WS-ResourceTransfer Specification Released

Some technology news that will concern only Web Services enthusiasts. But good news, nonetheless. In short: we may be nearing the end of the odyssey that started back in 2001 when we released the Web Services specification for managing state called Open Grid Services Infrastructure (OGSI).

Like Ulysses, we didn't plan on an Odyssey: our ambitions with OGSI were to define basic mechanisms as a first step towards more interesting work. However, first some people didn't like our aggressive use of WSDL 2.0 features (in retrospect a mistake, as WSDL 2.0 still isn't widely supported), which spurred the definition of WS Resource Framework (WSRF). Then industry politics led to the competing WS-Transfer specifications.

But finally sanity seems to have prevailed. Microsoft, IBM, and HP just released the new WS-ResourceTransfer (WS-RT) specification, bringing WSRF WS-ResourceProperties functionality into the WS-Transfer universe. This specification seems to provide all of the WS-ResourceProperties functionality used in Globus Toolkit version 4 (GT4): in particular, GetResourceProperty, GetMultipleResourceProperties, and QueryResourceProperties functionality. It also seems straightforward to integrate notification, which will be done in a future WS-EventNotification spec. There is even a Create operation, included in OGSI but not in WSRF.

In summary, WS-RT seems to provide what we need in Globus, and in a manner consistent with WSRF/WSRP. Assuming WS-EventNotifcation does the obvious things, then going from WSRF to these new specifications should be fairly straightforward.

I don't imagine that the Globus community will rush to adopt these specifications, but I imagine that we will want to implement them in the not too distant future, so that people who want to work with them can do so.