[moby] RE: [MOBY-dev] rfcf 11. RDF Agent

[Martin Senger]

> The agent will collect the "core" data for the registry on a regular
> basis.  You can chose to explicitly call the agent to you if you like,
> but it will only record the information that MOBY Central currently
> records.  
>
   Okay. So far, so clear. How can I explicitly call the agent to me?
 
> During service discovery, you will receive the LSID representing a
> particular service as part of the response message from MOBY Central
> (this is already in the API 0.85, but has not been coded yet).
>
   This is done by the XML attribute 'lsid', correct?

> MOBY Central will act as the Authority for that LSID, and will give
> you a WSDL document that (at a minimum) directs you to GET the
> SignatureURL of that service as the getMetaData resolution function
>
   While I understand this I doubt that all service providers are aware
that actually their SignatureURL is supposed to play a role of a LSID
metadata resolution service. Concretely, a service that is defined by the
LSIDMetadataHTTPBindingDirect (as defined in the LSID spec).
   Which means, for example, that the returned HTTP response should have
Content-Type "x-application/rdf+xml" and Expires HTTP headers.
   Also, strictly speaking, an LSID should resolve to the metadata
describing this LSID, but in the case of using SignatureURL there is no
guarantee that a service provider does not put into the same document
metadata about more services. So, we need to have this very clearly
documented and explained, so the clients cannot be surprised when they get
more than they asked for.

   I think that it would be also good if you can show an example of the
WSDL with that binding, and instructions how clients should use such WSDL
(which part they should take - my understanding is that the SignatureURL
will be in the tag <http:address location="..." inside the <port...> tag).

> time to speak-up as we are in the process of re-coding the API right
> now...
>
   One more thing (not about API but about implementation) - and I think
that Eddie mentioned it somewhere else, as well): In CSHL, we spoke about
a special moby service that can be used for registering (and for
retrieving) endpoints of service metadata created by the third-parties.
Such service does not exist yet (nor its API) but if it exists (and if the
registry is configured to use it), the registry should use it to put more
metadata locations into returned WSDL. Please keep it in mind when you are
implementing this part, so it can be easier updated when such service
exists.

   Cheers,
   Martin

-- 
Martin Senger

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