AS1/AS2 Viewer

Use the AS1/AS2 Viewer to view packaged B2B transactions and B2B process details that use the Applicability Statement 1 or 2 (AS1 or AS2) communication protocol. You can view the choreography of the B2B process and associated business documents, acknowledgment signals, process state, HTTP headers, and contents of the transmitted documents.

Like its predecessor, AS1, which defines a standard for data transmissions using SMTP, AS2 defines a standard for data transmissions using HTTP.

AS2 identifies how to connect, deliver, validate, and reply to data; it does not interact with the content of the document, only the transport. AS2 creates a wrapper around a document so that it can be transported over the Internet using HTTP or HTTPS. The combined document and wrapper are called a message. AS2 provides security and encryption around the HTTP packets. AS2 also provides a measure of security not found in FTP. AS2 provides an encryption base with guaranteed delivery.

An important component of AS2 is the receipt mechanism, which is referred to as an Message Disposition Notification (MDN). The MDN ensures the sender of the document that the recipient has successfully received the document. The sender specifies how the MDN is to be sent back (either synchronously or asynchronously, and signed or unsigned).

Note:
When decryption fails for an incoming encrypted AS2 document, a failure MDN is not sent back. To correct this issue, a participant connection must be activated, whether used or not, between the two participants' AS Binary capability. If the AS Binary capability is not enabled, then it must enabled for both the participants and then a participant connection must be activated between them.

You can use the AS1/AS2 Viewer to view the message ID, Time Stamps, Document Flow, Gateway Type, and Synchronous status, as well as document details. Additional document processing information is displayed with the document details.

Searching for messages

  1. Click Viewers > AS1/AS2 Viewer. The system displays the AS1/AS2 Viewer window.
  2. Select the search criteria from the drop-down lists, described in Table 18.
    Table 18. AS1/AS2 Viewer search criteria
    Value Description

    Start Date and Time

    Date and time the process was initiated.

    End Date and Time

    Date and time the process was completed.

    Source and Target Participant

    Identifies the source (initiating) and the target (receiving) participants (Community Manager only).

    Participant

    Identifies if the search applies to all participants or the Community Manager (participant only).

    My role is the

    Identifies if the search looks for documents in which the participant is the Target or Source (participant only).

    Initiating Business ID

    Business identification number of the source participant, for example, Duns.

    Gateway Type

    Production or test. Test is only available on systems that support the test gateway type.

    Package

    Describes the document format, packaging, encryption, and content-type identification.

    Protocol

    Document format available to the participants, for example, RosettaNet XML.

    Document Flow

    The specific business process.

    Message ID

    ID number assigned to the AS1 or AS2 packaged document. Search criteria can include the asterisk (*) wildcard. The maximum length is 255 characters.

    Synchronous Filter

    Search for documents received in synchronous mode. This means that the connection between the initiator and the Document Manager stays open until the transaction is complete, including request and Message Disposition Notification (MDN).

    Sort by

    Sort results by this value.

    Descend or Ascend

    Descend displays the most recent time stamp or the beginning of the alphabet.

    Ascend displays either the oldest time stamp or the end of the alphabet.

    Results per page

    Use to select the number of records displayed per page.

  3. Click Search. The system displays a list of messages.

Viewing message details

  1. Click Viewers > AS1/AS2 Viewer. The system displays the AS1/AS2 Viewer Search window.
  2. Select the search criteria from the drop-down lists.
  3. Click Search. The system displays a list of messages.
  4. Click the View details icon next to the message that you want to view. The system displays the message and the associated document details, described in Table 19.

    Table 19. Message details
    Value Description

    Message ID

    ID number assigned to the AS1 or AS2 packaged document. This number identifies the package only. The document itself has a separate Document ID number that is displayed with the document details. The maximum length is 255 characters.

    Source Participant

    Participant initiating a business process.

    Target Participant

    Participant receiving the business process.

    Initiating Time Stamp

    Date and time the document begins processing.

    Gateway Type

    Either test or production. Test is only available on systems that support the test gateway type.

    MDN URI

    The destination address for the MDN. The address can be specified as an HTTP URI, or an e-mail address.

    MDN Disposition Text

    This text provides the status of the originating message that was received (either successful or failed). Examples include the following:

    • Automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; processed.
    • Automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; processed/Warning;duplicate-document.
    • Automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; processed/Error;description-failed.
    • Automatic-action/MDN-sent-automatically; failed:unsupported MIC-algorithms.
  5. (Optional) Click the Display raw document icon to view the raw document.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003, 2005