Web Service Contract Compatible/Incompatible changes

09Jan12

Recently I ran into a question on StackOverflow regarding what would be compatible (non-breaking) changes to a Web Service contract. I had spent some time in the past on this particular subject while I was researching contract versioning. There is a great book on this subject from Thomas Erl et al; The name is Web Service Contract Design & Versioning for SOA.

Here is what they have to say;

Compatible Changes

• adding a new WSDL operation definition and associated message definitions
• adding a new WSDL port type definition and associated operation definitions
• adding new WSDL binding and service definitions
• adding a new optional XML Schema element or attribute declaration to a message definition
• reducing the constraint granularity of an XML Schema element or attribute of a message definition type
• adding a new XML Schema wildcard to a message definition type
• adding a new optional WS-Policy assertion
• adding a new WS-Policy alternative

Incompatible Changes

• renaming an existing WSDL operation definition
• removing an existing WSDL operation definition
• changing the MEP of an existing WSDL operation definition
• adding a fault message to an existing WSDL operation definition
• adding a new required XML Schema element or attribute declaration to a message definition
• increasing the constraint granularity of an XML Schema element or attribute declaration of a message definition
• renaming an optional or required XML Schema element or attribute in a message definition
• removing an optional or required XML Schema element or attribute or wildcard from a message definition
• adding a new required WS-Policy assertion or expression
• adding a new ignorable WS-Policy expression (most of the time)

HTH.

Disclaimer: As I’ve mentioned, this is work done by the authors of the book and I’m merely sharing it. I’m also not affiliated in anyway; just liked the book

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Tags: Schema, Web Services, WSDL, XML