RenewableReferences, WS-ServiceGroup, and WS-BaseFaults. We also describe how the WS-Resource framework can support the WS-Notification family of specifications for asynchronous notification. Status This whitepaper is an initial draft release and is provided for review and evaluation only. The authors hope to solicit your contributions and suggestions in the near future. The authors make no warrantees or representations regarding the specifications in any manner whatsoever. The WS-Resource Framework 2 Copyright Notice © Copyright Computer Associates International, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, HewlettPackard Development Company, International Business Machines Corporation and The University of Chicago 2003, 2004. All Rights Reserved. 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THE VIEW AND OPINIONS OF AUTHORS EXPRESSED HEREIN DO NOT NECESSARILY STATE OR REFLECT THOSE OF IBM, THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OR ANY AGENCY THEREOF, OR THE ENTITY BY WHICH AN AUTHOR MAY BE EMPLOYED. This manuscript has been created in part by the University of Chicago as Operator of Argonne National Laboratory ("Argonne") under Contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government. The WS-Resource Framework 4