1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

ASCII: The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an 8-bit character-encoding scheme based on the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. ASCII refers to a single 8-bit ASCII character or an array of 8-bit ASCII characters with the high bit of each character set to zero.

authentication: The act of proving an identity to a server while providing key material that binds the identity to subsequent communications.

base64 encoding: A binary-to-text encoding scheme whereby an arbitrary sequence of bytes is converted to a sequence of printable ASCII characters, as described in [RFC4648].

common language runtime (CLR): The core runtime engine in the Microsoft .NET Framework for executing applications. The common language runtime supplies managed code with services such as cross-language integration, code access security, object lifetime management, and debugging and profiling support.

entity: An instance of an EntityType element that has a unique identity and an independent existence. An entity is an operational unit of consistency.

EntityInstance: A set of Field (2) values that have a unique identity that represents a specific instance of an Entity, and are stored in a line-of-business (LOB) system.

field: (1) An element or attribute in a data source that can contain data.

(2) The data elements that constitute an Entity in a line-of-business (LOB) system.

Finder: A type of MethodInstance that can be called to return a collection of zero or more EntityInstances of a specific Entity. Finder input is defined by the FilterDescriptors that are contained in the Method that contains the Finder.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): An extension of HTTP that securely encrypts and decrypts web page requests. In some older protocols, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer" is still used (Secure Sockets Layer has been deprecated). For more information, see [SSL3] and [RFC5246].

identifier: A string value that is used to uniquely identify a component of the CSDL and that is of type SimpleIdentifier.

LobSystem: A type of MetadataObject that represents a specific version of a line-of business (LOB) system. An LOB system can be a database or a web service.

LobSystemInstance: A type of MetadataObject that represents a specific deployed instance of a line-of-business (LOB) system, as represented by a LobSystem. LobSystemInstances are contained by LobSystems. LobSystemInstance Properties describe how to connect to an instance of the LobSystem that contains them by providing information such as the server name, connection string, and authentication mode.

metadata store: A database that is stored on a back-end database server and contains all stored procedures and storage for the MetadataObject types.

MetadataObject: An abstract data structure that consists of a set of attributes that represent a LobSystem, LobSystemInstance, DataClass, Entity, Method, MethodInstance, Parameter, TypeDescriptor, Identifier, FilterDescriptor, Action, ActionParameter, or Association.

site: A group of related webpages that is hosted by a server on the World Wide Web or an intranet. Each website has its own entry points, metadata, administration settings, and workflows. Also referred to as web site.

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

SOAP action: The HTTP request header field used to indicate the intent of the SOAP request, using a URI value. See [SOAP1.1] section 6.1.1 for more information.

SOAP body: A container for the payload data being delivered by a SOAP message to its recipient. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.3 for more information.

SOAP fault: A container for error and status information within a SOAP message. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.4 for more information.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): A string of characters in a standardized format that identifies a document or resource on the World Wide Web. The format is as specified in [RFC1738].

Web Services Description Language (WSDL): An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints that operate on messages that contain either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly and are bound to a concrete network protocol and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints, which describe a network service. WSDL is extensible, which allows the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that are used.

WSDL message: An abstract, typed definition of the data that is communicated during a WSDL operation [WSDL]. Also, an element that describes the data being exchanged between web service providers and clients.

WSDL operation: A single action or function of a web service. The execution of a WSDL operation typically requires the exchange of messages between the service requestor and the service provider.

XML namespace: A collection of names that is used to identify elements, types, and attributes in XML documents identified in a URI reference [RFC3986]. A combination of XML namespace and local name allows XML documents to use elements, types, and attributes that have the same names but come from different sources. For more information, see [XMLNS-2ED].

XML namespace prefix: An abbreviated form of an XML namespace, as described in [XML].

XML schema: A description of a type of XML document that is typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, in addition to the basic syntax constraints that are imposed by XML itself. An XML schema provides a view of a document type at a relatively high level of abstraction.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.