ebXML Business Process Business Signals in ebXML CPA's

[Sacha Schlegel <sschlegel@cyclonecommerce.com>]

Hi everyone

Doing some CPA's for the Universal Business Processes (or whatever it
will be called) I came across the following question:

setup: 

One business collaboration with two business transaction activities
(using different business transactions, eg one Notification, other
CommercialTransaction patterns) in the ebBP definition. 

In the Notification the requesting business transaction activity has a
ReceiptAcknowledgement business signal. 
In the CommercialTransaction the requesting and the responding business
transaction activities have a ReceiptAcknowledgement business signal.

In the CPA this will result with two PartyInfo elements, each having one
CollaborationRole element referencing the one business collaboration.

Then in each CollaborationRole we list all business documents, either
with a CanSend or CanReceive element. Because we are using ebXML
Business Process we MUST use the ActionContext element as well.

Obviously, the Business Signals have also to be listed in the
CollaborationRole. The reason is, that Business Signals are not ebXML
Message Service signals, so the messages must be explicitly listed, as
opposed to ebXML Message Service signals, such as acknowledgements,
ping, pong. 

The question is how to best list the Business Signals.

Can we share the ReceiptAcknowledgement business signal within a
CollaborationRole or do we have to list each ReceiptAcknowledgement
business signal separately?

The CPPA specification notes in 8.4.12.1 that for business signals, the
action name shall be "ReceiptAcknowledgement",
"AcceptanceAcknowledgement" etc.

This means, that we share a Business Signal of one direction within a
CollaborationRole. So in this example the "ReceiptAcknowledgement"
action will be a CanSend as well as a CanReceive within a
CollaborationRole.

Maybe instead of simply calling it "ReceiptAcknowledgement" it maybe
should be a URN or some sort, indicating a unique ebXML Business Process
Signal.

So what about ActionContext for a Business Signal. The cardinality of
the ActionContext is minOccurs="0" and no maxOccurs that means 1 maximal
occurance. So because it is shared there is no one ActionContext that
fits this business signal, so it seems there is no ActionContext element
for Business Signal Action Bindings.

To find out, to which business collaboration, business transaction
activity and whether it was the requesting or the responding business
transaction activity, one has to look into the business signal
document. 

Looking at the schema of the business signals, it seems the only
required values in an ReceiptAcknowledgement business signal document is
OriginalMessageIdentifier, OriginalMessageDateTime, ThisMessageDateTime,
and NonRepudiation information (eg an digital signature). One would
hope, that ebXML Business Process ProcessSpecificationInfo,
OriginalDocumentIdentifier, CollaborationIdentifier,
BusinessActivityIdentifier (eg Business Transaction Activity), FromRole,
ToRole, FromPartyInfo, ToPartyInfo, and the xlink:href are also
provided. 

Dale, I assume the href is pointing to the ReceiptAcknowledgement
element of the either RequestingBusinessActivity or the
RespondingBusinessActivity. Why is it not the ID of the
ReceiptAcknowledgement element in either RequestingBusinessActivity or
the RespondingBusinessActivity?

Maybe less of questions but rather outlining how ebBP, ebCPPA's, and
ebMS play together.

o Should an action differentiate the underlying DocumentEnvelope? or one
action for all possible documents (this is in the response bta only).

o Check namespace and location of Business Signals, Business Documents,
ebMS signals, ebBP definition, ebBP specification.

Regards

Sacha