EbXML Collaboration Protocol Agreement (CPA)

ebXML CPA is an XML format for describing agreement information for partners that agree to collaborate. This agreement is based on the ebXML architecture. In addition to support for ebXML BPSS, PowerDesigner can optionally generate an ebXML Collaboration Protocol Agreement (CPA) template for v1.04.

An ebXML CPA document defines a sequence of actions the trading partners take to execute a business process, messages sent from one partner to another, typically with attached business documents. Actions are CanSend/CanReceive Action pairs between the partners, so if the CPA defines a CanSend element for Partner A, then it must also define a corresponding CanReceive element for Partner B. The CPA template generation is, therefore, mainly based on the choreography of Binary Collaboration, Business Documents and signals exchanged during each Business Transaction.

Each CanSend/CanReceive action constitutes an elementary agreement between the two partners. It defines agreed technical parameters related to message exchange such as delivery channel protocol and security, or message packaging. PowerDesigner provides CPA specific extended attributes to define these technical parameters.

An ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile defines a business partner's technical capabilities to engage in electronic business collaborations with other partners by exchanging electronic messages. An ebXML CPA documents the technical agreement between two (or more) partners to engage in electronic business collaboration. The CPA can be seen as an intersection of the collaborative partners CPP (Collaborative Partner Profile).

The Collaborative Partner Agreement captures critical information for communications between applications and business processes and also records specific technical parameters for conducting electronic business.

Information agreed by the two parties includes BPSS documents, choreography (Requests, Responses, ordering), and parameters for exchanging messages: transport (protocol, security, addresses), document exchange (protocol, security), and message packaging.

A CPA document can be produced in the following ways:

Based on the same BPSS document instance, two partners negotiate technical and/or functional details of their collaboration and draw up the result in the form of a CPA
Based on the CPP of each partner, two partners try to match their technical capabilities at the various levels of the collaboration protocol and put the matching results in the CPA document
One trading partner registers a CPA template document based on the BPSS document and the technical parameters he can support. In this "almost complete" CPA, some items must be completed or negotiated. Other items (such as endpoint address) should be provided by another party

PowerDesigner supports the generation of both BPSS documents and a CPA template. The generated CPA document cannot be directly registered; you must open it in a text editor and modify manually the parts that are in commentary.

Since a CPA document is based on a BPSS document, the two documents share some parameters such as roles, business transaction activities, or business transactions characteristics (business actions, business documents and messages ordering, times to acknowledge receipt, times to acknowledge acceptance). However, CPA values often override BPSS values. PowerDesigner generates both BPSS and CPA documents from the same BPM, so the shared items have the same value. In order to save BPSS and CPA values separately, you should:

Design a BPM with the ebXML BPSS 1.04 process language to generate a BPSS document
Generate another BPM from the first one by using the Save As function or the model-to-model generation function, and use this new model to define CPA-specific values and generate the CPA document template.

Designing a Partner's Identification
In ebXML CPA, a trading partner is designated as a party to the agreement, and identified with a party Id. The generated CPA template always includes two parties. Each party can play more than one role defined by the BPSS document on the Binary Collaborations. To define the characteristics of the two parties and some shared parameters (CPA Id, Start and End time, Status, conversation constraints), you can use the following extended attributes available from the model property sheet:
Designing CanSend/CanReceive Actions
Flow objects define Business Documents and signals exchanged during the Business Transaction. Consequently each flow can be generated as CanSend or CanReceive element depending on whether the party is the Requester or the Receiver of the message.
Designing a Delivery Channel
You design a Delivery Channel using a resource with a <<DeliveryChannel>> stereotype.
Designing a Transport Element
You design a Transport element using a resource with a <<Transport>> stereotype.
Unsupported Concepts
Some of the concepts of the ebXML collaboration protocol agreement are not supported. However you can generate a CPA template that includes for each CPA element, a default XML code that you can modify to meet your needs.
Generating for EbXML CPA
Generating a CPA template document is an option in ebXML BPSS generation.

Parent topic: Electronic Business XML (EbXML)