Ideas on patterns for a data file based WCF REST web service

We have an existing, proprietary data processing application that runs on one of our servers and we wish to expose it as a web service for our clients to submit jobs remotely. In essence, the system takes a set of configuration parameters and one or more data files (the number of files depends on the particular configuration template, but the normal config is 2 files). The application then takes the input files, processes them, and outputs a single result data file (all files are delimited text / CSV or tab).

We want to now expose this process as a service. Based on our current setup and existing platforms, we are fairly confident that we want to go with WCF 4.0 as the framework and likely REST for the service format, though a SOAP implementation may be required at some point.

Although I am doing a lot of reading on SOA, WCF and REST, I am interested in other thoughts on how to model this service. In particular, the one-to-many relationship of job to required files for input. It seems pretty trivial to model a "job" in REST with the standard CRUD commands. However, the predefined "job type" parameter defines the number of files that must be included. A job type of "A" might call for two input files, while "B" requires 3 before the job can run.

Given that, what is best way to model the job? Do I include the multiple files in the initial creation of the job? Do I create a job and then have an "addFile" method where by I can then upload the necessary开发者_StackOverflow number of files?

The jobs will then have to run asynchronously because they can take time. Once complete, is it best to then just have a status field in the job object and require the client to regularly query the system for job status, or perhaps have the client provide a URL to "ping" when the job is complete?

We are only in the planning stages for the service, so any insights would be appreciated.

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To model it for REST, think of resources. Are the files part of the job resource or are they seperate resources.

If they are seperate resources then I would have a method to upload them seperately. How they link is up to you - so you could have a way to associate a file to a job when you upload the file or do you have a way to create links (now treating links as individual resources too) between existing files and jobs.

If you files are not seen as seperate resources then I would have them inline with job, as a single create.