CPPA and migration from ebMS2 to ebMS3

Hello,

 

I have a question related to our discussion on support for ebMS3 in 
CPPA.  Perhaps we can discuss this at our informal meeting next week, or 
during some future TC meeting.

 

Assume a community (there is an actual case behind this, 
but it seems like a general enough issue to discuss in the TC) is currently 
evaluating various alternatives for a B2B-type message exchange, and ebXML is 
one of the options.   Today ebMS2 supports their needs (reliability, 
security), but what about two/three years from now?  It might functionally 
still meet their needs, but other specifications will have emerged and/or 
matured.  Do they then face another migration?  Shouldn't they 
just wait until the dust settles? 

 

To alleviate concerns, CPPA support for ebMS3 would be great, if they could just update their ebMS2 
CPAs and continue their trading relation, once their ebMS2/CPA2.0 software 
suppliers add support for ebMS3 and CPA3 to an existing ebMS2/CPA2 supporting 
product.   Migration costs could be fairly minimal.  If the 
CPAs are derived from templates (with fixed parameter combinations for 
syncreplymode, reliability and security), use commonly selected options (e.g. 
syncreplymode "none" or "mshSignalsOnly", not an unusual value like 
"responseOnly")  and vary only in business process-related areas (services, 
actions, timings), the conversion could even be automated using e.g. an 
XSLT stylesheet.

 

While ebMS3 is not finished and CPA is dependent on that, do you feel the 
statement in the preceding paragraph is likely to be correct?  I'm not 
looking for a scientific (or legally binding) answer, just for some 
well-informed opinions.  It would give users confidence that they are safe to 
use ebMS2 now, and have an clear migration path to a future spec. As that 
spec (ebMS3) converges (in its reuse of WS modules like WS Security) with 
specifications often presented as alternatives to ebMS, that would further 
reduce concerns.

 

Pim