The ebXML Registry/Repository Specification, ebXML Business Process Specification Schema, ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile (CPP) and Collaboration Protocol Agreement (CPA) specifications, ebXML Core Components (CC) and ebXML Messaging Service (MS) Specification are the main parts of ebXML specifications.
The ebXML Registry/Repository is the distributed database of ebXML. The ebXML Registry/Repository provides an interface for clients to register ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profiles, Collaboration Protocol Agreements, Core Components, Business Objects and many more. It also provides an interface to query objects.
The ebXML Business Process Specification Schema defines how Collaboration is modelled with Business Processes. An ebXML Collaboration is not limited to two trading partners. A Multiparty Collaboration involves more than two trading partners (e.g. supplier, shipping company, customer). A Multiparty Collaboration is broken down to Binary Collaborations between two trading partners. In a Binary Collaboration each trading partner has a role (e.g. buyer, seller). A Collaboration is composed of several Transitions. Each Transition has an entering Business State and an exiting Business State. A Business State can be either Start, Completion (either success or failure), Fork, Join or a Business Activity. The Business Activity is a specific Transaction. Each Transaction has a Request and a Response. Each Request has one or more Business Documents attached. The schema of a specific Business Process will be stored in the ebXML Registry/Repository. Each company participating in the ebXML world will register one or more ebXML CPP's.
An ebXML CPP references one or more Business Processes stored in the ebXML Registry/Repository. A CPP also has ebXML technical information (type of security, transportation protocol etc) associated with it. The CPA is a derived document from two CPP's. Two companies agree upon a CPA and configure their ebXML compliant software system (Business System Interface) with the CPA.
ebXML Core Components are entities which occur among different industries and are low level data fields (e.g. address, location, zip). Business Objects are aggregations of Core Components. Business Documents (e.g. order, invoice) are composed of Business Objects and single Core Components. All these documents also get stored in the ebXML Registry/Repository.
The ebXML Messaging Service Specification defines the messaging service of ebXML documents. ebXML Messaging Service enables security, error handling and reliable messaging.