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<!-- This HTML file has been created by timdif2html 1.11
from architectural-model.html.temp on 7 July 1998 -->
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>HTTP-ng Architectural Model</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY TEXT=#000000 BGCOLOR=#ffffff>
<H3 align='right'>
<A HREF='http://www.w3.org/'><IMG border='0' align='left' alt='W3C' src='http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_home'></A>WD-HTTP-NG-architecture-19980710
</H3>
<H1 align='center'>
HTTP-ng Architectural Model
</H1>
<H3 ALIGN=Center>
W3C Working Draft 10 July 1998
</H3>
<DL>
<DT>
This version:
<DD>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/WD-HTTP-NG-architecture-19980710">http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/WD-HTTP-NG-architecture-19980710</A>
<DT>
Latest version:
<DD>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-HTTP-NG-architecture">http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-HTTP-NG-architecture</A>
<DT>
Authors:
<DD>
Bill Janssen, Xerox PARC,
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:janssen@parc.xerox.com">janssen@parc.xerox.com</A>&gt;<BR>
Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, W3C,
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:frystyk@w3.org">frystyk@w3.org</A>&gt;<BR>
Mike Spreitzer, Xerox PARC,
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:spreitzer@parc.xerox.com">spreitzer@parc.xerox.com</A>&gt;
<DT>
Editor:
<DD>
Bill Janssen, Xerox PARC,
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:janssen@parc.xerox.com">janssen@parc.xerox.com</A>&gt;
</DL>
<p><small><A href='http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice.html#Copyright'>Copyright</A>
&nbsp;&copy;&nbsp; 1998 <A href='http://www.w3.org'>W3C</A> (<A href='http://www.lcs.mit.edu'>MIT</A>,
<A href='http://www.inria.fr/'>INRIA</A>, <A href='http://www.keio.ac.jp/'>Keio</A> ),
All Rights Reserved. W3C <A href='http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice.html#Legal Disclaimer'>liability,</A>
<A href='http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice.html#W3C Trademarks'>trademark</A>,
<A href='http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents.html'>document use
</A>and <A href='http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software.html'>software licensing </A>rules apply.
</small></p>
<H1>
1. Status of this Document
</H1>
<P>
This is a W3C Working Draft for review by W3C members and other interested
parties. It is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted
by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use W3C Working Drafts
as reference material or to cite them as other than "work in progress". A
list of current W3C technical reports can be found at
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR">http://www.w3.org/TR</A>.
<P>
This document has been produced as part of the W3C HTTP-ng Activity. This
is work in progress and does not imply endorsement by, or the consensus of,
either W3C or members of the HTTP-ng Protocol Design Working Group. We expect
the document to evolve as we get more data from the
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP-NG/">HTTP-NG</A> Web Characterization
Group describing the current state of the Web.
<P>
This document defines a simple model for what an HTTP-ng architecture might
look like, along with a set of terms for referring to parts of it. This model
and terms are drawn from the
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2068/rfc2068">HTTP 1.1</A> work,
the <A HREF="ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html">ILU</A> work, and
the <A HREF="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/PEP/">PEP</A> work.
<P>
This document is part of a suite of documents describing the HTTP-NG design
and prototype implementation:
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/WD-HTTP-NG-goals">HTTP-NG Short- and Longterm Goals</A>, WD
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-HTTP-NG-architecture">HTTP-NG Architectural Model</A>, WD
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-HTTP-NG-wire">HTTP-NG Wire Protocol</A>, WD
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-HTTP-NG-interfaces">The Classic Web Interfaces in HTTP-NG</A>,
WD
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-mux">The MUX Protocol</A>, WD
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-HTTP-NG-testbed">Description of the HTTP-NG Testbed</A>, Note
</UL>
<P>
Please send comments on this specification to
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:www-http-ng-comments@w3.org">www-http-ng-comments@w3.org</A>&gt;.
<H1>
2. Terminology
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX1"></A> <A NAME="IDX2"></A> <A NAME="IDX3"></A>
<P>
Remote or distributed applications typically have a defined <B>interface</B>;
this consists of a set of operations which participants in the application
invoke on other participants. These operations typically are defined in terms
of input parameters and output results; sometimes <B>exceptional results</B>,
or <B>exceptions</B>, are also specified for the operation. In standard Internet
usage, an application such as Telnet or FTP is described in a document which
specifies an abstract model of operation, and enumerates the operations by
describing the form of a message which conveys that operation when marshalled
onto an appropriate transport substrate. Some Internet standards define an
<B>application framework</B>, which is a set of general information that
applies to a family of applications, related by all using that framework.
The RFC 1831 for RPC is such a framework specification. Finally, some
specifications, such as HTTP, define both a framework, and a particular
application (the Web), which uses that framework. It does this by defining
an extensible system of messages in a request/response context, then defines
several specific messages (<CODE>GET</CODE>, <CODE>HEAD</CODE>,
<CODE>POST</CODE>, etc.) and the context of a distributed application that
uses them.
<P>
<P>
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="distributed-app.idraw.gif">
<P>
Figure 1a. Elements of a Distributed Application
</CENTER>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX4"></A> <A NAME="IDX5"></A> <A NAME="IDX6"></A>
<A NAME="IDX7"></A> <A NAME="IDX8"></A> <A NAME="IDX9"></A>
<P>
Though there may be many <B>participants</B> or threads of control in the
application, they conventionally engage in two-party interactions. These
two parties can be categorized as the <B>caller</B> or <I>client</I>, which
is the participant which invokes an operation, and the <B>callee</B>, or
<I>server</I>, which is the participant implementing or responding to the
operation. When there are many participants in the applications, the role
each plays may shift continuously. These participants are said to reside
in different <B>compatibility domain</B>s; the distributed application serves
as a bridge between these domains. There is some essential element which
separates the domains; it is typically the fact that the participants are
on different computers, but it may also be other factors such as that the
two participants are operating under the aegis of different security principals,
or are implemented in different programming languages. <A NAME="IDX10"></A>
<A NAME="IDX11"></A>
<P>
Distributed object systems are application frameworks that try to simplify
and optimize the definition and use of an application. They typically have
an <B>interface definition language</B> (often called <B>IDL</B>), which
make it easier to talk about the components of an interface. They often have
standards for marshalling the parts of a message into binary forms, or for
discovering resources, or for recovering from certain types of errors, or
for exporting the interface defined in their IDL to a particular programming
language for use in a larger program. This separation of concerns allows
each part of the application framework to be small and cohesive, but allows
the development of large applications.
<P>
Some distributed object systems use the procedure call as a metaphor of
operation; these are called <B>RPC</B> systems. Others use a messaging model,
and are typically called <B>messaging</B> systems. Most modern distributed
object systems have support for both RPC and messaging.
<P>
An <B>interface definition</B> consists of a set of inter-related
<B>type</B>s, <B>exception</B>s, and <B>method</B>s. Methods are packaged
in <B>object type</B>s, developed with a partitioning of them according to
object-oriented methodologies. A callee is represented by an <B>instance</B>
of an object type. Operations are invoked on the callee by calling one of
its methods. If the caller of a method and the callee of the method exist
in different compatibility domains, they are connected with a
<B>connection</B>, which carries messages back and forth between the
compatibility domains, and has an associated protocol and transport stack.
The <B>message</B> is the basic unit of communication; the connection's
<B>protocol</B> specifies the set of messages which can be sent, and their
syntax; the connection's <B>transport stack</B>, which typically consists
a series of individual <B>transport element</B>s, specifies how the messages
are carried between the two domains. Most protocols define two distinguished
messages, a <B>request</B> message, which invokes a service in the callee,
and a <B>response</B> message, which provides a response about an invocation
back to the caller, along with some other control messages used to synchronize
state between the two domains. We typically distinguish between transport
elements called <B>transport filter</B>s, which modify the bits of message
passing through them (encryption, compression, etc.) and other elements
<B>transport endpoint</B>s, which actually convey the message to a different
compatibility domain (TCP/IP, UDP/IP, etc.).
<P>
An implementation of an object type is called a <B>class</B>. An implementation
of one or more of the object types defined in an interface, along with whatever
additional code is necessary to perform any ancillary tasks such as creating
initial instances of a class, or registering instances with a name service,
is called a <B>module</B>. A <B>program</B> typically consists of several
modules, each of contains one or more classes which implement object types,
either by dispatching messages to a module exported from another compatibility
domain (classes which do this are called <B>surrogate</B> classes), or by
directly performing the functionality of the object type (classes which do
this are called <B>true</B> classes). Programs which tend to have many true
classes and relatively few surrogate classes are typically called
<B>server</B>s, and programs which have few true classes and relatively many
surrogate classes are typically called <B>client</B>s; these terms should
be used with caution, since they are only appropriate in a specific context.
A server is typically made available by a <B>publisher</B>, which is the
principal responsible for the services encapsulated in the true instances
of object types provided by the module. The principal responsible for accessing
the services provided by the publisher is sometimes known as the <B>user</B>.
<H1>
3. The HTTP-ng Type System
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX32"></A> <A NAME="IDX33"></A>
<P>
Interfaces for applications are defined with a <DFN>type system</DFN>. This
section describes the proposed type system for HTTP-ng. It consists of two
kinds of types, <DFN>primitive types</DFN> and <DFN>constructed types</DFN>.
Only two primitive types, or pre-defined types, are included, <B>boolean</B>
and <B>pickle</B>. All other types are constructed from parameters and other
types using <DFN>constructors</DFN>, like sequence types and record types.
<P>
<H2>
3.1. Type IDs
</H2>
<P>
All types have an associated universally unique identifier, called the
<DFN>type ID</DFN>, which can be expressed as a URI. Type IDs from different
UUID spaces may be mixed. An implementation of the type system should allow
explicit identification of type IDs with types, but should also provide a
default type ID for every type in a consistent and predictable fashion. [
We need to define the algorithm here. ]
<P>
<H2>
3.2. Identifiers
</H2>
<P>
The rules governing the syntax of identifiers are the same as for Standard
C; that is, uppercase and lowercase alphabetic characters and digits from
the ASCII character set, along with the underscore character, may be used,
and the first character of the identifier must be an alphabetic character.
Case is significant.
<P>
<H2>
3.3. Boolean Types
</H2>
<P>
The single boolean type, the primitive type <B>boolean</B>, has exactly two
values, <CODE>True</CODE> and <CODE>False</CODE>.
<P>
<H2>
3.4. Enumerated Types
</H2>
<P>
An enumerated type is an abstract type the values of which are explicitly
specified. It is specified with one parameter, a set of values, specified
as identifiers. Enumerated types are not numeric types, and the values of
an enumerated type do not have intrinsic numeric values associated with them;
however, some programming languages may use numeric types to represent enumerated
types.
<P>
<H2>
3.5. Numeric Types
</H2>
<P>
The type system includes two different kinds of numeric types,
<DFN>fixed-point</DFN> and <DFN>floating-point</DFN>. All numeric types are
constructed; that is, there are no pre-defined "primitive" integer or
floating-point types.
<P>
<A NAME="IDX34"></A> <A NAME="IDX35"></A> <A NAME="IDX36"></A>
<H3>
3.5.1. Fixed-point Types
</H3>
<P>
A fixed-point type is defined with three parameters: a denominator, a maximum
numerator value, and a minimum numerator value. These define a series of
rational values which make up the allowable values of that fixed-point type.
The numerator and denominator are integer values; the denominator is either
a positive integer value greater than zero, or the reciprocal of a positive
integer value greater than zero. Each value of a fixed-point type abstractly
exists as a rational number with a numerator in the range specified for
numerators, and a denominator of the specified denominator value. For example,
one could define a fixed-point type which would cover the 16-bit unsigned
integer space with a denominator of one (all integer types have denominators
of one), a maximum numerator of 65535 and a minimum numerator of zero. One
could define a fixed-point type `dollars' for business purposes with a
denominator of 100 (two decimal places for `cents'), a maximum numerator
of 100000000 (1 million dollars) and a minimum numerator of -100000000 (1
million dollars). There are no limits on the sizes of denominators, maximum
numerators, or minimum numerators.
<P>
We use this approach, instead of specifying a procrustean flock of predefined
integer types as in DCOM or CORBA, to simplify the underlying system in several
ways.
<OL>
<LI>
Small applications can handle all fixed-point values of a particular type
as `bignum' value (the numerator), and not have to have any special-case
code for any primitive integer types. However, any primitive integer types
they care about can be special-cased and handled efficiently.
<LI>
This approach also supports the CORBA `fixed' data type, but does so more
effectively by additionally providing for non-decimal fixed-point fractional
types: types such as sixteenths can also be defined directly for stock market
applications by using a denominator of 16, while egg producers can also deal
in dozens by specifying a denominator of 1/12.
<LI>
Programming language mappings of this type system can special-case those
integer types they support internally directly, and handle all other fixed-point
types in a generic fashion. This eliminates the need to `shoehorn' some numeric
types into language types not quite right for them, such as the representation
of CORBA `unsigned' types in the Java programming language.
</OL>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX37"></A> <A NAME="IDX38"></A> <A NAME="IDX39"></A>
<A NAME="IDX40"></A> <A NAME="IDX41"></A> <A NAME="IDX42"></A>
<A NAME="IDX43"></A> <A NAME="IDX44"></A> <A NAME="IDX45"></A>
<H3>
3.5.2. Floating-point Types
</H3>
<P>
Floating-point types are specified with eight parameters:
<UL>
<LI>
the size in bits of the significand,
<LI>
the base of the exponent,
<LI>
the maximum exponent value,
<LI>
the minimum exponent value,
<LI>
whether they support a distinguished value for `Not-A-Number',
<LI>
whether they support a distinguished value for `Infinity',
<LI>
whether denormalized values are allowed, and
<LI>
whether the zero value is signed (whether they can have both +0 and -0).
</UL>
<P>
For instance, the floating point type usually described as IEEE 32-bit
floating-point has the parameters significand-size=24, exponent-base=2,
maximum-exponent-value=127, minimum-exponent-value=-126, has-Not-A-Number=TRUE,
has-Infinity=TRUE, denormalized-values-allowed=TRUE, and has-signed-zero=TRUE;
the floating point type usually described as IEEE 64-bit floating-point has
the parameters significand-size=53, exponent-base=2, maximum-exponent-value=1023,
minimum-exponent-value=-1022, has-Not-A-Number=TRUE, has-Infinity=TRUE,
denormalized-values-allowed=TRUE, and has-signed-zero=TRUE. We expect that
interface description languages for the HTTP-ng type system will provide
shorthand notation for certain floating-point type patterns, such as those
corresponding to IEEE single and double precision floating point.
<P>
We use this approach because CORBA and similar systems have a problem in
that they have no way to represent the variety of floating point numbers
available, particularly the different variants of IEEE `extended'. In addition,
this system allows representation of older floating-point types still in
wide circulation, such as IBM, VAX, and CRAY floating-point, in an simple
fashion.
<P>
<H2>
3.6. String Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX46"></A> <A NAME="IDX47"></A> <A NAME="IDX48"></A>
<P>
<DFN>String</DFN> types are defined with two parameters: the maximum length
in bytes of the string values, and the language [1] used in the string. If
no language is specified, the language defaults to the Internet default language
<CODE>"i-default"</CODE>. The maximum length must be less than or equal to
0x7FFFFFFE, or it may also be omitted, in which case a maximum length of
0x7FFFFFFE (2^31-2) is used. The character set (or sets) used in the string
is that identified by the string's language. The codeset used in representations
of the string is not specified at this level. This type system does not have
any representation for individual characters or character codes; integer
types should be used for that purpose.
<P>
[ Note that there is no such thing as a "NULL string", as occurs in C or
C++. However, a similar type can be constructed with the <B>optional</B>
type constructor, using a string type as the base type. ]
<P>
<H2>
3.7. Sequence Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX49"></A> <A NAME="IDX50"></A>
<P>
Sequence types are variable-length one-dimensional arrays of some other type.
They are defined with two parameters: the <DFN>base</DFN> type of the sequence,
and optionally a maximum number of values in the sequence, which must be
a value less than or equal to <CODE>0x7FFFFFFE</CODE>. If no maximum length
is specified, a default maximum length of <CODE>0x7FFFFFFE</CODE> is assumed.
<P>
<H2>
3.8. Array Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX51"></A>
<P>
Array types are fixed-length multi-dimensional arrays of some other type.
They are defined with two parameters: the <DFN>base</DFN> type of the sequence,
and a sequence of dimensions, each of which is an integer value less than
or equal to <CODE>0x7FFFFFFE</CODE>. Arrays are in row-major order.
<P>
<H2>
3.9. Record Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX52"></A>
<P>
A record type is defined with a single parameter, a sequence of fields. Each
field is specified with an identifier, unique within the scope of the record
type, and a type.
<P>
<H2>
3.10. Union Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX53"></A>
<P>
Union types are defined with a single parameter, a set of fields. Each field
is specified with an identifier, unique within the scope of the union type,
and a type for the field. The same type may be used multiple times for different
fields of the union. The value of a union type with N fields consists of
a single value of the type of one of the fields, and an unsigned integer
value in the range [0..N-1] identifying which field is represented.
<P>
<A NAME="IDX54"></A>
<H2>
3.11. Pickle Type
</H2>
<P>
A special kind of union type that can hold a value of any other type is known
as the <B>pickle</B> type.
<P>
<H2>
3.12. Reference Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX55"></A>
<P>
Reference types are specifically designed to support recursion through the
type system, and must be mapped to a pointer type of some time in those
programming languages which distinguish between value types and pointer types.
Two kinds of reference types are provided, optional types and aliased types.
Each use of a reference type constructor adds another level of indirection.
<P>
[ These types effectively cover the practical uses of reference types in
the CORBA objects-by-value spec, the Java RMI spec, and the DCE RPC / DCOM
system. ]
<P>
<A NAME="IDX56"></A>
<H3>
3.12.1. Optional Types
</H3>
<P>
Optional types are defined with a single parameter, another type, called
the base type of the optional type. A value of an optional type may be either
NIL or a value of its base type. This type allows the description of data
structures like binary trees.
<P>
<A NAME="IDX57"></A>
<H3>
3.12.2. Aliased Types
</H3>
<P>
Aliased types are defined with a single parameter, another type, called the
base type of the aliased type. Aliased types are distinguished in that multiple
references to the same value of an aliased type in a single `scope' will
be passed between compatibility domains as a single value. This avoids the
problem in some type systems of converting graph data structures to trees
when transferring them between compatibility domains. It is important to
note that an aliased type is not optional; that is, NIL is not a valid value
for an instance of an aliased type unless it is a valid value for the base
type of the aliased type.
<P>
The scope of an aliased type varies depending on its use. When a value of
an aliased type is being sent as an input or output parameter in a method
call, the scope of the type is the whole message in which the value is being
sent; that is, the invocation or result of the method call. When it is being
pickled, the scope of the value type is the pickle.
<P>
[If the base of an alias type is an optional type, consider what happens
with a particular value where the optional part is NIL; is the alias to the
NIL also NIL, or a particular "pointer" to another (actually NIL) pointer?]
<P>
<H2>
3.13. Object Types
</H2>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX58"></A> <A NAME="IDX59"></A> <A NAME="IDX60"></A>
<A NAME="IDX61"></A> <A NAME="IDX62"></A> <A NAME="IDX63"></A>
<A NAME="IDX64"></A>
<P>
In the HTTP-ng type system, operations are modeled as method calls on an
instance of an object type which supports that method. There are two kinds
of object types, <DFN>local</DFN> and <DFN>remote</DFN>. Instances of remote
object types have a global identity, and are always passed between compatibility
domains by reference; the original object value is called the <DFN>true
instance</DFN>, and references to that true instance are called <DFN>surrogate
instances</DFN>. Passed instances of any remote object type are always surrogate
instances, except in the compatibility domain of the true instance, where
it will be the true instance. Instances of local object types have no global
identity, and are always passed between compatibility domains by copying
the <DFN>state</DFN> of the local instance to the new compatibility domain,
where a new instance of that object type (or a subtype of the object type)
is created from the state. A local instance in one compatibility domain and
copy of that local instance in a different compatibility domain have no explicit
association after the copy has been made. The behavior of a local object
type must be provided locally, but it may be provided statically at link
time, or dynamically at runtime via dynamic loading of class code, as is
done in Java RMI. The HTTP-ng system does not define any particular system
for dynamic loading of behavior.
<P>
Both local and remote object types are defined by specifying three parameters:
a sequence of supertypes, a sequence of methods, and the state of the object
type. Note that the ordering of the elements of each of these parameters
is significant. Any of these parameters may be empty.
<P>
[ Note that there is no such thing as a "NIL object", as occurs in the CORBA
system. However, an equivalent construct may be obtained where necessary
by using the <B>optional</B> type constructor, using an object type as the
base type. ]
<P>
<H3>
3.13.1. Supertypes and Inheritance
</H3>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX65"></A> <A NAME="IDX66"></A>
<P>
Each object type may have one or more object types as supertypes. An object
type with supertypes is said to <DFN>inherit</DFN> the methods and state
of its supertypes, which means that it provides all of the methods provided
by any of its supertypes, and any of their supertypes, and so forth. An object
type may occur more than once in the supertype inheritance graph of an object
type. Note that the inheritance provided in this model is that of interface
inheritance. In particular, it does not guarantee or prohibit polymorphic
dispatching of methods.
<P>
Object types may be <DFN>sealed</DFN>. A sealed object type may not be used
as a supertype for another object type.
<P>
<H3>
3.13.2. Methods
</H3>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX67"></A> <A NAME="IDX68"></A> <A NAME="IDX69"></A>
<A NAME="IDX70"></A> <A NAME="IDX71"></A> <A NAME="IDX72"></A>
<A NAME="IDX73"></A> <A NAME="IDX74"></A>
<P>
A <DFN>method</DFN> is a way of invoking an operation on an instance of an
object type. Each HTTP-ng method has a three required parameters: a
synchronization attribute which may either be <DFN>synchronous</DFN> or
<DFN>asynchronous</DFN>; an identifier, unique within the scope of the object
type, called the <DFN>method name</DFN>; and an <DFN>invocation</DFN>, which
is specified as a sequence of named and typed input parameters. Synchronous
methods may also have additional parameters: a <DFN>normal result</DFN>,
which is specified as a sequence of named and typed output parameters, and
zero or more <DFN>exceptional results</DFN>, each specified as a sequence
of named and typed output parameters. Exceptional results should only be
used to describe results that occur infrequently, as the overhead of handling
exceptional results in most programming languages that support them is higher
than the overhead of handling a normal result. Input parameters and output
parameters are each specified with an identifier, unique within the scope
of the method, and a type. [ Note additional restriction on the names of
exception parameters. ]
<P>
Asynchronous methods transfer the invocation parameters to the compatibility
domain of the true instance, and invoke the operation. The caller-side control
flow for an asynchronous method returns to the caller of an asynchronous
method after the message has been handed to a reliable transport mechanism
for transfer to the compatibility domain of the true instance; the remote
method itself may not be executed for an arbitrary length of time after that
return. Asynchronous methods may be thought of as <DFN>messages</DFN>.
<P>
Synchronous methods transfer the invocation parameters of the method to the
compatibility domain of the true instance, where the method is invoked as
a local method on that instance. The result from that invocation, normal
or exceptional, is transferred back to the caller's compatibility domain,
if different, and returned as the result of the method.
<P>
[ Do we need some set of `standard' exceptions? If so, what are they? A small
starting list might be:
<UL>
<LI>
communications failure -- underlying failure in the message transport subsystem
<LI>
no such object -- server can't identify instance on which the method was
invoked
<LI>
bad type -- object doesn't have type specified in operation identifier
<LI>
no such type -- type specified in operation identifier unknown at server
<LI>
internal local before -- something in the middleware system failed in this
compatibility domain, before the invocation was attempted
<LI>
internal local after -- something in the middleware system failed in this
compatibility domain, after a result was received
<LI>
internal remote before -- something in the middleware system failed in the
remote compatibility domain, before the invocation was attempted
<LI>
internal remote after -- something in the middleware system failed in the
remote compatibility domain, after the invocation of the true method had
begun
</UL>
<P>
]
<P>
<H3>
3.13.3. State
</H3>
<P>
Each object type may have state associated with it. The state of an object
type is specified as a sequence of attributes, where each attribute has an
identifier unique within the scope of the object type, and an associated
type. When an instance of this object type is passed between compatibility
domains, the values of these attributes are passed. This is the normal way
of passing the state of a local object type. [ TBD - for remote object types,
the state may act as the initial values for surrogate instance caching of
remote object state, or as a way of passing immutable metadata about the
instance with the object reference.]
<P>
Attribures may also be marked as <DFN>public</DFN> or <DFN>private</DFN>.
This has no effect on their handling at the lower levels of the system, but
may influence the way in which mappings to programming languages deal with
them. For example, a programming language object type might provide public
accessors for public attributes, but not for private attributes.
<P>
<H3>
3.13.4. <B>HTTP-ng.RemoteObjectBase</B> Type
</H3>
<P>
All remote object types must inherit directly or indirectly from the object
type <B>HTTP-ng.RemoteObjectBase</B>.
<P>
<PRE>
INTERFACE HTTP-ng BRAND "http-ng.w3.org";
...
TYPE UUIDString = STRING LANGUAGE "i-default"
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/UUIDString";
TYPE TypeIDTreeNode = RECORD
type-id : UUIDString,
"supertypes" : InheritanceHierarchy
END TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/TypeIDTreeNode";
TYPE TypeIDTreeNodeRef = ALIASED REFERENCE TypeIDTreeNode
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/TypeIDTreeNodeRef";
TYPE InheritanceHierarchy = SEQUENCE OF TypeIDTreeNodeRef
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/InheritanceHierarchy";
TYPE RemoteObjectBase = OBJECT
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/RemoteObjectBase"
METHODS
GetTypeHierarchy () : InheritanceHierarchy
"Returns the type ID hierarchy for the object"
END;
...
</PRE>
<P>
<H3>
3.13.5. Distributed Garbage Collection
</H3>
<P>
A simple form of <B>garbage collection</B> is defined for HTTP-ng objects.
If an object type inherits from <B>HTTP-ng.GCCollectibleObjectBase</B>, a
module that implements objects of that type expects clients holding surrogate
instances to register with it, passing an instance of a callback object.
When a client finishes with the surrogate, the client unregisters itself.
Thus the server may maintain a list of clients that hold surrogate instances.
If no client is registered for an object, and the object has been dormant
(had no methods called on it by a client from a different compatibility domain)
for a period of time <VAR>T1</VAR>, the module may feel free to garbage collect
the true instance. <VAR>T1</VAR> is determined both by human concerns and
network performance: <VAR>T1</VAR> is set long enough to allow useful debugging
of a client, and longer than the typical transmission delay between all
participants in a program.
<P>
To deal with possible failure of a client process, we introduce another time-out
parameter. If an instance with registered clients has been dormant for a
period of time <VAR>T2</VAR>, the server uses the callback instance associated
with each client to see if the client still exists. If the client cannot
be contacted for the callback, the server may remove it from the list of
registered clients for that instance.
<P>
Object types which participate in distributed garbage collection must inherit
from <B>HTTP-ng.GCCollectibleObjectBase</B>.
<P>
<PRE>
INTERFACE HTTP-ng BRAND "http-ng.w3.org";
...
TYPE Seconds = FIXED-POINT DENOMINATOR=1
MIN-NUMERATOR=0 MAX-NUMERATOR=0xFFFFFFFF
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/Seconds";
TYPE GCCallBackObject = OBJECT SUPERTYPES RemoteObjectBase END
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/GCCallBackObject"
METHODS
StillInterested (obj : GCCollectibleObjectBase) : BOOLEAN
"Should return TRUE if the callback object is still interested in
using the remote object 'obj', FALSE otherwise. An error return
is counted as a FALSE return."
END;
TYPE GCCollectibleObjectBase = OBJECT SUPERTYPES RemoteObjectBase END
TYPEID "w3ngid:www.w3.org/HTTP-ng/GCCollectibleObjectBase"
METHODS
RegisterGCInterest (user : GCCallBackObject)
"Indicates that the caller, indicated by the 'user' parameter, is
interested in using the object, and should be considered a reference
for the purposes of distributed garbage collection. This may be
called multiple times with the same 'user' parameter, but only one
reference per distinct 'user' parameter will be registered.",
UnregisterGCInterest (user : GCCallBackObject)
"Indicates that the caller, indicated by the 'user' parameter, is
no longer interested in using the object, and should no longer be
considered a reference for the purposes of distributed garbage
collection. It is not an error to call this for objects which have
not previously registered interest.",
GetTimeoutParameters(OUT t1 : Seconds, OUT t2 : Seconds)
"Returns the T1 and T2 garbage collection parameters used by the
server.",
Ping()
"Can be used by surrogate users of the instance to refresh the T1
timeout of the instance, and prevent server-side outcalls to the
callback object."
END;
...
</PRE>
<P>
<H1>
4. Program Architectures
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="IDX75"></A> <A NAME="IDX76"></A> <A NAME="IDX77"></A>
<P>
Our current thinking is that a typical HTTP-ng application would be layered
as described in Section 1. The lowest layer, the transport layer, would typically
(but not necessarily always) consist of of a
<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/MUX/">MUX</A> transport filter over
a TCP/IP transport endpoint. The MUX layer would be used to provide multiple
connections over a single TCP/IP connection, bi-directional use of the TCP/IP
connection for callbacks, and message-marking for the higher layers. We call
the MUX connection a <B>session</B> to distinguish it from TCP/IP connections.
Similarly, we call the MUX port (the thing to which MUX connections are made,
like a TCP/IP port), a <B>channel</B>, to similarly distinguish it. The set
of MUX channels which can be connected to over a TCP/IP connection to a
particular IP host machine is called a <DFN>MUX endpoint</DFN>. Typically,
this endpoint identifies a particular address space or process on an IP host.
Note that a single MUX endpoint (and all the MUX channels at that endpoint)
may be available via a number of different TCP ports. This means that the
TCP port used in the transport stack does not explicitly identify a set of
MUX channels; rather, the set of MUX channels are identified by the MUX endpoint.
<A NAME="IDX78"></A>
<P>
The next layer, the RPC layer, would typically consist an object-oriented
RPC protocol, maximizing use of protocol features found to be successful
in existing Internet protocols. The RPC layer is a simple messaging layer
- it should not provide any application-specific services like security or
caching, or any other application layer functionality. This belongs in the
upper layers. It would provide an extensible and regular mechanism for forming
and handling messages described by application-level interfaces without knowledge
of semantic information that is application-specific. It would provide a
distributed garbage-collection facility which could be used for automatic
management of application objects. This layer would also have associated
machinery which would allow automated uses of interface descriptions written
in an interface description language, such as stub-code and
implementation-skeleton generation. This layer may use a number of different,
but equivalent, protocols; we expect the major one will be an efficient binary
wire protocol. <A NAME="IDX79"></A> <A NAME="IDX80"></A>
<P>
The third and highest layer is the application layer. This layer would vary
from application to application. For example, <DFN>The Classic Web
Application</DFN> (<B>TCWA</B>) would have a different layer here than the
WebDAV application, though they may share some common part. The HTTP-ng
architecture would allow multiple applications to co-exist at this level,
and would provide a mechanism to add new applications easily without disturbing
existing applications.
<P>
Figure 2a illustrates the general arrangement of layers an HTTP-ng-enabled
program. Each application would contain application-specific code to use
the classes of interfaces it imports, and to provide the functionality of
classes it exports. Any number of different applications can be supported
on a common base. Note that multiple protocols (message formats) can co-exist
simultaneously; note that several different transport chains can share a
single TCP/IP port or connection by using the MUX protocol; note that additional
processing of messages, such as compression, can be performed by using an
appropriate transport chain in the transport layer.
<P>
<P>
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="architectural-drawing.idraw.gif">
<P>
Figure 2a. Layers of a Sample Program
</CENTER>
<P>
<P>
In an application like the Web, there would be at least two participants,
typically one or more web browsers, and one or more web servers. A web browser
would connect to a web server as shown in figure 2b:
<P>
<P>
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="http-application.idraw.gif">
<P>
Figure 2b. The Web Application Participants
</CENTER>
<P>
<P>
At this gross level, the two participants seem similar, but if examined more
closely, we can see differences corresponding to the essential client-like
behavior of the browser and server-like behavior of the, er, server. For
instance, the browser tends to have more surrogate classes for the object
types defined in the Web interface, and the browser tends to have more true
classes. The server may also have more different kinds of protocols and transport
elements, in order to cope with a wider variety of possible clients. Figure
2c illustrates a possible architecture of a web server, while Figure 2d shows
a possible, somewhat stripped-down, architecture of a web browser.
<P>
<P>
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="web-server.idraw.gif">
<P>
Figure 2c. A Web Server
</CENTER>
<P>
<P>
<P>
<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="web-browser.idraw.gif">
<P>
Figure 2d. A Web Browser
</CENTER>
<P>
<P>
Note that the capabilities of the example server and browser architectures
are different. The server speaks both HTTP and HTTP-ng; the browser speaks
only HTTP-ng. The server can support HTTP-ng messages over a plain TCP/IP
transport, while the browser expects every server to have the MUX protocol.
The browser is capable of handling digitally signed documents, while this
server is unable to hand them out. Both client and server can use compression
on their message streams. Of course, many other possible combinations of
transport filters and protocols are possible on both sides. A proxy server,
for instance, would have all the client side functionality, as well as the
server side functionality.
<P>
<H1>
Notes and References
</H1>
<P>
[1] RFC 2277, IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages; H. Alvestrand,
January 1998.
<P>
<H1>
Appendix: HTTP-ng Types in ILU's ISL
</H1>
<P>
We are using the <A HREF="ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html">ILU
system from Xerox PARC</A> in some of the HTTP-ng prototyping. Generally
the ILU type system is a superset of the HTTP-ng type system. The following
mapping should be used in expressing the NG type system in terms of ILU's
Interface Specification Language:
<UL>
<LI>
<B>boolean</B> =&gt; ISL <CODE>BOOLEAN</CODE>
<LI>
fixed-point constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>FIXED-POINT</CODE> (C only)
<LI>
floating-point significand-size=24 exponent-base=2 maximum-exponent-value=127
minimum-exponent-value=-126 has-Not-A-Number=TRUE has-Infinity=TRUE
denormalized-values-allowed=TRUE has-signed-zero=TRUE =&gt; ISL <CODE>SHORT
REAL</CODE>
<LI>
floating-point significand-size=53, exponent-base=2 maximum-exponent-value=1023,
minimum-exponent-value=-1022,
has-Not-A-Number=TRUE,has-Infinity=TRUE,denormalized-values-allowed=TRUE,
and has-signed-zero=TRUE =&gt; ISL <CODE>REAL</CODE>
<LI>
floating-point significand-size=113, maximum-exponent-value=16383,
minimum-exponent-value=-16382,
has-Not-A-Number=TRUE,has-Infinity=TRUE,denormalized-values-allowed=TRUE,
and has-signed-zero=TRUE =&gt; ISL <CODE>LONG REAL</CODE>
<LI>
enumeration constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>ENUMERATION</CODE> constructor --
note that ISL allows specification of integer values for enumeration values,
which should not be used
<LI>
string constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>ILUSTRING</CODE> constructor -- note that
the <CODE>ILUSTRING</CODE> constructor allows the explicit specification
of a charset, which should not be used
<LI>
sequence constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>SEQUENCE</CODE> constructor -- note
that the maximum length must be specified, as the ISL default maximum length
is different from the HTTP-ng default maximum length
<LI>
array constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>ARRAY</CODE> constructor
<LI>
record constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>RECORD</CODE> constructor
<LI>
encapsulation constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>UNION</CODE> constructor -- note
that the ISL constructor is considerably more complex; do not use that extra
complexity
<LI>
<B>pickle</B> =&gt; ISL <CODE>PICKLE</CODE>
<LI>
optional constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>OPTIONAL</CODE> constructor
<LI>
aliased constructor =&gt; No ISL equivalent yet
<LI>
object constructor =&gt; ISL <CODE>OBJECT</CODE> constructor -- use
<CODE>ASYNCHRONOUS</CODE> qualifier on methods to get asynchronous methods,
the default is synchronous; define exceptions separately in ISL and use them
in method definitions; local objects and object type state are not yet supported
in ISL
</UL>
<H1>
Index
</H1>
<UL>
<LI>
<H2>
a
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX57">aliased types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX3">application</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX2">application framework</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX51">array types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX67">asynchronous method</A>
<H2>
b
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX50">base type</A>
<H2>
c
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX6">callee</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX5">caller</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX75">channel</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX25">class</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX31">client</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX9">compatibility domain</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX33">constructed types</A>
<H2>
d
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX78">distributed garbage
collection</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX10">distributed object
system</A>
<H2>
e
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX15">exception</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX72">exceptional result</A>
<H2>
f
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX35">fixed-point denominator</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX36">fixed-point numerator</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX34">fixed-point types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX44">floating-point denormalized
value support</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX43">floating-point Infinity
handling</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX40">floating-point maximum
exponent value</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX41">floating-point minimum
exponent value</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX42">floating-point Not-A-Number
handling</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX45">floating-point signed-zero
support</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX39">floating-point
significands</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX38">floating-point types</A>
<H2>
i
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX66">inheritance</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX18">instance</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX1">interface</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX11">interface definition
language</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX70">invocation</A>
<H2>
l
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX59">local object type</A>
<H2>
m
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX19">message</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX74">messages</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX13">messaging</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX69">method</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX26">module</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX77">MUX</A>
<H2>
n
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX71">normal result</A>
<H2>
o
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX17">object type</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX58">object types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX56">optional types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX63">origin instance</A>
<H2>
p
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX4">participant</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX64">passed instance</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX54">pickle type</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX32">primitive types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX27">program</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX20">protocol</A>
<H2>
r
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX52">record types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX55">reference types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX62">remote instance</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX60">remote object type</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX12">RPC</A>
<H2>
s
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX49">sequence types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX30">server</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX76">session</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX48">string type language
specifier</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX47">string type maximum
length</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX46">string types</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX65">supertypes of an object
type</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX28">surrogate class</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX73">synchronization
attribute</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX68">synchronous method</A>
<H2>
t
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX79">TCWA</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX80">The Classic Web Application
(TCWA)</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX22">transport elements</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX24">transport endpoint</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX23">transport filter</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX21">transport stack</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX29">true class</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX61">true instance</A>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX14">type</A>
<H2>
u
</H2>
<LI>
<A HREF="#IDX53">union types</A>
</UL>
</BODY></HTML>