> 1) Could someone clarify the concept of a Phase and phase rules in > relation to a Handler chain? I looked at some server deployment > descriptors within test-resources, but found it rather vague. From my > understanding so far, at the global, transport, and service scope a > set of handlers may be defined for the in, out, and fault flows. Is > this correct? The pahses suppose to be a way to specify the order of the handlers without knowing the *absolute position* of each handler in the Handler chain. For an example when somebody writing a handler A (say for RM) he want it to run after the "Encryption Phase" and before the "transaction Phase". But this Handler, A can be used it in different Web Services so the user do not know the absolute position the A going to run.
Here the Phase comes in to play, the developer of the Handler A can say <handler name="A" ..... before="Transaction" after="Encryption" ../> (rough syntax .. do not remember the exact thingy). Then the Axis should make sure the rules are met. The Phase is an defined area (place holder for the handlers) in the Execution Chain. > 2) Modules. Do they represent a means to package a reusable handler > chain to be used by multiple services? Am I correct in understanding > that implementations of WS-RM and WS-Security would use this mechanism > for packaging and deployment? Ideally the module where handler position is defined with Phases make it possible that deploy security, RM............... in to Axis just by dropping the module in to Axis. But we are not there yet .. but plan to go there ! > 5) I mentioned earlier that I had an interest in a low-level messaging > API. It certainly is not my place to question the naming conventions > of the classes, but I found the name 'Call' a bit akward as the > central class surrounding the low level API. I was picturing > something like SOAPClient or SOAPAgent. I apologize if I do offend > anyone on this matter, but I thought I should offer my two cents. :) actually I do not like the name the Call much, and if I remember correct there were lot of us do not like it. But finding and agree on a alternative name seems much harder ;) Thanks Srinath
