WS BPEL issues list

This file last updated 22:20 28 Aug 2006 (UTC)

This is the final version of the main issues list for the OASIS Web Services Business Process Execution Language Technical Committee covering issues raised in the progresstion of the original input document to the Public Review text of WS-BPEL 2.0, in August 2006. A new issues list has been created for comments arising from the Public Review. Issues in that list are distinguished by starting with "R".

• Table of all issues, ordered by issueID
  
  
• Detailed list of issues. The issues in this list have anchors of the form "Issue1", "Issue22".

Procedures for handling of issues were defined in the issues process document, and the procedure for issues submitted after 15 August 2004.

It was resolved at the TC meeting on 19 July 2006 that any issues submitted after 21 July 2006 would not be considered for opening until the public review period had started. Only one issue was submitted during that period, and it has been transferred to review issues list.

All issues, in order

The colour of the issue title is determined by the status: green=transferred (1 issues), green=resolved (338 issues). (Those numbers count sub-issues as separate.) According to the TC issue procedures (issues process document), the formal status values are "open" and "resolved". The procedure revision for issues submitted after 15 August 2004 implies a provisional status before an issue is open. The other status values are just informational variations on those.

The "revisitable" entry applies to resolved issues where it has been suggested that it may be worth returning to the question in future work, after the completion of the first OASIS TC edition of the WS BPEL specification.

Issue 1: Permeability of scopes

This is the same proposal that was posted earlier (reproduced below for convenience) with one slight necessary clarification (pointed out by Alex).

Clarification:

The restriction that links cannot cross serializable scope boundaries is now no longer needed. Since serializable scopes are now impermeable, such links cannot cause deadlock. The proposal therefore is to eliminate this restriction. This was already implied in the previous proposal implicitly.

Original proposal restated: The core problem in Issue 1 is that we have no way to control the firing of links in cases where the source activity may be compensated after the link has fired and thus "revoke the promise" of prerequisite fulfillment that the link may represent.

The proposal is to strengthen the meaning of "variableAccessSerializable" to also control the visibility of link status, by attaching the meaning of isolation to the attribute. In order to reflect this we propose that the name of the attribute be changed to "isolated". Thus we would have

   <scope isolated="yes"> <!-- serializable, non-permeable -->
       <faultHandlers ...> ... </faultHandlers>
       <compensationHandler ...> ... </compensationHandler>
       ...
   </scope>


   <scope isolated="no"> <!-- non-serializable, permeable -->
       <faultHandlers ...> ... </faultHandlers>
       <compensationHandler ...> ... </compensationHandler>
       ...
   </scope>

Note that this gives the BPEL process designer the discretion to use isolated="no" when s/he cares to protect the target from revocable promises. The downside of the protection is potential loss of concurrency.
Links: Announcement, 25 Jun 2003     Satish Thatte, 15 Sep 2003     Discussed at Redmond face-to-face - Dieter's presentation (document details)     Ricky Ho, 25 Sep 2003     Satish Thatte, 17 Mar 2004     Reversible and Permeable Scopes v2.ppt (document details)     Satish Thatte, 16 Mar 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 16 Mar 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 18 Mar 2004     Satish Thatte, 18 Mar 2004     Frank Leymann, 19 Mar 2004     Discussed at Walldorf f-t-f (document details)     Goran Olsson, 28 Apr 2004     Satish Thatte, 29 Apr 2004     Nickolas Kavantzas, 7 May 2004     Proposed resolution (Satish Thatte, 7 Jun 2004)     Proposed resolution (Satish Thatte, 18 Jun 2004)     Issues 1 and 10.ppt (document details)
Changes: 4 Jul 2003 - fields: Document;    11 Sep 2003 - fields: Champion;    15 Sep 2003 - fields: Links;    18 Sep 2003 - fields: Links;    26 Sep 2003 - fields: Links;    17 Mar 2004 - fields: Links;    19 Mar 2004 - fields: Links;    22 Apr 2004 - fields: Links;    29 Apr 2004 - fields: Links;    8 May 2004 - fields: Links;    9 Jun 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution;    16 Jun 2004 - fields: Categories;    18 Jun 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution;    23 Jun 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution, Resolution;    6 Oct 2004 - fields: In spec

Issue 2: Sub-Functions

Proposed resolution: Ivana Trickovic, 24 Nov 2004
Resolution: Closed with no change to the specification at the F2F held 8 - 10 March 2005, Walldorf, Germany.

Links: Announcement, 25 Jun 2003     Eckenfels. Bernd, 22 Jul 2003     Kevin Liu, 22 Jul 2003     Assaf Arkin, 23 Jul 2003     Ivana Trickovic, 29 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 29 Oct 2003     Edwin Khodabakchian, 29 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 29 Oct 2003     Chris Keller, 30 Oct 2003     Nickolas Kavantzas, 30 Oct 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 30 Oct 2003     Harvey Reed, 30 Oct 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 30 Oct 2003     Harvey Reed, 30 Oct 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 30 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 30 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 30 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 31 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 31 Oct 2003     Frank Leymann, 31 Oct 2003     Harvey Reed, 31 Oct 2003     Ivana Trickovic, 31 Oct 2003     Yaron Goland, 31 Oct 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 1 Nov 2003     Yaron Goland, 3 Nov 2003     Yaron Goland, 3 Nov 2003     Yaron Goland, 3 Nov 2003     Satish Thatte, 5 Nov 2003     Satish Thatte, 5 Nov 2003     Ugo Corda, 5 Nov 2003     Satish Thatte, 6 Nov 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 6 Nov 2003     Ugo Corda, 6 Nov 2003     Harvey Reed, 6 Nov 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 7 Nov 2003     Ugo Corda, 7 Nov 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 7 Nov 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 7 Nov 2003     Harvey Reed, 7 Nov 2003     Monica J. Martin, 10 Nov 2003     Ivana Trickovic, 10 Nov 2003     Eckenfels. Bernd, 12 Nov 2003     Ugo Corda, 12 Nov 2003     Ivana Trickovic, 14 Nov 2003     Yaron Goland, 25 Nov 2003     Edwin Khodabakchian, 25 Nov 2003     Assaf Arkin, 25 Nov 2003     Harvey Reed, 25 Nov 2003     Ron Ten-Hove, 25 Nov 2003     Ivana Trickovic, 26 Nov 2003     Peter Furniss, 26 Nov 2003     Eckenfels. Bernd, 26 Nov 2003     Post-Melbourne discussion on coordination questions is under issue 30 issue 30     Proposed resolution (Yaron Y. Goland, 16 Jun 2004)     Dieter Koenig1, 17 Jun 2004     Satish Thatte, 18 Jun 2004     Discussed at San Francisco f-t-f     Ivana Trickovic, 21 Jul 2004     Satish Thatte, 21 Jul 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 22 Jul 2004     Frank.Leymann@t-online.de, 23 Jul 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 23 Jul 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 4 Aug 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 4 Aug 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 6 Aug 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 27 Aug 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 9 Sep 2004     Proposed resolution (Ivana Trickovic, 15 Sep 2004)     Ivana Trickovic, 21 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 23 Sep 2004     Maciej Szefler, 25 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 28 Sep 2004     Peter Furniss, 28 Sep 2004     Maciej Szefler, 28 Sep 2004     Maciej Szefler, 28 Sep 2004     Chris Keller, 29 Sep 2004     Proposed resolution (Ivana Trickovic, 24 Nov 2004)     Ivana Trickovic, 8 Dec 2004     Satish Thatte, 9 Dec 2004
Changes: 4 Jul 2003 - fields: Document;    22 Jul 2003 - fields: Links;    23 Jul 2003 - fields: Links;    24 Jul 2003 - fields: Links;    31 Jul 2003 - fields: Champion;    30 Oct 2003 - fields: Links;    31 Oct 2003 - fields: Links;    1 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    3 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    5 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    6 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    7 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    8 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    10 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    12 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    13 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    16 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    26 Nov 2003 - fields: Links;    9 Dec 2003 - fields: Links;    2 Jun 2004 - fields: Champion;    16 Jun 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution;    17 Jun 2004 - fields: Links;    19 Jun 2004 - fields: Links;    24 Jun 2004 - fields: Links;    21 Jul 2004 - fields: Links;    22 Jul 2004 - fields: Links;    23 Jul 2004 - fields: Links;    4 Aug 2004 - fields: Links;    7 Aug 2004 - fields: Links;    27 Aug 2004 - fields: Links;    9 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    16 Sep 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution;    21 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    23 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    27 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    29 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    30 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    24 Nov 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution;    8 Dec 2004 - fields: Links;    10 Dec 2004 - fields: Links

Issue 3: Current state influence in compensation handlers

Following is extracted from proposal message.

The relevant text in Section 13.3.1 will be replaced with the following, with appropriate editing (the picture (see attachment to proposal message) would also be included in the specification):

Compensation handlers always interact with the current state of the process, specifically the state of variables declared in their associated scope and all enclosing scopes. The variables include partnerLinks at the process scope. Compensation handlers are able to both get and set the values of all such variables. Other parts of the process will see the changes made to shared variables by compensation handlers, and conversely, compensation handlers will see changes made to shared variables by other parts of the process, including situations where a compensation handler runs concurrently with other parts of the process. Compensation handlers will need to use serializable scopes when they touch state in enclosing scopes to avoid interference.

The current state of the process consists of the current local state of all scopes that have been started. This includes scopes that have completed but for which the associated compensation handler has not been invoked. For completed uncompensated scopes their current local state is the state as it was at the time of completion. Such scopes are in suspended animation because their compensation handlers are still available and therefore their execution may continue in compensation mode. Note that a scope may have been executed several times in a loop, and the current state of the process includes the state of each completed (and uncompensated) iteration through the scope.

The behavior of a compensation handler can be thought of as an optional continuation of the behavior of the associated scope and as such its usage of variables is similar to the usage that occurred in the body of the scope itself, including update actions. This includes variables in both the local scope and all enclosing scopes. Note that the compensation handler may itself have been called from an enclosing compensation handler. It will then share the continuation of the state of the enclosing scope that its caller is using. In the attached picture showing three nested scopes S1, S2 and S3, and their compensation handlers C1, C2, C3, and failure handlers F1 and F2, we may have an error handling call stack F1->C2->C3. In that case C3 will share the state of S2 as it is being seen and used by C2.

Issue 4: Dynamic parallel processing

Closed with no change.
Links: Announcement, 25 Jun 2003     Yaron Y. Goland, 25 Mar 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 31 Mar 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 1 Apr 2005
Changes: 4 Jul 2003 - fields: Document;    31 Jul 2003 - fields: Champion;    25 Mar 2004 - fields: Links;    31 Mar 2004 - fields: Links;    2 Jun 2004 - fields: Champion;    1 Apr 2005 - fields: Links;    19 Sep 2005 - fields: Status, Resolution, In spec, Revisitable

Issue 5: Suspend/resume

Close with no change to the specification.
Rationale: Suspend/resume appears to be out of scope for a first release. Furthermore, it seems that suspend/resume might as well be handled by the infrastructure and therefore outside of the process model.
Links: Announcement, 25 Jun 2003     Peter Furniss, 22 Oct 2003     Tony Fletcher, 23 Oct 2003     Proposed resolution (Dieter Koenig1, 19 Jan 2004)     Peter Furniss, 26 Jan 2004
Changes: 4 Jul 2003 - fields: Document;    22 Oct 2003 - fields: Links;    23 Oct 2003 - fields: Links;    20 Jan 2004 - fields: Links;    26 Jan 2004 - fields: Links, Status, Proposed resolution;    11 Feb 2004 - fields: Status, Proposed resolution, Resolution, Rationale

Issue 6: Completion Condition

All of this issue is covered by its sub-issues - closed with no further change.
Links: Announcement, 25 Jun 2003     Yaron Y. Goland, 27 Aug 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 27 Aug 2004     andrew.francis@elf.mcgill.ca, 27 Aug 2004     Ron Ten-Hove, 27 Aug 2004     Ron Ten-Hove, 27 Aug 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 27 Aug 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 27 Aug 2004     Edwin Khodabakchian, 28 Aug 2004     andrew.francis@elf.mcgill.ca, 28 Aug 2004     Satish Thatte, 31 Aug 2004     Alex Yiu, 1 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 1 Sep 2004     Axel Martens, 1 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 1 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 1 Sep 2004     Axel Martens, 1 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 1 Sep 2004     Francisco Curbera, 2 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 3 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 8 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 8 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 10 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 10 Sep 2004     Axel Martens, 10 Sep 2004     Axel Martens, 10 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 10 Sep 2004     Vinkesh Mehta, 11 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 11 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 11 Sep 2004     Vinkesh Mehta, 13 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 13 Sep 2004     Dieter Koenig1, 13 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 13 Sep 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 13 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 13 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 13 Sep 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 13 Sep 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 13 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 14 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 14 Sep 2004     Dieter Koenig1, 14 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 14 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 14 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 14 Sep 2004     Dieter Koenig1, 14 Sep 2004     Axel Martens, 14 Sep 2004     Ivana Trickovic, 14 Sep 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 16 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 16 Sep 2004     Proposed resolution (Satish Thatte, 17 Sep 2004)     Yaron Y. Goland, 17 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 17 Sep 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 17 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 18 Sep 2004     Assaf Arkin, 18 Sep 2004     Frank Leymann, 19 Sep 2004     Satish Thatte, 19 Sep 2004     Frank Leymann, 19 Sep 2004     Satish Thatte, 20 Sep 2004     Peter Furniss, 20 Sep 2004     Peter Furniss, 20 Sep 2004     Satish Thatte, 20 Sep 2004     Satish Thatte, 20 Sep 2004     Satish Thatte, 20 Sep 2004     Peter Furniss, 20 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 20 Sep 2004     Satish Thatte, 20 Sep 2004     Peter Furniss, 21 Sep 2004     Yaron Y. Goland, 27 Sep 2004     Danny van der Rijn, 27 Sep 2004     Assaf Arkin, 28 Sep 2004     Proposal withdrawn, conf call 8 Dec 2004     Alex Yiu, 3 Sep 2004     Alex Yiu, 8 Mar 2005     Alex Yiu, 8 Mar 2005     Ivana Trickovic, 1 Apr 2005
Changes: 4 Jul 2003 - fields: Document;    27 Aug 2004 - fields: Links;    30 Aug 2004 - fields: Links;    31 Aug 2004 - fields: Links;    1 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    2 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    4 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    8 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    10 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    11 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    13 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    14 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    16 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    18 Sep 2004 - fields: Status, Proposed resolution, Links;    20 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    21 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    27 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    28 Sep 2004 - fields: Links;    8 Dec 2004 - fields: Status, Links;    20 Dec 2004 - fields: Links;    8 Mar 2005 - fields: Links;    1 Apr 2005 - fields: Links;    19 Sep 2005 - fields: Status, Resolution, In spec

Issue 6.1: A low-level mechanism for completion of the flow activity

Close with no change, mark as revisitable.
Links: Announcement, 1 Apr 2005
Changes: 1 Apr 2005 - fields: Split, Title, Status, Submitter, Description, Proposed resolution, Links;    12 Sep 2005 - fields: Status, Resolution, Revisitable, In spec

Issue 6.2: A high-level mechanism for completion of the flow activity

Note: The mechanisms propsed in sub-issues 6.1 and 6.2 can coexist together and do not preclude each other.
Resolution: Proposed Ivana Trickovic, 1 Apr 2005, agreed with several amendments 14 Sept 2005

Syntax:

<flow standard-attributes>
	standard-elements
      <links>?
         <link name="ncname">+
      </links>
      <completionCondition>?
      activity+
</flow>