Is Extended Services Database Mandatory?

Issue raised by: Roar Foshaug Fri, 13 Jun 97 05:13:35 -0400

Does support of Extended Services require support of a database IR-Extend-1 even when task packages are not created?

Strictly speaking, yes. See 3.2.9.2: "Targets that support the Extended Services facility provide access to a database with the name IR-Extend-1 ...."

Thus if a server claims to support Extended Services, it supports the ES database to the extent, at minimum, that if a client searches IR-Extend-1 it does not fail the search because there is no such database. It may always respond to searches that zero records were identified.

As a practical matter, a server need never create a task package; since a server is always free to delete a task package, it may behave as though the task package is deleted as soon as it is created. (Though there is debate about how useful is an Extended Services implementation that does not provide access to task packages, the above is a narrow interpretation, not intended to provide any such value judgement or guidance.)