RE: initial draft of CPP-CPA Specification

[Bob Haugen <linkage@interaccess.com>]

<Martin Sachs>
I don't have a good picture in my mind of what this "economic exchange
event" would be or how it would be manifested in the CPA.  I don't
understand how an "economic exchange event" could be recognized below the
level of the application. It seems to me that this event is part of the BP
metamodel and needs to be defined in the BP Specification Schema, perhaps
using signals rather than business messages. Using signals would perhaps
enable the B2B middleware to handle the event in an application-independent
manner.
</Martin Sachs>

I might agree, depending on what you mean by "the application".
(This gets back to the need for an agreed description of an ebXML
logical software protocol stack.)

If you mean "the internal business app", Todd Boyle is correct, 
that's too late.  

I definitely agree with your subsequent statement. The BP Specification 
Schema needs to do it, as part of the business collaboration model, 
and some business collaboration level software needs to handle it.
(We'll be talking about this on Tuesday.)

Examples:
I send you a PO Request and send back a Response document
that rejects my request with some reasons or maybe even
a counter-offer.  We don't have an accepted commitment,
but there are some business documents to handle.
Only the collaboration software (and the humans) know
what is the real situation.  If you just send the document
into the internal business apps, they will do the wrong thing.

Or you send me an Advanced Shipping Notice and I find
something wrong with the goods and respond with a
Receiving Advice document that says so.  Again, we
do not have a confirmed receipt, but only the collaboration
software and the humans know it.  If you send the ASN
automatically to the internal business app, it will be
incorrect.

So I understand "recognition of economic exchange events"
to mean that "the ebXML business collaboration software
needs to recognize when contractual commitments and
transfers of ownership of economic resources are agreed
by the trading partners to have happened". 

It's not an internal thing, it's external, part of the public
logic of the collaboration, shared understanding by
all parties. 

Hope that was clear,
Bob Haugen