Before you can exchange encrypted and signed documents with a trading partner, each of you must obtain the other's certificate and public key. You do this after you have created your community. Each of you obtains a certificate with a public-private key pair, either by generating a self-signed certificate or by obtaining a certificate from a certificate authority.
The private half of your key pair always remains on your computer. The public half is given to your partners when you send them your community, which includes the certificate and public key, or the certificate alone.
The following topics describe how to give your certificate to partners. In all cases, we recommend confirming the certificate fingerprints with your trading partner before exchanging documents.
If your trading partner uses any of the Axway endpoint products (B2Bi, Interchange or Activator), export your community, which includes your certificate and public key, to a file and send that file to the partner. We recommend doing so by a secure means.
If you exchange encrypted and signed documents with partners who use other interoperable software, export your certificate and public key to a file and send the file to partners. For initial distribution of self-signed certificates, we recommend sending the certificate to each partner by a secure method. Subsequent distribution can be by e-mail. For more information see Export a certificate to a file.