Method of proposing a service via a description document of such a service

• US 8,051,188 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2003
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Moreau, Jean-Jacques, Fablet, Youenn, Ruellan, Hervé
• Primary Examiner(s): Swearingen; Jeffrey R
• Application Number:
  US10/654,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20040128369A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,980 Days
• Field of Search: 709/230
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A server computer sends, to a client computer, a service description document comprising information relating to a communication protocol used for exchanging messages, the service description document including a description of at least one functionality implemented by the communication protocol for an execution of the service over on the communication network using the protocol. The client computer analyzes the service description document by extracting the description of the functionalities implemented by the protocol from the service description document, verifying that each functionality is supported by the client computer of the communication network, and adding the protocol to a list of protocols usable for the execution of the service supplied by the server computer if all the functionalities associated with the communication protocol are supported by the client computer.

Claims

1. A method of proposing a service provided by a server computer in a communication network, comprising:

sending to a client computer, a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) document comprising information relating to SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) communication protocol used for transporting messages to be exchanged over the communication network, at least one message being exchanged while accessing, by the client computer, said service provided by the server computer, said SOAP communication protocol comprising mandatory and optional and/or additional functionalities, said WSDL document including a description comprising an indication specifying that at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities of the SOAP communication protocol is necessary in order to exchange said at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol.

2. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the description comprising the indication specifying that said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is necessary in order to exchange the at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol is included by reference in the WSDL document.

3. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the description comprising the indication specifying that said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is necessary in order to exchange the at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol comprises a list of properties supported by said at least one functionality.

4. A method of proposing a service according to claim 3, wherein for at least one property supported by said at least one functionality, the description comprising the indication specifying that said at least one functionality is necessary in order to exchange the at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol comprises a list of values attributable to said property.

5. A method of proposing a service according to claim 3, wherein at least one property is associated with an attribute adapted to indicate the understanding of that property by the client computer is mandatory on implementation of the SOAP communication protocol for the execution of said service on the communication network.

6. A method of proposing a service according to claim 3, wherein each property is associated with an attribute adapted to indicate the use of that property by the client computer is mandatory on implementation of the SOAP communication protocol for the execution of said service on the communication network.

7. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the description comprising the indication specifying that said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is necessary in order to exchange the at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol is associated with an attribute adapted to indicate the understanding of said at least one functionality by the client computer is mandatory on implementation of the SOAP communication protocol for the execution of said service on the communication network.

8. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the description comprising the indication specifying that said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is necessary in order to exchange the at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol is associated with an attribute adapted to indicate the use of said at least one functionality by the client computer is mandatory on implementation of the SOAP communication protocol for the execution of said service on the communication network.

9. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the WSDL document is written in a markup language, said functionalities being described respectively in child tags included in a tag referencing a communication protocol.

10. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the functionalities are chosen from types of functionality defined by the SOAP protocol for information exchange.

11. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein the WSDL document is a document comprising a first part including information relating to the messages exchanged on the execution of said service, and a second part including information relating to at least one communication protocol implemented on execution of said service, and the description comprising the indication specifying that said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is necessary in order to exchange the at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol is included in said second part of the WSDL document.

12. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, wherein said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is described by a local reference of the server computer or by a (Uniform Resource Identifier) URI.

13. A non-transitory storage medium, readable by a computer, on which is stored computer-executable code for a program readable by a microprocessor to implement the method of proposing a service according to claim 1.

14. A method of proposing a service according to claim 1, said WSDL document further comprising information relating to mandatory values associated with said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities.

15. A method of proposing a service according to claim 14, said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities supporting at least one property, wherein the WSDL document comprises information relating to at least one mandatory value associated respectively with each property of said at least one functionality.

16. A method of proposing a service according to claim 14, wherein said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities is associated with an attribute adapted to indicate that use of said at least one functionality by the client computer is mandatory on the implementation of the SOAP communication protocol for the execution of said service on the communication network.

17. A method of proposing a service according to claim 14, wherein the WSDL document is written in a markup language, said information relating to mandatory values being included in a tag referencing a functionality of said SOAP communication protocol.

18. A method of proposing a service according to claim 14, wherein the WSDL document is a document comprising a first part including information relating to the messages exchanged on the execution of said service, and a second part including information relating to at least one communication protocol implemented on the execution of said service, and said information relating to mandatory values is included in said second part of the WSDL document.

19. A non-transitory storage medium, readable by a computer, on which is stored computer-executable code for a program readable by a microprocessor to implement the method of proposing a service according to claim 14.

20. A method of analyzing, by a client computer of a communication network, a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document sent by a server computer, said server computer proposing said service, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting a description of functionalities implemented by a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) communication protocol for transporting messages from the WSDL document;

verifying that each functionality is supported by the client computer of the communication network; and

adding said SOAP communication protocol to a list of protocols usable for the execution of a service supplied by the server computer if all the functionalities associated with the SOAP communication protocol are supported by the client computer,

wherein, the WSDL document comprises information relating to the SOAP communication protocol used for transporting the messages to be exchanged over the communication network, at least one message being exchanged while accessing, by the client computer, said service provided by said server computer, said SOAP communication protocol comprising mandatory and optional and/or additional functionalities, said WSDL document including the description comprising an indication specifying that at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities of the SOAP communication protocol is necessary in order to exchange said at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol.

21. A non-transitory storage medium, readable by a computer, on which is stored computer-executable code for a program readable by a microprocessor to implement the analyzing method according to claim 20, when it is loaded and executed by the microprocessor.

22. A device for proposing a service provided by a server computer in a communication network, comprising;

sending means for sending, to a client computer, a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) document comprising information relating to SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) communication protocol used for transporting messages to be exchanged over the communication network, at least one message being exchanged while accessing, by said client computer, said service provided by said server computer, said SOAP communication protocol comprising mandatory and optional and/or additional functionalities, said WSDL document including a description comprising an indication specifying that at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities of the SOAP communication protocol is necessary in order to exchange said at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol.

23. A device for proposing a service according to claim 22, said WSDL document further comprising information relating to mandatory values associated with said at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities.

24. A device for analyzing, by a client computer of a communication network, a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) document sent by a server computer, the server computer proposing the service, comprising:

extracting means for extracting a description of functionalities implemented by SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) communication protocol for transporting messages from the WSDL document;

verification means for verifying if each functionality is supported by the client computer of the communication network; and

adding means for adding said SOAP communication protocol to a list of protocols usable for the execution of a service supplied by the server computer if all the functionalities associated with the SOAP communication protocol are supported by the client computer,

wherein, the WSDL document comprises information relating to the SOAP communication protocol used for transporting the messages to be exchanged over the communication network, at least one message being exchanged while accessing, by the client computer, said service provided by said server computer, said SOAP communication protocol comprising mandatory and optional and/or additional functionalities, said WSDL document including the description comprising an indication specifying that at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities of the SOAP communication protocol is necessary in order to exchange said at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol.

25. A system for proposing a service via a communication network, comprising:

a server computer for proposing a service provided by the server computer via the communication network; and

a client computer for analyzing a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) document sent by the server computer,

wherein the server computer comprises;

sending means for sending, to the client computer, the WSDL document comprising information relating to SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) communication protocol used for transporting messages to be exchanged over the communication network, at least one message being exchanged while accessing, by said client computer, said service provided by said server computer, said SOAP communication protocol comprising mandatory and optional and/or additional functionalities, said WSDL document including a description comprising an indication specifying that at least one functionality of said optional and/or additional functionalities of the SOAP communication protocol is necessary in order to exchange said at least one message using the SOAP communication protocol, and

wherein said client computer comprises;

extracting means for extracting the description of functionalities implemented by the SOAP communication protocol for transporting the messages from the WSDL document;

verification means for verifying if each functionality is supported by the client computer of the communication network; and

adding means for adding said SOAP communication protocol to a list of protocols usable for the execution of a service supplied by the server computer if all the functionalities associated with the SOAP communication protocol are supported by the client computer.