Re: Very Rough Draft of Header Specification

[Prasad Yendluri <pyendluri@vitria.com>]

David,

Please see some comments below:

1. I am curious why we plan to develop separate specifications for all different topics listed in section 1.1 (e.g ebXML MIME Message Envelope Specfication, ebXML XML Message Envelope Specfication etc.). By specification I am assuming they would all be separate documents. Could they have been subparts (sections) of the same documents? They are pretty closely related after all.
2. I am not sure what exactly will be in the "Transport Envelope" that ebXML needs to specify? If we have a MIME / XML packaged message could that simply be shipped over HTTP or SMTP etc.? What is that ebXML needs to specify? Do you mean things like MIME content type to be used with HTTP POST?
3. If  "Message Routing Info" is something that is (potentially) extended as each time the message passes through a new hop, shouldn't it really be disjoint from the rest of the Message Header (that has headers that are closely coupled with the business exchange)? That would also help the case of a "relay" or a "hub" not having to look at the real business message to be able to route.
4. Shouldn't the  "Signatures" be really part of the message Body rather than Header? Or may be a separate entity by itself (neither header nor Body). It os not clear to me, how the association between a signature and the part(s) of the message it signs would be established?  I am thinking we need to have a structure that permits signing the routing headers (potentially multiple times, as they get changed),  individual parts (on a per part basis) and the whole message (again multiple times if needed).
5. I am curious why we are trying to provide services like RPC (level-1 headers) in ebXML? I mean other specifications like XML-RPC (and SOAP) are already in place for that purpose?
6. Some of the items defined in "Routing Information" like "Required Message Response Times" seem to really belong to "Quality Of Service".

Thats is all I have.

Thanks, Prasad

David Burdett wrote:

Folks

I attach a very rough draft of the Header Specification. The roughest area
is probably the Data Dictionary as I know there are inconsistencies in this
section when compared with the Header Structures section - the latter is the
more accurate and over rules what is currently in the Data Dictionary - it's
just that I've run out of time and thought it better to get this to
everyone a day earlier so that you can read it.

The way the spec was developed was:
1. Identify the data requirements from our requirements documet
2. Do a quick review of the header classification work that John I did, to
see if there were any gaps.

What we absolutely must do (but haven't yet) is to do a rigorous comparison
of this spec with other specs (BizTalk, AS1, AS2 etc) to make sure that we
can map between them. This should then give a migration path from these
standards to the approach we are developing.

John Ibbotson is also planning to do a sample DTD so that we can see how
this all fits together

David
PS If anyone wants a PDF version please let me know.
 <<ebXML Message Header Specification v0-10.doc>>

Advanced Technology, CommerceOne
4400 Rosewood Drive 3rd Fl, Bldg 4, Pleasanton, CA 94588, USA
Tel: +1 (925) 520 4422 or +1 (650) 623 2888;
mailto:david.burdett@commerceone.com; Web: http://www.commerceone.com