Submission request to W3C (W3C Team Comment)
We, W3C Members, International Business Machines, Inc. (IBM), and Novell, Inc. (Novell) hereby submit to the Consortium the following specification, comprising the following document(s) attached hereto:
which collectively are referred to as "the Submission". We request the Submission be known as the Solution Installation Schema Submission. In addition to the submitters, this specification was co-authored by InstallShield Software Corporation, Inc. (InstallShield) and Zero G Software, Inc. (ZeroG) who are also participating in this submission.
The purpose of this specification is to define the schema of an XML document describing the characteristics of an installable unit (IU) of software that are relevant for its deployment, configuration and maintenance. The XML schema is referred to as the Installable Unit Deployment Descriptor or IUDD schema.
IUDDs are intended to describe the aggregation of installable units at all levels of the software stack, including middleware products aggregated together into a platform; and user solutions composed of application-level artifacts which run on such a platform. The XML schema is flexible enough to support the definition of atomic units of software (Smallest Installable Units) as well as complex, multi-platform, heterogeneous solutions.
A solution is any combination of products, components or application artifacts addressing a particular user requirement. This includes what would traditionally be referred to as a product offering (e.g. a database product), as well as a solution offering (e.g. a business integration platform comprising multiple integrated products), or a user application (e.g. a set of application artifacts like J2EE applications and database definitions). All the software constituents of a solution can be represented by a single IUDD as a hierarchy of installable unit aggregates. The top-level aggregation is the root installable unit. In addition to the installable units that comprise a solution, the IUDD also describes the logical topology of targets onto which the solution can be deployed.
The submitters and co-authors have collaborated to develop this specification as a basis for the description of software solution packaging for the purposes of deployment and maintenance of software artifacts on platforms. Further, the submitters and co-authors have agreed to make this specification publicly available on royalty free, non-discriminatory licensing terms through this submission (see applicable Intellectual Property Statements below) The benefits of this specification include:
Change control remains with the original authors.
IBM
IBM agrees to offer licenses according to the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements described in section 5 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy for any portion of the Submission that is subsequently incorporated in a W3C Recommendation.
IBM expressly disclaims any and all warranties regarding this submission including any warranty that this submission does not violate the rights of others or is fit for a particular purpose.
Novell
Novell agrees to offer licenses according to the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements described in section 5 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy for any portion of the Submission that is subsequently incorporated in a W3C Recommendation.
Novell expressly disclaims any and all warranties regarding this submission including any warranty that this submission does not violate the rights of others or is fit for a particular purpose.
InstallShield
InstallShield, as a contributor to this Submission, agrees to offer licenses according to the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements described in section 5 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy for any portion of the Submission that is subsequently incorporated in a W3C Recommendation.
InstallShield expressly disclaims any and all warranties regarding this submission including any warranty that this submission does not violate the rights of others or is fit for a particular purpose.
ZeroG
ZeroG, as a contributor to this Submission, agrees to offer licenses according to the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements described in section 5 of the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy for any portion of the Submission that is subsequently incorporated in a W3C Recommendation.
ZeroG expressly disclaims any and all warranties regarding this submission including any warranty that this submission does not violate the rights of others or is fit for a particular purpose.
We, submitters and co-authors, hereby grant to the W3C, a perpetual, nonexclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right and license under any of our copyrights in this contribution to copy, publish and distribute the contribution as defined by the W3C document licenses.
The following are common or registered marks referred to in this request or the Submission:
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
Novell is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc.
We suggest that the Consortium publish it as a note in order to provide as a reference to the WWW community.
Inquiries from the public or press about this Submission should be directed to: Roger Bales <rlbales@us.ibm.com>
this 11th day of June, 2004,
Steve Holbrook, IBM, shh@us.ibm.com
Alan Clark, Novell, aclark@novell.com