IntegrationPatterns

This page is to record and describe some of the common patterns of integrating products using OSLC.

This is a work-in-progress.

Definitions (draft)

Client

HTTP client

Server

HTTP server

Consumer

Finds and uses resource representations created by others. (May also create representations to be passed to providers or repositories to create resources, but never actually "creates" the resource itself).

Provider

Creates resources, and is responsible for their lifecycle.

Resource

HTTP or RDF resources

Representation

Serialization of a resource, such as used as HTTP message bodies

Repository

A server that accepts representations and creates & stores resources from them, making representations of those resources available to any client with appropriate authorization; and/or that stores copies of resources from providers.

Sequences

There are a number of different sequences that can occur in an OSLC Automation integration:

1. Primary: Consumer requests Plan and creates remote Request

2. Consumer creates remote Plan and Requests for it

3. Worker scenarios - http://open-services.net/wiki/automation/Automation-Worker-Scenarios/ (This is orthogonal to the previous two sequences)

Sequence: Consumer requests Plan and creates remote Request

Topologies

Within this sequence there are a number of different ways that the integrated systems can be arranged:

1. Consumer acting as client to single provider server.

2. Primary: Consumer acting as client to multiple provider servers.

3. Consumer and multiple providers all acting as clients to a single shared repository server.
4. Consumer acting as client watches for Results on a provider or repository, and uses the completion of a previous Result as a trigger for its own automation (which it may also expose via OSLC, simultaneously acting as a Provider).