Scoped metadata

A method for expediting communications between a client and a metadata provider, comprising:

• receiving from the client a request for policy metadata of a web service, wherein the request comprises a first policy hash digest;
• determining whether the client has current policy metatdata based in part on the first policy hash digest;
• and
• sending current policy metadata to the client when, based on the determining step, the client does not have current policy metadata.

A method for updating metadata, comprising:

• receiving from a client a policy metadata request comprising a policy version identifier;
• comparing the received policy version identifier to a current policy metadata version identifier;
• generating a policy metadata element based on differences between a version of policy metadata corresponding to the received policy version identifier and a version of policy metadata corresponding to the current policy metadata version identifier so that the policy metadata element refines the version of policy metadata corresponding to the received policy version identifier to be logically equivalent to the current metadata policy version;
• and
• sending the policy metadata element to the client.

A method for expediting communications between a client and a metadata provider, comprising:

• receiving at a client a first policy hash digest corresponding to current web service policy metadata;
• determining a second policy hash digest based on web service policy metadata stored in a memory of the client;
• and
• when first and second hash digests do not match, sending a request for the current web service policy metadata.