Configuring AS4 exchange profiles

An exchange profile contains the necessary information needed by a owner organization and a trading partner organization to facilitate the exchange of messages between them.

The necessary information includes details of the participating organizations, exchange pattern, and conformance policy. Additionally, the exchange profile includes credential information that is required to authenticate each party with the other, and the destination and the receiver information. A conformance policy is associated with an exchange profile. The owning organization and a trading partner organization agree on the processing mode (p-mode) parameters and the message exchange pattern that can be used in a message exchange. Configuration of features such as security, reliability, and error handling depends on the p-mode parameters in the conformance policy.

Message exchange patterns

A sender is an entity or partner that initiates the sending of a user message. A receiver is an entity or partner that receives the message. The user message unit, along with any referenced payload items, is part of a user message that is submitted by a sender (and subject to delivery to a consumer). The following message exchange patterns types are supported in AS4 Microservice:
  • One-way – Controls the exchange of a single message unit. The message unit is unrelated to other user messages.
  • Two-way – Controls the exchange of two user message units in opposite directions. The first message to occur in the exchange is the request and the second message is the reply, which is a response to the request.

Message exchange pattern bindings

A message exchange pattern binds with the underlying transport channel to transfer messages. Based on how a message exchange pattern binds with the transport protocol, the following transport channel bound message exchange patterns are defined in the ebMS specification and supported in AS4 Microservice:
  • One-Way/Push – Involves the transfer (push) of a single message unit from the sender to the receiver.
  • One-Way/Pull – Involves the transfer of a single message unit to the receiver. The receiving system initiates the transfer by sending a pull signal to the sender.
  • Two-Way/Sync – Involves the transfer of two user message units between the sender and the receiver. The sender or the initiator sends the first user message, the request, to the receiver (the responder). The receiver responds with a related user message, the reply.
  • Two-Way/Push-and-Pull – Involves a one-way push followed by a one-way pull transfer. Both the transfers are initiated by the sender. The message unit that is pulled refers to the message unit that was pushed.

Inbound exchange profile

An inbound exchange profile defines the configuration for receiving data from a trading partner. The following message exchange patterns are supported for an inbound flow:
  • One-way MEP
    • AS4 inbound one-way/push
    • AS4 inbound one-way/pull
  • Two-way MEP
    • AS4 inbound Two-Way/Sync
    • AS4 inbound Two-Way/Push-Pull

Outbound exchange profile

An outbound exchange profile defines the configuration for sending data to a trading partner. The following message exchange patterns are supported for an outbound flow:
  • One-way MEP
    • AS4 outbound one-way/push
    • AS4 outbound one-way/pull
  • Two-way MEP
    • AS4 outbound Two-Way/Sync
    • AS4 outbound Two-Way/Push-Pull