3.5.2 Content of a CPA

The CPA is the agreed document between two parties. The content of first level in the XML file is listed below.

<CollaborationProtocolAgreement
        ... <!-- namespace information -->
        >
        <Status value=''proposed''/>
        <Start>1988-04-07T18:39:09</Start>
        <End>1990-04-07T18:40:00</End>
        <ConversationConstraints invocationLimit=''100''
                concurrentConversations=''4''/>
        <PartyInfo>
        ...
        </PartyInfo>
        <PartyInfo>
        ...
        </PartyInfo>
        <Packaging id=''N30''> <!-- one or more -->
        ...
        </Packaging>
        <ds:Signature>signature
        </ds:Signature>
        <Comment xml:lang=''en-gv''>comment</Comment>
</CollaborationProtocolAgreement>

Some information on the individual tags:

• Status
  The status of the CPA. Possible values are: proposed, agreed or signed.
• Start and End
  The time when this CPA is valid. The lifetime of the CPA.
• ConversationConstraints
  This optional element can set constraints.
• PartyInfo
  The same element as in the CPP. References a party.
• Packaging
  The packaging elements defines how the message is packaged as well as security parts.
• ds:Signature
  The digital signature.
• Comment
  A simple optional comment.

According to this CPA the trading partners will do business. The ebXML-dev mailing lists ¹⁰ show two benefits of a CPA (discussed in November 2001). First the dynamic finding of trading partners (which might become a more common business scenario in the near future) and the dynamic configuration of the Business Service Interface (BSI) according to the CPA. How the back-end application interacts with the Business Service Interface is not defined in the ebXML specification. This advantage is for companies with more than a few trading partners. The BSI can handle any number of different CPA's and according to the current CPA the BSI acts upon it.

Footnotes

... lists¹⁰

http://www.ebxml.org