[ebxml-msg-comment] Use case question re ebXML message header elements

[Martin Sachs <m.w.sachs@post.harvard.edu>]

What to include in a single conversation is up to the design of the 
business application.  At a minimum, it is (2) below. However, it usually 
makes sense to include the entire business-level "unit of work", i.e.  3 
below, in the conversation.

Your understanding of refToMessageId is correct.

Regards,
Marty


Hello all,

I am working on an ebXML deployment and have some questions around the
usage of certain ebXML message header elements:

<CoversationID> - My understanding of this element is that it provides a
correlation across several business messages that make up a process.
The question is what constitutes a process from the perspective of a
conversation ID?  Is it:

1 - Just the message and acknowledgement (ie two messages)?
2 - The request & response documents within one transaction plus their
associated message acknowledgements?  (ie four messages)
3 - The entire set of transactions that make up one BPSS collaboration?

My gut says that it should be use case 2.  Reason - it serves no really
useful purpose if it just covers a message and the acknowledgement.
Also an entire collaboration can include messages that are not a direct
1:1 with other messages in the collaboration (eg in an invoice to pay.
process, the payment might include several invoices or just part of an
invoice).  Therefore I conclude that <conversationid> should be
maintained accre=oss a process where all documents have a 1:1
correlation with each other.  This is typically the request-response
cycle (oe order / order respomnse) but will include some simple
exceptions (eg order, change order, order response).

There is another element called <RefToMessageID>.  I assume that this
element is used by acknowledgement documents and error document to refer
to the message that initiated the acknowledgement and/or error.

Hopefully someone can confirm or correct these assumptions?

Steve Capell
RedWahoo
Sydney, Australia
Tel : +61 410 437854


----------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription
manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl>

*************************************************
Martin W. Sachs
email:  m.w.sachs@post.harvard.edu
phone:  203-226-0524 


----------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe or unsubscribe from this elist use the subscription
manager: <http://lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl>