[ebxml-cppa] A big issue

[Duane Nickull <duane@xmlglobal.com>]

Guys:

I found something else that is contrary to establishing a Registry
centric view of operations.

In the 1.05 document, it states:

"7.5.4 ProcessSpecification element
The ProcessSpecification element provides the link to the
Process-Specification document that defines the interactions between the
two Parties.  It is RECOMMENDED that this Business-Collaboration
description be prepared in accordance with the ebXML Business Process
Specification Schema[ebBPSS]. The Process-Specification document MAY be
kept in an ebXML Registry.

NOTE:  A Party MAY describe the Business Collaboration using any desired
alternative to the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema. When an
alternative Business-Collaboration description is used, the Parties to a
CPA MUST agree on how to interpret the Business-Collaboration
description and how to interpret the elements in the CPA that reference
information in the Business-Collaboration description.  The affected
elements in the CPA are the Role element, the ActionBinding element, and
some attributes of the BusinessProcessCharacteristics element.

The syntax of the ProcessSpecification element is:

	<tp:ProcessSpecification 
    tp:version="2.0"
    tp:name="PIP3A4RequestPurchaseOrder" 
    xlink:type="simple" 
    xlink:href="http://www.rosettanet.org/processes/3A4.xml" 
    <ds:Reference ds:URI="http://www.rosettanet.org/processes/3A4.xml">
        <ds:Transforms> 
            <ds:Transform 
ds:Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/20002001/REC-xml-c14n-20010315"/> 
        </ds:Transforms>
        <ds:DigestMethod 
            ds:Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1"/>
        <ds:DigestValue>j6lwx3rvEPO0vKtMup4NbeVu8nk=</ds:DigestValue>
    </ds:Reference>"

<SNIP>

I believe that this is not the best solution.  The BPSS should be
referenced via its' UID, not an xlink.  This allows applications to
recognize it based on that unique value.  At Design time, this is a
valuable feature.

A fixed link is also not the best way to do anything.  Links break. 
ebXML has designed a Registry for this purpose.  

Another problem with this is that the Discovery phase relies on this UID
for discovery. 

I strongly advocate replacing this with a UID.  Let the physical
location reside in the "extrinsicURI" attribute of the RIM where it was
designed to go.

Duane Nickull

-- 
CTO, XML Global Technologies
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