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Paul Prescod wrote:
> Francis Norton wrote:
>>
>>Would a WSDL-specified service using HTTP POST or HTTP GET count as
>>REST? If so (or even if not) would passing an XML request block via HTTP
>>POST count as REST?
>
> At one point I hoped so but when I dug down into the details the answer,
> alas is no. The Web is a resource-centric information system. A WSDL
> service description describes *at most* one resource. As soon as you
> pass around a URI to another resource the WSDL loses any ability to
> describe that other resource. If you generate a resource at runtime
> (which almost every web site or web service does) then at "compile time"
> there obviously does not exist a WSDL that describes it.
>
> I've started jotting down thoughts about what something like WSDL for
> XML-based REST web services would look like:
>
> * http://www.prescod.net/wrdl.html
>
Thanks - I'll be reading this on the train home (in ten minutes).
How far do orchestration languages like XLANG and WSFL address your
concern about composability? If I understand REST aesthetics at all, I
guess that a REST approach would favour bottom-up (each service tells
you about its acceptable successors) openness over top-down (you get the
whole map pre-written) completeness.
Never underestimate the power of emergent properties....
Francis.
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