Openwings Connector Specification Request

Openwings Specification Request (OSR)

Title:

Openwings Connector Services (OSR_003)

Summary:

The charter for the Connector Services Expert team is to develop a framework for protocol independence. This specification considers both synchronous protocols and asynchronous protocols. Protocol independence is import for allowing the easy insertion of new technologies and for bridging to legacy devices. The specification also defines how connector generators are defined. The intent is to allow various third party middleware vendors to encapsulate their work into connectors.

Section 1. Identification

Submitting Member and Specification Lead:

	Submitting Member	Specification Lead
Name of Contact	Guy Bieber	Wade Wassenberg
Telephone Number	1-480-441-7692	1-480-675-2684
Fax Number	1-480-441-2304	1-480-675-2304

Expert Nominee Qualifications:

Nominees of this expert team should have the following qualifications:

Experience with the Java2 platform (mandatory requirement)
Experience with a variety of inter-process communications technologies. Examples include:

TCP/IP Sockets
Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)
Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)
Java Message Service (JMS)
Streaming Protocols
Quality of Service

Section 2: Request

2.1 Please describe the proposed Specification:

The Connector Services Expert team will be responsible for developing the following:

Connector Services Specification
Connector Services Reference Implementation
Connector Services Compatibility Test Suite

2.2 What is the target Java platform? (i.e., desktop, server, personal, embedded, card, etc.)

J2SE is largely targeted towards desktop and webtop applications on the front end. J2EE is largely targeted towards E-Commerce and back end servers. J2ME is targeted towards the device market. This specification has a system focus on networked components, which includes the front end, back end, and devices; hence this specification targets all three Java platforms. The J2ME configurations to be considered should go down to the CDLC configuration.

2.3 What need of the Openwings community will be addressed by the proposed specification?

A specification that implements connectors for Service-Oriented Programming does not exist.

2.4 Why isn't this need met by existing specifications?

No other specification covers connectors in Openwings.

2.5 Please give a short description of the underlying technology or technologies:

This does not require any special underlying technologies, except for Java. Particular implementations of connectors may incorporate various middleware technologies such as RMI, CORBA, JMS, SOAP, Secure Socket Layer, etc.

2.6 Is there a proposed package name for the API Specification?

The proposed package for this specification is net.openwings.connector.

2.7 Does the proposed specification have any dependencies on specific operating systems, CPUs, or I/O devices that you know of?

No.

2.8 Are there any security issues that cannot be addressed by the current Openwings security model?

The security specification should address transport security, which will directly affect this specification.

2.9 Are there any internationalization or localization issues?

This OSR is targeted towards systems that may be internationally deployed and hence use the internationalization features of Java. It is anticipated that the existing internationalization infrastructure will be sufficient for this OSR.

2.10 Are there any existing specifications that might be rendered obsolete, deprecated, or in need of revision as a result of this work?

No.

2.11 Please describe the anticipated schedule for the development of this specification.

Currently a draft specification exists as a contribution and starting point. The following schedule applies:

Milestone	Date
Openwings Specification Request Approved	12/1/2000
Form Expert Group	2/23/2001
Participant Draft	TBD
Participant Review	TBD – 2Q 2001
Public Review	TBD – 2Q 2001
Beta Release	TBD – 3Q 2001
Maintenance	TBD

Once the expert team is formed the finalized schedule will be made available.

Section 3: Contributions
3.1 Please list any existing documents, specifications, or implementations that describe the technology.

The Motorola IISG (now General Dynamics C4 Systems)/Sun Openwings team, has previously generated work that is being contributed as a basis for this OSR. In particular the following contributions available at http://www.openwings.org/download.cfm#specs are relevant.

Openwings White Paper
Openwings Naming Specification (Alpha version 0.7)
Openwings Architecture Specification (Alpha version 0.7)
Openwings Interface Specification (Alpha version 0.7)
Openwings Connector Services Specification (Alpha version 0.7)

In addition to these draft specifications an alpha reference implementation of connector services is being contributed.

3.2 Explanation of how these items might be used as a starting point for the work.

The existing specifications and reference implementation serve as a starting point for this work. These provide a working model of how the connector architecture could work.

Section 4: Additional Information (Optional)

4.1 This section contains any additional information that the submitting Member wishes to include in the OSR.

None.