AS4 Profile of ebMS V3 Version 1.0 Committee Draft opne for comment

The OASIS ebXML Messaging Services TC has recently approved the AS4 Profile of ebMS V3 Version 1.0 specifications as Committee Drafts and approved them for public review.

The draft is an OASIS ebXML Messaging Services 3.0 Conformance Profile that provides guidance for a standardized methodology for the secure and document-agnostic exchange of B2B payloads using Web services. By constraining the ebMS v3.0 specification and the underlying WS-* specifications for messaging packaging, transport, security, and business non-repudiation, the profile focuses on providing an entry-level on-ramp for Web services B2B messaging. 

The end goal of this profile development is to replicate and strategically extend the existing functional requirements currently satisfied by RFC4130 (AS2) by mapping those requirements onto the Web services platform.

In summary the AS4 Profile provides the marketplace an entry-level on-ramp to begin utilizing their internal SOA platforms for external B2B messaging while taking on some of the more complicated aspects of Web services.

The public review starts today, 25 April 2009, and ends 24 June 2009.  This is an open invitation to comment. 

Comments may be submitted to the TC by any person through the use of the OASIS TC Comment Facility which can be located via the button marked "Send A Comment" at the top of that page, or directly at:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/comments/index.php?wg_abbrev=ebxml-msg 

AS4 defines profile of OASIS ebMS v3.0 for B2B and Web Services

AS4, a new Web Services messaging standard, defines a simplified approach to securely exchanging business documents using Web Services. It is a profile of the OASIS ebMS 3.0 specification and has evolved over the last two years through work done by the leading business to business messaging software companies and Drummond Group.

The challenge for the adoption of secure inter-business communication using Web Services is the complexity of options and the lack of interoperability between products. AS4 simplifies the technical approach to Web Services B2B by merging the best aspects of one of the most successful Internet messaging standards, AS2, with the Web services-centric nature of ebMS 3.0. The white paper explains the business benefits of AS4 for both users and implementers along with a technical overview of the specification and the technology framework that supports it.

For free download of Drummond Group white paper, go to http://www.drummondgroup.com/html-v2/register-as4paper.html

  

CCTS core component dictionary tools

The latest release of jCAM editor now supports UN/CEFACT CCTS in the dictionary generation tools. 
 
From any XSD schema you have ingested into jCAM, or XML template you have built using the editor - you can pick the Tools menu options to automatically build the CCTS dictionary of those core components. 
 
Then simply open the generated dictionary XML in Excel as a spreadsheet workbook to review those core component details. 
 
There is also a compare tool to cross reference between a dictionary and an exchange template's components. 
 
Plus you can merge dictionary files - so you can build a complete core component library across a set of domain schemas. 
 
These provide invaluable tools for validating and verifying the business information details in your exchange transactions and aligning across exchanges for better interoperability. 
 
Further editor tools are planned to exploit these foundation CCTS core component capabilities for reusable content assembly into exchange transactions. 
 
You can download the latest jCAM editor from: 
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camprocessor  
 
and find further resources at http://www.jcam.org.uk  
 
News - March 29th, 2009