The OASIS ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance (IIC) Technical Committee has announced the approval of four committee specifications for use in conformance testing with ebXML Messaging Service (ebMS) version 2.0. "The initial ebXML IIC efforts have focused on providing a computable and extensible test framework with ebMS as the first edition of the suite of test specifications. Plans are under consideration for CPP/A (Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement), Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS) and Registry/Repository (Reg/Rep). The Test Framework can be used to support conformance testing and interoperability testing in different configurations, from point-to-point testing between business partners, to centralized configurations involving a test center. eBusiness partners can download necessary components. Tests can be driven either by one of the partners, or by a test center, which can be viewed as a service. Or, for interoperability tests, a test center can be used as a hub, providing monitoring and routing functions, while tests are driven from an end-point. In both cases, the test will be executed in an automated fashion. Test traces and results are generated for a collection of test (test suites) for later review." The approved committee specification documents include ebXML Test Framework Document, Version 1.0, ebXML Messaging 2.0 Basic Interoperability Profile (BIP) Test Suite, version 1.0, ebXML Deployment Guide Template for ebXML Messaging 2.0, Version 1.0, and EAN.UCC (European Article Numbering / Uniform Code Council) Deployment Guide 1.0, an instance of the ebXML Messaging Deployment Template 1.0.

From the Announcement

The Test Framework can be used to support conformance testing and interoperability testing in different configurations, from point-to-point testing between business partners, to centralized configurations involving a test center. eBusiness partners can download necessary components. Tests can be driven either by one of the partners, or by a test center, which can be viewed as a service. Or, for interoperability tests, a test center can be used as a hub, providing monitoring and routing functions, while tests are driven from an end-point. In both cases, the test will be executed in an automated fashion. Test traces and results are generated for a collection of test (test suites) for later review.

Key technical features of the Test Framework are:

• Tests against profile requirements.
• Uses an open XML test scripting language.
• Supports construction and examination of MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and ebXML message content.
• Uses a persistent message store for query of synchronously and asynchronously received messages.
• Generates XML test reports that trace to test requirements and reference specification.

The first interoperability test suite from the IIC, the Basic Interoperability Profile test suite for ebMS, has been designed after a careful analysis of the requirements and constraints of the current users communities in US, Asia and Europe. The test suite has been, engineered to support various types of test environments that a test center will host, including full matrix, interim, on-demand, and/or content validation testing.

The Deployment Guide Template can help foster interoperability among industry organizations and other trading communities. For example, EAN.UCC (European Article Numbering/Uniform Code Council) is using the template to produce Deployment Guides that reflect specific deployment requirements of their users.

These efforts are also effectively laying the groundwork for cohesive testing opportunities between web services and business service integration. In addition, ebXML IIC is actively working with eBES Interoperability Pilot, Asia Interoperability Task Group through ebXML Asia Committee, KorBIT (Korea), and the B2B Interoperability Testbed (OAG-NIST sponsorship).

Overview of ebXML IIC Committee Specifications

• ebXML Test Framework. Committee Specification Version 1.0. OASIS ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance Technical Committee. March 07, 2003. 144 pages. Authors/Editors: Steven Yung (Sun Microsystems), Prakash Sinha IONA), Matthew MacKenzie (Individual), Hatem El Sebaaly (IPNet Solutions), Monica Martin (Sun Microsystems), Jacques Durand (Fujitsu), Michael Kass (NIST), Eric VanLydegraf (Kinzan), Jeff Turpin (CycloneCommerce), and Serm Kulvatunyou NIST). Contributors: Christopher Frank. [source ZIP, .DOC]

  "This document specifies ebXML interoperability testing specification for the eBusiness community. The ebXML Test Framework is intended to support conformance and interoperability testing for ebXML specifications. It describes a testbed architecture and its software components, how these can be combined to create a test harness for each type of ebXML testing. It also describes the test material to be processed by this architecture, a mark-up language and format for representing test requirements, and test suites (set of Test Cases).

  The Test Framework described here has been designed to achieve the following objectives:

  • The Test Framework is a foundation for testing all ebXML architectural components such as Messaging, Registry, BPSS, CPA, and Core Components.
  • Test Suites and Test Cases that are related to these standards, can be defined in a formal manner (including Test Steps and verification conditions). They can be automatically processed by the Test Framework, and their execution can easily be reproduced.

  The harnessing of an ebXML implementation (or possibly several, e.g., in case of interoperability) with the Test Framework requires a moderate effort. It generally requires some interfacing work specific to an implementation, in the case no standard interface (API) has been specified. For example, the Test Service (a component of the Test Framework) defines Actions that will need to be called by a particular MSH implementation. Besides this kind of interfacing, no application code needs to be written.

• ebXML Messaging (2.0) Basic Interoperability Profile Test Suite. Committee Specification Version 1.0. OASIS ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance Technical Committee. April 03, 2003. 43 pages. Authors/Editors: Steven Yung (Sun Microsystems), Prakash Sinha (IONA), Matthew MacKenzie (Individual), Hatem El Sebaaly (IPNet Solutions), Monica Martin (Sun Microsystems), Jacques Durand (Fujitsu), Michael Kass (NIST). Contributors: Kazunori Iwasa, Rik Drummond, Mike Dillon, Masahiko Narita, Christopher Frank, Eric VanLydegraf, and Serm Kulvatunyou. [source .DOC]

  This document specifies a basic test suite for ebXML Messaging interoperability, that can be used for the testing of global interoperability between all communities of business users. The testing procedure design and naming conventions follow the format specified in the Standard for Software Test Documentation IEEE Std 829-1998. This specification is organized around the following topics: (1) Interoperability testing architecture; (2) Test cases for basic interoperability; (3) Test data materials.

  It is in impractical to test all combinations of messaging features and configuration features for interoperability between two message handler implementations: there is generally a large number of combinations -- and of possible failure scenarios. As two or more message handlers are involved, these combinations are even greater than for conformance testing, which typically focuses on a single message handler.

  When testing interoperability, a small set of significant test cases must be selected. One way to do this selection is to observe the interoperability requirements of a user community, and to address them. Because of the 'combinatorial' problem of features and scenarios, and also because it involves several business partners, interoperability testing usually must be restricted to reflect the particular needs of a business community. This is in contrast with conformance testing, which mostly focuses on verifying adherence to the standard.

  Interoperability tests should then focus on the kind of usage that is most meaningful for a business community. These forms -- or modes -- of interoperability are called profiles. An interoperability profile should be verified by an appropriate test suite.

  This document specifies the Basic Interoperability Profile (BIP) for ebXML messaging. The primary objective of this profile is to define the baseline of business interoperability: it exercises basic ebXML MS core services, secure and reliable messaging. This profile may not be sufficient to address all the business requirements of a user community. Specific requirements -- for example, using very large messages, or security features such as encryption -- will be addressed by additional, more specific profiles that expand on basic functions or combinations of functions relevant to user communities.

• ebXML Deployment Guide Template for ebXML Message Service Specification 2.0. Committee Specification Version 1.0. Edited by Pete Wenzel (SeeBeyond). OASIS ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance Technical Committee. April 07, 2003. 26 pages [source .DOC]

  The ebXML Message Service Specification 2.0 contains a plethora of configurable features and options. Any use of ebMS requires a certain amount of standardization within a trading community, and due to the degree of optionality allowed by the specification, these communities must also document exactly which parts of it must be deployed and how, in order to foster interoperability on multiple levels between participants. Such information may be collected and published as a Deployment Guide for a community. It also represents an agreed-upon convention for the use of the ebXML message handler within the community, the capabilities that are expected from an implementation, and the deployment details. This is not to be confused with the notion of Collaboration Protocol Agreement (CPA), which focuses on the runtime collaboration mode between partners, for a particular business process. Some elements of the Deployment Template will, however, map to a community's specific requirements of applicable CPA elements.

  This Template document, upon being fully populated with specific requirements, thus becomes a Deployment Guide Instance Document. It is the intention of the OASIS ebXML IIC Technical Committee to collect and archive examples of Deployment Guides created from this Template, as an aid to user communities whose standardization efforts involve the ebXML Message Service. By publishing Deployment Guides for different communities using the same Template format, it will be easier for a user community to consult the configuration setups, as well as conventions used by other user communities with which they may want to interoperate. This will help them to assess whether these two communities will be able to interoperate, or under what conditions.

• EAN-UCC Deployment Guide. Instance of the ebXML Messaging Deployment Template 1.0 for ebXML Message Service Specification 2.0. Edited by Thomas Bikeev (EAN International) and Pete Wenzel (SeeBeyond). Produced in Collaboration with OASIS ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance Technical Committee. Version 1.0. April 07, 2003. 24 pages. [source .DOC]

  This document describes the details of the ebXML Message Service Implementation specified for EAN-UCC. Full description of the implementation can be found in the EAN-UCC Implementation Guidelines for ebXML Messaging Service V2.0.

  Implementation of the ebXML Message Service Protocol must comply with the ebXML Message Service Specification 2.0 (ebMS). This specification is organized around the topics specified by EAN-UCC where additional restrictions or conditions on the Message Service are applied.