SOA Glossary

This glossary supports the following titles:

SOA: Principles of Service Design (ISBN: 01323 44823, Prentice Hall)

Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design (ISBN: 0131858580, Prentice Hall)

Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML & Web Services (ISBN: 0131 428985, Prentice Hall)

For more information about this book series, visit: www.soabooks.com

composition controller

Within a runtime service activity being executed by a composition of services, the composition controller (often just referred to as "controller") represents a service with a capability that is executing the parent composition logic required to compose capabilities within other services.

This runtime role is most commonly associated with services based on the task service model because the functional scope of these services is typically focused on a parent business process. However, other types of services can also act as composition controllers.

Note that in a situation where a service composes another which contains a capability that composes the capabilities of other services, the second service represents a nested composition. In such a scenario, that service would be referred to as a sub-controller.

The design of composition controllers is most closely associated with the Service Composability design principle. However, because many of the other principles support the realization of composability within a service, there are many factors that can lead to effective composition controller design.