Hi -
Rather than convening a meeting on conformance (as I'd suggested a
couple of meetings ago), I'd like to pose the question I've been
wondering about and see if there is an issue or not:
- Should we modify the language in Section 5 of the Usage Guide to
clarify what "support all objects etc" means? In particular, do we need
to clarify whether this means a) the server has to implement all
mandatory objects etc or b) the server has to understand requests
related to all mandatory objects etc (but can return back an "object not
supported" message).
In drafting the conformance language currently included in the Usage
Guide, I followed the advice expressed in the Conformance Testing
document available at
http://xml.coverpages.org/conform20000112.html:
that is, "the requirements or criteria for conformance must be specified
in the standard or specification. This is usually in a conformance
clause or conformance statement..."
The conformance statement in section 5 of the KMIP Usage Guide
distinguishes between conformance requirements for KMIP servers and
clients:
"Server implementations of the KMIP protocol must support all objects,
attributes, operations and profiles not specified as "optional" in the
KMIP Specification in order to be conformant to the specification.
Server implementations that do not support objects, attributes,
operations and profiles defined as "optional" can claim KMIP
conformance, though they may be limited in terms of interoperability
with other KMIP implementations.
Client implementations of the KMIP protocol may implement any subset of
the KMIP protocol. For example, a client may implement only the Get and
Locate operations for symmetric keys. In order to claim conformance,
however, such a client must implement all aspects of any elements of the
protocol (objects, attributes, operations, profiles) that it claims to
support. In the example of Get/Locate support for symmetric keys,
therefore, a conforming client implementation must support all required
attributes for symmetric keys."
In re-reading the conformance statement for server implementations, it
looks to me that I made it more restrictive than I intended - that the
language should perhaps have been something like:
"Server implementations of the KMIP protocol shall accept and respond to
client requests for all objects, operations and profiles not specified
as 'optional' in the KMIP Specification in order to be conformant to the
specification; a conformant response can be 'this object etc is not
supported.'"
But perhaps it's better to have the more restrictive language, after
all?
I'd appreciate your thoughts!
Regards,
Bob
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