Mechanism and apparatus for accessing and addressing services in a distributed computing environment

A system, comprising:

• a client implemented by a computer;
• a service, implemented by a computer, which is communicatively coupled to the client via a network;
• and
• a space, implemented by a computer, which is communicatively coupled to the client via the network, wherein the space comprises a network-accessible repository which stores a plurality of service advertisements, wherein each service advertisement is a document expressed in a markup language, wherein the space stores a service advertisement for the service, wherein each of the plurality of service advertisements comprises a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and a markup language schema for a respective service, wherein the URI specifies a network address at which the respective service may be accessed, and wherein the markup language schema defines a message interface for accessing the respective service;
• wherein the client is operable to:
• send a lookup message to the space, wherein the lookup message specifies desired characteristics of documents stored within the space;
• receive a lookup response indicating identifiers of discovered documents within the space that, in addition to being stored in the space, match the desired characteristics, wherein the service advertisement is one of the discovered documents listed in the lookup response;
• obtain the service advertisement for the service, listed among the discovered documents, from the space;
• and
• access the service according to the service advertisement, wherein, to access the service, the client is operable to send a first markup language message to the service at the URI specified in the service advertisement, and wherein the first message is specified in the markup language schema.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to implement:

• a client sending a lookup message to a space,
• wherein the lookup message is in a markup language and specifies in the mark up language desired characteristics of documents stored within the space;
• the client receiving a lookup response message in the markup language, wherein the lookup response message indicates identifiers of discovered documents within the space that, in addition to being stored in the space, match the desired characteristics;
• the client obtaining a service advertisement from the space, where the service advertisement is a document expressed in the markup language and is one of the discovered documents listed in the lookup response message, wherein the space comprises a network-accessible repository which stores a plurality of service advertisements expressed in the markup language, wherein each of the plurality of service advertisements comprises a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and a markup language schema for a respective service, wherein the URI specifies a network address at which the respective service may be accessed, and wherein the markup language schema defines a message interface for accessing the respective service;
• and
• the client accessing the service according to the service advertisement, wherein said accessing the service comprises the client sending a first markup language message to the service at the URI specified in the service advertisement, and wherein the first message is specified in the specified in the service advertisement schema.