[ebxml-dev] MSH vs BSI acknowledgement messages

["Anthony Ellis" <anthony.ellis@redwahoo.com>]

I have a question regarding the link between the ebXML MSH and BSI and regards to acknowledgement messages and was hoping to clear things up a bit.

 

MSH specifies reliable delivery, and this can be performed with ebXML acknowledgment messages.

The BPSS spec then specifies another layer of acknowledgement messaging, ie Receipt Acknowledgement and Acceptance Acknowledgement.

 

Does this mean that there can be up to 3 acknowledgement messages sent?

 

Firstly a MSH acknowledgement, which is simply an acknowledgement attribute in the header of a message, sent once the message has been delivered to the receiving application. There is no business document (ie payload) associated with this message (or there doesn't have to be).

 

Then a BSI, ReceiptAcknowledgment if the BSI can determine a message is legible. This is a ebXML message with a payload containing an XML ReceiptAcknowledgement document.

 

Then a BSI, AcceptanceAcknowledgement if the BSI can determine a payload document is legible and is successfully sent to the Application. This is a ebXML message with a payload containing an XML AcceptanceAcknowledgement document.

 

It seems to me that the MSH acknowledgement message and the first BSI ReceiptAcknowledgement message are a little redundant, as they both signal that the original request message was succesfully received. The MSH should not be sending it's acknowledgement if the original message was not legible either.

Is this understanding correct?

 

It just seems to me that there is very little coherence between the MSH spec and the BPSS spec - or it could just be my understanding :)

 

Thanks in advance..

 

 

Anthony Ellis
Red Wahoo
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Tel:  +61 438 878 003
www.redwahoo.com