Scenario: Sending an AS4 outbound two-way synchronous request

In an outbound exchange, you can use a two-way synchronous exchange pattern when you want your trading partner to process your request immediately and provide an acknowledgement or a business response. In a two-way synchronous exchange, the sender must wait until the request is processed and an appropriate response is received.

The following scenarios demonstrate two use cases for the AS4 Outbound Two-Way/Sync exchange pattern:

Your organization (owner organization A) wants to check the inventory of items (or request a catalog) from a trading partner (trading partner B).
Any transaction (query or validation) for which the sender waits for a response.

Note: If Sterling B2B Integrator is the business application, you must install the Sterling B2B Integrator bridge and configure the required adapters and business processes. For more information about Sterling B2B Integrator bridge adapters and business processes, see Configuring B2B Advanced Communications integration module.

Required configuration and users

The following table provides information about the configuration that is required to complete the AS4 outbound two-way synchronous exchange.

Table 1. Configuration required to complete an AS4 outbound two-way synchronous exchange
Configuration	Requirement
Conformance policy	You must define security, error handling, and reception awareness settings. For information about configuring a conformance policy, see Configuring custom AS4 conformance policies.
Organizations	You must configure owner and trading partner organizations that are participating in the exchange. The owner organization is specified by default from the owner organization in the conformance policy of the exchange profile. For information about configuring a trading partner organization, see Creating an organization.
Organization credentials	If user name token authentication is enabled, you must configure organization credentials. In an outbound flow, you must use the user name and password that is provided by the trading partner. When you configure the organization credential, do not select Internally owned check box. For information about configuring organization credentials, see Adding organization credentials
Message queues	A message queue must be configured by a System Administrator. A Master Account Administrator can use the message queue definition to configure a messaging receiver and error notification destination. You can also choose to use the default error notification destination. For information about adding message queue, see Configuring a message queue
Trading partner certificates	In an outbound exchange, the trading partner certificate is used to verify the signature of the response that is received from the trading partner.
Owner organization certificates	If user authentication checking with X.509 certificate and signing of outbound exchanges is enabled, the certificate alias and the public and private key pair must be added to B2B Advanced Communications and the public key must be shared with the trading partner. For information about configuring owner organization certificates, see Adding a CA digital certificate and Adding a private and public key pair digital certificate
Messaging receiver	You must configure a messaging receiver to which the business application sends the business document object (BDO) along with the payload and attachments (inline or storage reference) to trigger the exchange. For information about configuring a messaging receiver, see Configuring a messaging receiver
HTTP or HTTPS destination	You must configure the trading partner destination to which the message is sent. For information about configuring an HTTPS destination, see Configuring an HTTP or HTTPS destination
Thread pool	A thread pool is a collection of threads. A thread pool manages the threads in the pool to process the tasks. To handle large files or a large volume of files, you can have a thread pool with more number of threads and associate the thread pool to the HTTPS server and destination. For information about configuring a thread pool, see Configuring a thread pool
Retry policy	You must configure the appropriate retry policy and associate it with the HTTP or HTTPS destination. The retry settings that are specified in the retry policy are used when an HTTP or HTTPS destination is not available during the transmission. For information about creating a retry policy, see Configuring a retry policy.
Messaging destination	If error notification is configured, a messaging destination is used to notify the business application about errors in a transaction. For information about configuring a messaging destination, see Configuring a messaging destination
Storage settings	You must configure appropriate and required storage settings. For information about configuring storage, see Configuring storage.

The following table lists the users permissions that are required to complete the AS4 outbound two-way synchronous exchange.

Table 2. Permissions required to complete an AS4 outbound two-way synchronous exchange
User permission	Requirement
User with Master Account Administrator permissions	To create or configure the following components: Conformance policy AS4 outbound two-way sync exchange profile Messaging receiver and destination Certificate alias (trading partner certificates and owner organization certificates) HTTP or HTTPS destination Organization credentials Retry policy Trading partner and owner organizations
User with System Administrator permissions	To create message queues and thread pools.

AS4 outbound two-way sync exchange profile configuration

To create an exchange profile (inventory_check) that can be used to check the inventory of items available with the trading partner (trading partner B), you must complete the following tasks in B2B Advanced Communications:

Note: The following list provides information about the mandatory fields or configuration that is required for an AS4 two-way sync outbound exchange profile. For information about other fields, see Configuring an AS4 outbound two-way synchronous exchange profile.

Profile name – A unique name for the exchange profile. For example, inventory_check.
Conformance policy – A conformance policy defines guidelines for secure and payload-agnostic exchange. Depending on the agreement with your trading partner, you can use the default conformance policies or create a custom conformance policy.
Service details – A service defines the usage of the exchange profile. You must know the service for which the exchange profile is used. In this case, specify inventory checking as the service.
Owner organization configuration – In an outbound flow, owner organization (owner organization A) is the organization that sends the outbound request.
Sender ID – Sender ID is a unique identifier that is used to identify your organization. Specify the mutually agreed on sender ID in the Sender ID field.
Trading partner configuration – Select the trading partner organization (trading partner B) to whom the request to check the inventory must be sent.
Receiver ID – Receiver ID is a unique identifier that is used to identify the trading partner with whom you are transacting. Specify the mutually agreed on receiver ID in the Receiver ID field.
Messaging receiver – A messaging receiver is the trigger point where the business application writes message (request to check inventory) to the request queue. B2B Advanced Communications picks the request from the request queue, does the required packaging, and prepares the request to send to the trading partner.
HTTP or HTTPS destination - The HTTP or HTTPS destination is the trading partner destination where B2B Advanced Communications sends the request (to check inventory) to. If user name token authentication is enabled in the conformance policy, you must select the appropriate credential.
Synchronous response settings – You can specify the trading partner certificate that must be used to verify the signature of the response received from the trading partner.

Using the AS4 two-way sync exchange profile to send a message to check inventory

The following list describes the steps that are involved in sending a two-way sync message to a trading partner to check inventory:

The messaging receiver that is configured in the inventory_check exchange profile (of B2B Advanced Communications) receives a BDO along with the payload (with a request to check inventory) and attachments from the business application. The payload and attachments can be inline with the BDO or a storage reference might be provided in the BDO.
The messaging receiver uses the information (such as the sender ID, receiver ID, and service) in the BDO to look for the exchange profile and starts AS4 processing.
The AS4 service retrieves information that is required to package the AS4 message (payload and attachments) from the exchange profile and packages the message. Based on the storage and nonrepudiation settings, the AS4 message is stored in the nonrepudiation bucket.
The AS4 service uses the HTTP or HTTPS destination information in the exchange profile and sends the message to the configured HTTP or HTTPS destination.
The trading partner processes the request and sends a response on the same HTTP connection. The AS4 service receives the response from the trading partner. Based on the storage and nonrepudiation settings, the unpacked response is stored in the nonrepudiation bucket.
The response is unpacked and sent to the messaging destination. The messaging destination is specified in the BDO.
The business application picks up the unpacked message from the messaging destination and performs the necessary processing.