[oslc-core] Specification versioning compatibility from a service consumer's perspective

[Samit Mehta]

>From a service provider's perspective, the versioning compatibility 
description seems to be very clear in the Core spec and CM spec (and 
probably other domain specs):

Core Spec: 
http://open-services.net/bin/view/Main/OSLCCoreSpecDRAFT?sortcol=table;up=#Specification_Versioning
CM Spec Versioning: 
http://open-services.net/bin/view/Main/CmSpecificationV2?sortcol=table;up=#Specification_Versioning
CM Spec Version Compatibility: 
http://open-services.net/bin/view/Main/CmSpecificationV2?sortcol=table;up=#Version_Compatibility_with_1_0_S

However, I am not sure that I am clear from the details described there 
what a service consumer's implementation should look like.  It would 
really help if some of the following scenarios are covered in the 
description above to give guidance to service consumers on the best 
protocol for each of those scenarios.  Maybe a simple table can capture 
this:

1) OSLC CM service consumer is compatible with only v1 version of the OSLC 
CM spec
        - Must not specifiy OSLC-Core-Version in the HTTP request header
        - Must request formats compatible with the ones specified in the 
OSLC CM v1 specification

        // ISSUE: Not sure how the OSLC CM service consumer will know that 
the OSLC CM service provider does not support v1.

2) OSLC CM service consumer is compatible with only v2 version of the OSLC 
CM spec
        - Must specify OSLC-Core-Version with the value of "2.0" in the 
HTTP request header.
        - Must request formats compatible with the ones specified in the 
OSLC Core v2 and OSLC CM v2 specifications

        // ISSUE: Not sure how the OSLC CM service 
        //      consumer will know that the OSLC CM 
        //      service provider does not support v2.
        //
        //   I am guessing that if the response header 
        //  does not have OSLC-Core-Version with the 
        //  value "2.0", then the service consumer can
        //  assume that the provider is not compatible.

3) OSLC CM service consume is compatible with both v1 and v2 versions of 
the OSLC CM spec
        // ISSUE: Not sure what the protocol should be so that it can work 
with 
        //  - OSLC CM v1 provider
        //  - OSLC CM v2 provider
        //  - OSLC CM provider that supports both v1 and v2
        //  - OSLC CM provider supports vN, but the vN formats are 
compatible with v2 (for compatibility with the FUTURE spec)
        //  - OSLC CM provider does not support providing formats 
compatible with either v1 or v2 (for compatibility with the FUTURE spec)

____________________________________________
Samit Mehta
(512) 323-9350 - Work
mailto:samit.mehta at us.ibm.com
IBM Rational Software - Business Development
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