RE: [xml-dev] Generic vs Specific WSDL

["Paul Kiel" <paul@xmlhelpline.com>]

Hi Dave, 
I've been through this discussion as well and in the end, there was a
decision to use the payload schema.  In essence, the generic wsdl just
renders the soap message as a less useful envelope that is discarded (hence
the REST comment from Stefan).  Now most people end up discarding it anyway,
but somewhere you need to model the expected request-responses.  If it isn't
in your wsdl, then you need to accommodate this in the application.  What is
the application expected to respond with?  What should it do if it fails?
How will it know what to validate the payload with?  These questions need to
be answered somewhere.  Why not put them in the wsdl so that it is part of
the explicit agreement between trading partners.  If you push this into the
application, you run the risk of people making assumptions that later become
problems.

At least those were some of the arguments we experienced.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Paul


 


W. Paul Kiel
XmlHelpline.com
"eXtensible Solutions"
Specializing in Xml, Xslt, web services, and data integration.

-----Original Message-----
From: Stefan Tilkov [mailto:info@tilkov.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 3:48 PM
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org Developers
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Generic vs Specific WSDL

Your architecture is similar to WS-Transfer: It seems to me you're
implementing REST on top of the WSDL/SOAP architecture which sits on top of
(and ignores most of) the HTTP/REST architecture. Which begs the question:
why aren't you using plain HTTP in the first place?

Stefan
--
Stefan Tilkov, http://www.innoq.com/blog/st/



On Feb 27, 2007, at 9:28 PM, David Carver wrote:

> A question has come up in our organization about implementing SOAP Web 
> Services using a generic WSDL (i.e. common endpoint for all services 
> with a generic payload), or Specific Services with a
> specific payload schema defined.     The question comes down to can  
> these two type of services inter operate with each other.   I know  
> you can make the SOAP message that surrounds the payload compatible  
> between the two.   So the question comes down to which is  
> fundamentally better to implement, or is this really an architecture 
> preference and design?
>
> Included below is a copy of the template WSDL in question that 
> implements the generic implementation.  Advantages, disadvantages, 
> security problems to this approach???  What additional benefits if any 
> does a specific implementation provide, disadvantages.:
>
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <definitions xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";
>            xmlns:tns="http://www.starstandards.org/webservices/
> 2005/10/transport/bindings"
>            xmlns:starws="http://www.starstandards.org/webservices/
> 2005/10/transport"
>            targetNamespace="http://www.starstandards.org/
> webservices/2005/10/transport/bindings"
>             xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/";  
> xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/";>
>
>    <!-- Types -->
>
>    <types>
>        <xsd:schema targetNamespace="http://www.starstandards.org/
> webservices/2005/10/transport" elementFormDefault="qualified">
>
>            <!-- Payload -->
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="Payload">
>                <xsd:sequence>
>                    <xsd:element name="content"  
> type="starws:Content" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
>                </xsd:sequence>
>                <xsd:anyAttribute/>
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="Content">
>                <xsd:sequence>
>                    <xsd:any namespace="##any" minOccurs="1"  
> maxOccurs="1" />
>                </xsd:sequence>
>                <xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:ID"  
> use="required" />
>                <xsd:anyAttribute/>
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>
>            <!-- Attachment -->
>
>            <xsd:element name="attachment" type="starws:Attachment" />
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="Attachment">
>                <xsd:choice minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">
>                    <xsd:element name="binary"  
> type="starws:BinaryData" />
>                    <xsd:element name="text" type="starws:TextData" />
>                    <xsd:element name="uriReference"  
> type="starws:UriReference" />                    <!-- points to a  
> resource at a URI (not embedded nor attached) -->
>                    <xsd:element name="attachmentReference"  
> type="starws:AttachmentReference" />    <!-- points to a MIME or  
> DIME attachment -->
>                </xsd:choice>
>                <xsd:attributeGroup
> ref="starws:AttachmentAttributes" />
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>            <xsd:attributeGroup name="AttachmentAttributes">
>                <xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:ID"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="mimeCode" type="xsd:token"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="fileName" type="xsd:token"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="dateTime" type="xsd:dateTime"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="size" type="xsd:long"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="from" type="xsd:string"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="to" type="xsd:string"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="action" type="xsd:anyURI"  
> use="optional" />
>            </xsd:attributeGroup>
>
>            <xsd:simpleType name="BinaryData">
>                    <xsd:restriction base="xsd:base64Binary"/>
>            </xsd:simpleType>
>
>            <xsd:simpleType name="TextData">
>                    <xsd:restriction base="xsd:string"/>
>            </xsd:simpleType>
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="UriReference">
>                <xsd:attribute name="href" type="xsd:anyURI"  
> use="required" />
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="AttachmentReference">
>                <xsd:attribute name="href" type="xsd:anyURI"  
> use="required" />
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>
>            <!-- Manifest -->
>
>            <xsd:element name="payloadManifest"  
> type="starws:PayloadManifest" />
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="PayloadManifest">
>                <xsd:sequence>
>                    <xsd:element name="manifest"  
> type="starws:Manifest" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
>                </xsd:sequence>
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>            <xsd:complexType name="Manifest">
>                <xsd:attribute name="contentID" type="xsd:IDREF"  
> use="required" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="namespaceURI" type="xsd:anyURI"  
> use="required" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="element" type="xsd:string"  
> use="required" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="relatedID" type="xsd:string"  
> use="optional" />
>                <xsd:attribute name="version" type="xsd:string"  
> use="optional" />
>            </xsd:complexType>
>
>
>            <!-- Methods -->
>
>            <xsd:element name="ProcessMessage">
>                <xsd:complexType>
>                    <xsd:sequence>
>                        <xsd:element name="payload"  
> type="starws:Payload" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" form="qualified" />
>                    </xsd:sequence>
>                </xsd:complexType>
>            </xsd:element>
>
>            <xsd:element name="ProcessMessageResponse">
>                <xsd:complexType>
>                    <xsd:sequence>
>                        <xsd:element name="payload"  
> type="starws:Payload" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" form="qualified" />
>                    </xsd:sequence>
>                </xsd:complexType>
>            </xsd:element>
>
>            <xsd:element name="PutMessage">
>                <xsd:complexType>
>                    <xsd:sequence>
>                        <xsd:element name="payload"  
> type="starws:Payload" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" form="qualified" />
>                    </xsd:sequence>
>                </xsd:complexType>
>            </xsd:element>
>
>            <xsd:element name="PutMessageResponse">
>                <xsd:complexType />
>            </xsd:element>
>
>            <xsd:element name="PullMessage">
>                <xsd:complexType/>
>            </xsd:element>
>
>            <xsd:element name="PullMessageResponse">
>                <xsd:complexType>
>                    <xsd:sequence>
>                        <xsd:element name="payload"  
> type="starws:Payload" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" form="qualified" />
>                    </xsd:sequence>
>                </xsd:complexType>
>            </xsd:element>
>
>        </xsd:schema>
>    </types>
>
>
>    <!-- Messages -->
>
>    <message name="ProcessMessageIn">
>        <part name="parameters" element="starws:ProcessMessage" />
>    </message>
>
>    <message name="ProcessMessageOut">
>        <part name="parameters"  
> element="starws:ProcessMessageResponse" />
>    </message>
>
>    <message name="PutMessageIn">
>        <part name="parameters" element="starws:PutMessage" />
>    </message>
>
>    <message name="PutMessageOut">
>        <part name="parameters" element="starws:PutMessageResponse" />
>    </message>
>
>    <message name="PullMessageIn">
>        <part name="parameters" element="starws:PullMessage" />
>    </message>
>
>    <message name="PullMessageOut">
>        <part name="parameters" element="starws:PullMessageResponse" />
>    </message>
>
>    <message name="ManifestHeader">
>        <part name="header" element="starws:payloadManifest" />
>    </message>
>
>
>    <!-- PortTypes -->
>
>    <portType name="starTransportPortTypes">
>        <operation name="ProcessMessage">
>            <input message="tns:ProcessMessageIn" />
>            <output message="tns:ProcessMessageOut" />
>        </operation>
>
>        <operation name="PutMessage">
>            <input message="tns:PutMessageIn" />
>            <output message="tns:PutMessageOut" />
>        </operation>
>
>        <operation name="PullMessage">
>            <input message="tns:PullMessageIn" />
>            <output message="tns:PullMessageOut" />
>        </operation>
>    </portType>
>
>    <!-- Bindings -->
>
>    <binding name="starTransport" type="tns:starTransportPortTypes">
>        <soap:binding transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/
> http" style="document" />
>        <operation name="ProcessMessage">
>            <soap:operation soapAction="http://www.starstandards.org/
> webservices/2005/10/transport/operations/ProcessMessage"  
> style="document" />
>            <input>
>                <soap:header message="tns:ManifestHeader"  
> part="header" use="literal" />
>                <soap:body use="literal" />
>            </input>
>            <output>
>                <soap:header message="tns:ManifestHeader"  
> part="header" use="literal" />
>                <soap:body use="literal" />
>            </output>
>        </operation>
>              <operation name="PutMessage">
>            <soap:operation soapAction="http://www.starstandards.org/
> webservices/2005/10/transport/operations/PutMessage"  
> style="document" />
>            <input>
>                <soap:header message="tns:ManifestHeader"  
> part="header" use="literal" />
>                <soap:body use="literal" />
>            </input>
>            <output>
>                <soap:body use="literal" />
>            </output>
>        </operation>
>              <operation name="PullMessage">
>            <soap:operation soapAction="http://www.starstandards.org/
> webservices/2005/10/transport/operations/PullMessage"  
> style="document" />
>            <input>
>                <soap:body use="literal" />
>            </input>
>            <output>
>                <soap:header message="tns:ManifestHeader"  
> part="header" use="literal" />
>                <soap:body use="literal" />
>            </output>
>        </operation>
>          </binding>
> </definitions>
>
>
> Any information would be helpful, particularly articles that discuss 
> this topic.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dave
>
>
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