For ease of exchanging profile data, you can export a community profile and public key certificate to an XML file and give it to partners who use Interchange 4.2.x or later. For partners who use other interoperable trading software, consult with them on the data they require of you to establish trading relationships.
Likewise, a partner who uses Interchange 4.2.x or later can export a community or company configuration and public key certificate to a file and give it to you to import as a partner profile. For partners who use other interoperable software, collect the trading data you need and then create a partner profile in the user interface. Partner data form provides a way for documenting the data needed to create a partner configuration.
If you are upgrading from Interchange 4.2.x, you can export company profiles as such and import them as community profiles in this version of Activator.
The following topics explain how to export and import community and partner configurations. These topics address how to export or import configurations one at a time, which is the typical way of handling profiles. The topics are:
There is also a way to have Activator import configurations on its own without user intervention. That method is explained in Automatic profile imports. Lastly, Create profiles outside the application includes links to schemas for creating configurations externally.
Activator exports a community configuration as a partner configuration XML file. A community configuration cannot be exported as a community profile, except when backing up a community (see Back up a community and its partners).
Before exporting a community profile as a partner profile, make sure the profile has been completely configured. On the community summary page, click Export this community as a partner profile at the bottom of the page. Save the file to a directory of your choosing. If you have associated a certificate with the profile, the certificate and public key are exported with the profile.
If the community has more than one delivery exchange for receiving messages from partners, the default exchange is the preferred transport. The default exchange is the one that displays at the top of the list on the community profile's delivery exchange page. Before exporting the profile, you can change the default or disable a transport to refine the options available to your partner.
Distribute the profile to partners by a secure means. If you send the profile file to partners as an email attachment, you should compress it with WinZip or similar software to ensure file integrity.
You can only export a community profile in a form usable as a partner profile. You cannot export the profile by itself as a usable community profile. You can, however, export an entire community (the community profile and all associated partner profiles). For more information, see Back up a community.
To export a partner profile to an XML file, click Partners on the toolbar and then select a partner. At the bottom of the partner summary page, click Export this partner's profile.
One reason to export a partner profile is to create a back-up copy for later importing, if needed.
Partner profiles can be exported with a tool as well as through the user interface. The tool allows exporting partner profiles singly or in a batch.
An exported partner profile contains information such as the partner's name and routing ID, plus the configured transports for sending messages to the partner. If there is more than one exchange, the order of the transports is preserved, as the exchange at the top of the list is the default.
Other preferences included in exported partner profile files include:
Upon receiving a profile from a partner, make sure the profile file is accessible on your file system. Go to the partners area of the user interface and click Add a partner. Then click Import a partner profile from a file. Point the browser to the file to import, select a community for the partner, and click Finish.
If you are expecting the imported profile to include the partner's certificate and public key, check whether the partner's certificate is trusted. Go to the partner summary page and click Certificates in the navigation graphic at the top of the page. Click the certificate name and then click the Trusts tab. Check the details of third-party certificates imported with profiles to make sure trusted roots are present.
After importing a profile, go to the partner summary page for the imported partner and check whether any tasks are required to complete the profile configuration. See Post-import tasks.
If a partner uses a trading engine other than Interchange 4.2.x or later, you cannot import a usable partner profile, but must manually create the profile. Partner data form provides a way for documenting the data needed to manually create a profile.
Activator on its own imports community or partner profiles written to a certain system directory. These must be profiles that have been exported from Interchange or are compatible (see Create profiles outside the application).
There are two business cases for automatic profile imports. The first is to migrate community and partner profiles from an earlier to later version of Activator.
The second case is to help manage profiles by providing a hands-free method to grow the number of partners in a community.
Profiles written to <install directory>\profiles\autoImport are imported by Activator when the server is running. Once imported, the system moves the profile files from profiles\autoImport to the appropriate profiles\backup subdirectory, either community or partner. The system makes all imported partner profiles members of all communities. The system creates pickup and delivery integration exchanges for an imported community.
If Activator is unable to import a profile file in the autoImport directory, the system moves the file to \profiles\autoImport\rejected.
| Note | If you have exported a community and its partners to a backup file (Back up a community), do not use the autoImport directory to import the file. Activator rejects the file. See Import a backed-up community and its partners for the correct procedure. |
The system also has some profile staging directories, as shown here:
\profiles \autoImport \rejected \backup \community
\partner\staged \community
\partner
The system does not write to these directories, except during installation when a user is upgrading from version 4.2.x. The directories are a place to hold profile files before a user moves them to the autoImport directory. The software installer, for instance, writes profile files to the staged directories if the user during installation choose to have profiles exported from an earlier version of Activator.
Events for profile imports and rejections are written to the control node events log (<hostname>_cn_events.log) in the logs directory. The events are:
In addition to using Activator to create, export and import profiles, you can generate profiles outside of the application by using the profiles schemas. For example, you can generate profiles using your own partner management system and import them to Activator.