Service Data Objects ?!

Doing some research for the SOA patterns book I working on, I've read on the Open SOA* web site about a "standard" for SOA they released called Service Data Objects

What are SDOs you ask? Here is what they have to say about it :

SDO is based on the concept of disconnected data graphs. A data graph is a collection of tree-structured or graph-structured data objects. Under the disconnected data graphs architecture, a client retrieves a data graph from a data source, mutates the data graph, and can then apply the data graph changes back to the data source. The task of connecting applications to data sources is performed by data mediator services. Client applications query a data mediator service and get a data graph in response. Client applications send an updated data graph to a data mediator service to have the updates applied to the original data source. This architecture allows applications to deal principally with data graphs and data objects.

SDO enables both a static (or strongly typed) programming model and a dynamic (or loosely typed) programming model. This enables a simple programming model without sacrificing the dynamic model needed by tools and frameworks.

SDO also provides a metadata API, which allows applications, tools, and frameworks to introspect the data model for a data graph. The SDO metadata API unifies data-source-specific metadata APIs to enable applications to handle data from heterogeneous data sources in a uniform way.

or in other words ADO.NET disconnected datasets reloaded.

The only question I have to them is "What where you thinking?" How does exposing internal data structure of a service helps promote loose coupling? How does binding to a data type help promote interoperability? How does defining small insignificant services (mediators) helps promote business alignments? How does this pertains to SOA?!?

* OSOA is an "informal alliance" of technology companies (IBM, Oracle, BEA, Sun and a few others) with an intention to define SOA concepts (to help them sell us more of their technologies, might I add. :) )

Posted by Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz at 06:23 PM  Permalink