[oslc-core] Better name for OSLC indexing profile

Benjamin Williams bwilliams at uk.ibm.com
Mon Apr 4 06:07:00 EDT 2011


Hi Frank, all

After the WG call on Wednesday I started to think about the implications 
of the 'Published Resources' term that I proposed.

I want to understand the relationship between 'publishing resources' to be 
made available via the change log, and 'publishing resources' as a general 
OSLC API construct.
Are these two things always describing the same capability, and therefore 
the same set of resources?
I believe so. Whilst I don't believe that all indexers will always want to 
index all available resources (often indexing a subset of resources might 
be desired), I do believe that we shouldn't second-guess the use-cases, 
and thus the set of published resources for the change log should indeed 
be the exact same set of resources 'published' via the generic OSLC API.
(Note this doesn't imply that providers should not also be able to make 
subsets of resources available via additional Query Capabilities)

In other words 'published resources' is a term with a single well defined 
meaning (the total set of resources available via the providers OSLC 
service) that has applicability beyond just the ChangeLog proposal.

What I don't understand therefore is why we actually need a specific term 
for a capability here? (Resource Publishing Capability)
Aren't we just saying that the provider needs to expose at least one Query 
Capability (oslc:queryBase)?

On the naming issue around the tracking/logging capability my thoughts 
are:

- tracking implies a partial assumption of client use case
- logging describes the mechanism by which the information is delivered
- what's really important is the 'data' or 'information' and how that 
changes over time (history)
- some naming proposals talk about 'change' but are not explicit about the 
subject of the change (resources)
- some naming proposals talk about 'tracking resources' but are not 
explicit about what is being tracked (changes)
- hence I would suggest something along the lines of 

'Resource Change Information Capability'
'Resource Change History Capability'

If an abbreviated form is really necessary, then 'Resource History' would 
seem to be to be most descriptive of what the capability provides.


Finally, regarding the collection of Core features required to support an 
index, to remain consistent with usage elsewhere (Reporting) I support 
'Indexing Profile' as a preferred term to 'Indexing Requirements'


Regards
 
Benjamin Williams
Rational Reporting Strategy Lead
Senior Product Manager, Rational Reporting
IBM Software, Rational

Phone: 44-118 9793107
E-mail: bwilliams at uk.ibm.com
Find me on:  




IBM United Kingdom Limited 
Registered in England and Wales with number 741598 
Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hants. PO6 3AU



From:   Frank Budinsky <frankb at ca.ibm.com>
To:     Frank Budinsky <frankb at ca.ibm.com>
Cc:     oslc-core <oslc-core at open-services.net>, 
oslc-core-bounces at open-services.net
Date:   01-04-2011 21:56
Subject:        Re: [oslc-core] Better name for OSLC indexing profile
Sent by:        oslc-core-bounces at open-services.net



Thanks to everyone that provided feedback on this issue. I now think I 
have a better way to describe this.

As mentioned below, to implement an "indexer" we will need 3 new 
capabilities of a service provider:
1. Expose its complete set of "public resources". By public, we mean all 
the resources that the service provider does not consider to be internal 
implementation artifacts (not to be confused with anything to do with 
access permission's). At the previous WG call, the word "published 
resources" was suggested as a good way to describe these resources. 
2. Provide a change log that lists change events for the set of published 
resources in (1), as well as creation events for new resources that would 
have been included in (1). 
3. Provide access to security information (ACLs) for the published 
resources, to allow a client to mirror the access rules of the underlying 
tools.
If we were to name the capabilities, themselves, based on our discussions 
I would name them something like this:
1.      Resource Publishing 
2.      Resource Tracking (or Logging) 
3.      Resource Security

All three capabilities are intended to be optional OSLC features, but #2 
does prereq #1. That is, you can't provide logging/tracking support 
without also publishing the resources being tracked. In that sense, you 
can easily think about #2 as being a profile, instead of a capability. Add 
to that the fact that #3 isn't part of the ChangeLog proposal (it's an 
independent capability, and intentionally being left as a separate OSLC 
proposal), some of the profile name suggestions were, not surprisingly, 
the same as these #1 or #2 capability names.

What I have been trying to do is find an appropriate name for the 
combination of #1, #2, and #3, which would then be used to talk about the 
overall functionality and even come up with a NS that could be used for 
resources of all 3 capabilities. I'm now thinking that isn't really a good 
idea anyway, since there really are two completely independent proposals 
in this picture (ChangeLog and Security).

Given that, I think we should simply use the term "Indexing Requirements" 
to refer to the three capabilities that are needed for an indexer, and use 
the logging/tracking capability (#2) to refer to the ChangeLog 
functionality. That is, we use the name:

"Resource Tracking Capability" --- is "Resource Logging Capability" or 
"Change Logging Capability" a better/clearer name?

which also prereqs the:

"Resource Publishing Capability"

Unless someone can see a problem with this, I'll update the ChangeLog 
proposal using this terminology. Since the next version is intended to be 
the official "convergence" draft, it would be nice to have agreement on 
this, but I suppose we're still allowed to change things like this before 
finalization if we want to.

Thanks,
Frank

Frank Budinsky---03/31/2011 04:27:50 PM---Hi all, I'd like to finish this 
discussion soon, if we can. The discussion so far


From:

Frank Budinsky/Toronto/IBM at IBMCA

To:

Jim des Rivieres/Ottawa/IBM at IBMCA

Cc:

oslc-core <oslc-core at open-services.net>

Date:

03/31/2011 04:27 PM

Subject:

Re: [oslc-core] Better name for OSLC indexing profile

Sent by:

oslc-core-bounces at open-services.net



Hi all,

I'd like to finish this discussion soon, if we can. The discussion so far 
has helped us articulate exactly what this "profile" is, even if we 
haven't been able to come up with a good name yet. Let me try to summarize 
and then offer a couple of new name suggestions.

This profile requires a service provider to implement the following three 
capabilities: 
1. Expose its complete set of "public resources". By public, we mean all 
the resources that the service provider does not consider to be internal 
implementation artifacts (not to be confused with anything to do with 
access permission's). At the previous WG call, the word "published 
resources" was suggested as a good way to describe these resources. 
2. Provide a change log that lists change events for the set of published 
resources in (1), as well as creation events for new resources that would 
have been included in (1). 
3. Provide access to security information (ACLs) for the published 
resources, to allow a client to mirror the access rules of the underlying 
tools.

In a more concise form, we can describe this as: 
A service provider must publish its contents (resources), including change 
information (because the content is dynamic) and access control 
information.

Jim used the word "Active", below, to capture the dynamic aspect. Sticking 
with that, I would suggest the following name for the profile: 
1. Active Content Publishing 
2. Content Publishing

Personally, I like #2, "Content Publishing Profile". I think it's short 
enough and I don't think "Active" is not needed because it's obvious that 
a service provider's contents is changing/active. A service provider 
should just be asked to "publish its contents", which means enumerate the 
resources, including change information to allow clients to keep up to 
date with the changing publication.

Please send me your votes or a better suggestion if you can think of one.

Thanks,
Frank.

Jim des Rivieres---03/24/2011 01:51:07 PM---I don't have as much a problem 
as some with using the driving use case in the name. I believe in ca

From:

Jim des Rivieres/Ottawa/IBM

To:

Frank Budinsky/Toronto/IBM at IBMCA

Cc:

oslc-core <oslc-core at open-services.net>

Date:

03/24/2011 01:51 PM

Subject:

Re: [oslc-core] Better name for OSLC indexing profile


I don't have as much a problem as some with using the driving use case in 
the name. I believe in calling a spade a bloody shovel [OED], even if 
shovels can be used for other things.

If I step way, way, back and imagine that the particular protocol we are 
specifying here catches like wildfire in the open web (think Atom or 
OAuth), the question I ask is what name would we like it to be known by. 
Something that the world can latch onto, and have a chance of keeping it 
straight in their minds amid myriad other Internal protocols.

I believe the main reason that apps will be signing up to be providers is 
that they are sitting on some data resources that they would like to 
expose in an RDF format so that other apps would be able to build 
queryable indexes from. Any old app can expose resources with RDF 
representations without supporting this new protocol. So the RDF by itself 
is not sufficient. And this protocol says nothing about the indexes that 
may get built. Crucially, this protocol is about exposing information in 
RDF form in a way that support someone else to build and maintain an 
RDF-based index. And its not that interesting if the data is static - 
you'd have no need of a change log. So being a dynamic source also seems 
important (#1-#5 all touch on this aspect.

So how about the "Active RDF Index Source" protocol. And that when we talk 
about a OSLC domain service provider, we could talk about what it would 
mean for them to support the "Active RDF Index Source Profile", which 
would entail implementing the provider role of the Active RDF Index Source 
protocol, and providing specified enties in OSLC service, service 
provider, and service provider catalogs that make its Active RDF Index 
Sources discoverable.

Regards,
Jim

[OED] See entry in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_call_a_spade_a_spade


Frank Budinsky---03/24/2011 11:34:47 AM---As discussed in the meeting 
yesterday, I've been using the term "Indexing Profile" (see http://open-

From:

Frank Budinsky/Toronto/IBM at IBMCA

To:

oslc-core <oslc-core at open-services.net>

Date:

03/24/2011 11:34 AM

Subject:

[oslc-core] Better name for OSLC indexing profile

Sent by:

oslc-core-bounces at open-services.net



As discussed in the meeting yesterday, I've been using the term "Indexing 
Profile" (see http://open-services.net/bin/view/Main/IndexingProposals for 
details) to describe the capabilities that MUST be provided by a service 
provider to support indexing (e.g., an enumeration of resources, a Change 
Log, etc). It was pointed out that, although indexing is the primary 
motivating use case, the profile we're talking about is really more 
general and should therefore have a more general name.

What this profile really provides is the capabilities required by a client 
that wants to see content and track changes to content of a service 
provider. Some suggested names for this profile are: 
1. Observer Profile 
2. Notification Profile 
3. Change Log Profile 
4. Content Tracking Profile 
5. Service Tracking Profile

The first 3 seem not to cover the "enumeration of resources" part of the 
profile (and other things like security, which will also be part of the 
profile), so my vote so far would be for #4 or #5.

Please let me know which of these name you prefer or if you have a better 
suggestion.

Thanks,
Frank.


oslc-core-bounces at open-services.net wrote on 03/23/2011 11:39:32 AM:

> [image removed] 
> 
> [oslc-core] Continuing Change Log and Baselines discussions
> 
> Dave 
> 
> to:
> 
> oslc-core
> 
> 03/23/2011 11:41 AM
> 
> Sent by:
> 
> oslc-core-bounces at open-services.net
> 
> We had a good discussion of Change Log issues today, thanks to Frank
> for leading, but we did not finish. You can find my notes from the
> meeting on the agenda page here:
> 
>    http://open-services.net/bin/view/Main/OslcCoreMeeting20110323
> 
> Since we did not finish the discussion, I'd like to schedule a
> follow-up meeting next week:
> 
>    OSLC Core WG Meeting: Change Log follow-up Meeting
>    March 30, 2011 - 10AM US/ET
> 
> I would also like to propose that we meet the week after that to
> follow up on the Baselines discussion:
> 
>    OSLC Core WG Meeting: Baselines follow-up Meeting
>    April 6, 2011 - 10AM US/ET
> 
> Nick: does April 6 work for you?
> 
> Thanks,
> Dave
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Oslc-Core mailing list
> Oslc-Core at open-services.net
> http://open-services.net/mailman/listinfo/oslc-core_open-services.net
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