HTTP and HTTPS server overview

HTTP and HTTPS servers are endpoints that are used as receivers or destinations during message exchanges.

HTTP and HTTPS servers use the HTTP and HTTPS transport protocols. The HTTP protocol is used by web servers for communications with browsers. The HTTPS protocol is an HTTP protocol that secures communications with encryption. AS4 Microservice also can use the SFTP transport protocol.

To use an HTTP or HTTPS server in a message exchange profile, you must first configure the server. Then, you include the server in the configuration of an exchange profile that can use an HTTP or HTTPS server.

An HTTP or HTTPS server configuration encapsulates the URL, the port, and other system management and security configurations to form an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint. You can configure basic authentication for an HTTP or HTTPS server, and SSL client authentication for an HTTPS server.

If basic authentication is enabled for an HTTP or HTTPS server, a user name and password must be provided when a trading partner system makes a request to the server. If AS4 Microservice makes a request to an HTTP or HTTPS destination server, the user name and password that is provided by the trading partner must be used.

When SSL client authentication is configured, an SSL certificate is used for authenticating the trading partner system or AS4 Microservice. You can use either a global truststore or select a specific CA certificate for SSL client authentication.

Important: If the communications component receives a notification (critical event) about low grid memory, the HTTP or HTTPS servers stop accepting the incoming messages for processing. The messages that are already accepted are processed. After the memory clears and rises higher than the low watermark, another notification is sent to the communications component. Thereafter, the HTTP or HTTPS servers start accepting the messages.