RE: Need help on AS2

Santanu,

>We have figured out that in order to implement the AS2 client, we need to
do
>three things-
>1) Package the data using standard MIME packaging.
>2) Encrypt using S/MIME.
>3) Delegate the HTTP client to send the data across to the trading partner.

The profile you identified above does not meet the Energy industry
requirements for AS2.

>However, a few things are still in dark. Like, where do the specific AS2
>headers like AS2-from and AS2-to
>come from? Are they a part of the MIME packaging in 1), or a part of the
>HTTP headers attached in 3)? Does
>it mean that the HTTP client needs to be changed accordingly?

The AS2-To and AS2-From headers are not part of the AS2 spec, yet. These
were added by some vendors during an interoperability test when they
discovered that certain HTTP headers "collide" with e-mail headers (e.g.
From). There is also a risk that other e-mail headers used by AS2 could
collide with future versions of HTTP. For example if a future version of
HTTP includes a Subject or Message-ID header, the AS2 spec may have to
prefix the e-mail versions of these headers with "AS2-" in order to avoid a
collision with Web Servers. This is due to the fact that AS2, e-mail
profile, doesn't follow proper MIME conventions for header extensions (X-).
I've already addressed this with other AS2 folks and hopefully we'll have it
resolved before the next AS2 spec is released.

>And several other issues- which are not discussed in detail. Actually, any
>input for AS2 implementation will be highly
>appreciated.

Group 8760 has implemented EDIINT AS2 within the Energy industry. A typical
implementation of AS2 following the Energy industry profile, with no
customizations, takes on average, 3 days and is "significantly" lower cost
than other, similar approaches, like RosettaNet.

Dick Brooks (EDIINT AS2 co-author)
http://www.8760.com/