NetKernel Resources

In resource oriented computing a resource is abstract information that is made concrete when requested. In NetKernel a resource is used to model information processed by an application. Resources in NetKernel can literally be anything. The concept of a resource is very general and could include:

• A customer list extracted by a database query
• A web page
• A piece of code to be executed
• A blog entry for the user named Teresa on October 26, 2007
• An email message requested from a POP server
• A JMS delivered message

Like the Web, resources in NetKernel are abstract and only take on concrete form when they are requested. When a resource is requested an immutable snapshot of the state of the resource is created and returned. This copy is called a representation. Examples of resource representations include an XML document object model, a binary stream, Java String object, etc.