Ponton X/P 2.3 ? Installation and Configuration Guide

Messenger 

Installation and 

Configuration Guide 

Manual Version 2.3 

August 5, 2005

Content 

FURTHER INFORMATION AND SUPPORT ........................................................ 4 

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 5 

1.1 ABOUT PONTON X/P...........................................................................................5 

1.2 ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW ...................................................................................6 

1.3 FEATURES ........................................................................................................6 

2 DOWNLOADING PONTON X/P 2.3 ................................................................ 8 

2.1 COMPONENTS....................................................................................................8 

3 INSTALLING PONTON X/P 2.3 ...................................................................... 9 

3.1 MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS..........................................................................9 

3.2 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE................................................................................. 10 

3.3 UPDATING FROM A PREVIOUS VERSION .................................................................. 11 

4 QUICK-STARTING THE SOFTWARE.............................................................12 

4.1 LOGGING IN.................................................................................................... 12 

4.2 STOPPING THE MESSENGER ................................................................................ 13 

4.3 BASIC CONFIGURATION...................................................................................... 13 

4.4 CHECK IF ADAPTERS ARE RUNNING ....................................................................... 21 

4.5 CHECK THE STATUS OF YOUR MESSAGES ................................................................ 24 

5 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS ........................................................................ 26 

5.1 MESSENGER CONFIGURATION.............................................................................. 26 

5.2 PARTNER CONFIGURATION ................................................................................. 42 

5.3 PARTNER AGREEMENTS...................................................................................... 51 

5.4 CA CERTIFICATES ............................................................................................ 56 

5.5 HOT FOLDER ADAPTER ...................................................................................... 58 

5.6 DISPLAY SCHEMA CONFIGURATION....................................................................... 62 

5.7 USER ADMINISTRATION ..................................................................................... 63 

6 ADVANCED CONFIGURATION ..................................................................... 64 

6.1 XML SCHEMA CONFIGURATION ........................................................................... 64 

6.2 ADVANCED DATABASE CONFIGURATION................................................................. 65 

6.3 ADVANCED MESSAGE MONITOR CONFIGURATION..................................................... 66 

6.4 DISTRIBUTED INSTALLATION............................................................................... 67 

6.5 ACCESS TO THE ADMINISTRATION TOOL................................................................ 70 

Ponton X/P 2.3 – Installation and Configuration Guide 2

6.6 CONTENT RULES .............................................................................................. 71 

6.7 PORT CONFIGURATION ...................................................................................... 72 


Further Information and Support 

Technical Support/Helpdesk 

Ponton Consulting 

E-mail xp-helpdesk@ponton-consulting.de 

Phone +49.40.69213-344 

www.ponton-consulting.de 

xp@ponton-consulting.de 

XML Information Pages 

www.w3.org (World Wide Web Consortium) 

www.oasis-open.org (OASIS standards organization) 

www.ebxml.org (all about ebXML) 

www.xml.org (XML industry portal) 

xml.coverpages.org (XML Cover Pages) 

www.xmlsoftware.com (software products for XML processing) 


1 Introduction 

1.1 About Ponton X/P 

Ponton X/P is the ebXML compliant Message Service developed by Ponton 

Consulting. It ensures encrypted, signed, compressed, validated, archived, and 

guaranteed transfer of XML documents between business partners. 

Ponton X/P is packaged with an embedded HSQL database and webserver, so that 

the installation process only requires a few configuration steps. 

The Message Service also includes use of the Ponton Certificate Authority, which is 

integrated into the Messenger network. Business partners may thus kick-start their 

integration within minutes. If users of Ponton X/P prefer migration to third-party 

certificate authorities such as VeriSign ® , Thawte ® , or GlobalSign ® this can easily be 

done just by requesting and installing the corresponding certificate. 

Moreover, Ponton X/P allows for flexible back-end integration based on a large 

range of adapters from Ponton Consulting or third parties. 

The Ponton X Series 

Apart from Ponton X/P, the X Series comprises two other tools: 

Ponton X/E is the form-based XML Editor to easily create papiNet documents or 

any other document that is based on XML Schema. Find more information on 

Ponton X/E at http://www.ponton-consulting.de/english/xe.html. 

Ponton X/D is a database adapter that is used for direct export/import of 

documents to and from application data. It is being used both with standard ERP 

systems like SAP R/3 or J.D. Edwards and with home-grown application software. 

Find more information at http://www.ponton-consulting.de/english/xd.html. 

Business 

Partner 

Ponton 

X/P 

User 


X/E 

XML 

Document 

Ponton X Series 


X/D 

Application 

ERP 

System 

Ponton X/P 2.3 – Installation and Configuration Guide 5 

DB

1.2 Architecture Overview 

Ponton X/P consists of the following main modules: 

Introduction 

1. Messenger – This is the core of Ponton X/P. It transforms Messages received from 

the back-end (user or ERP system) into a standards conforming ebXML message. 

Several processing steps are performed before the ebXML message is sent to the 

receiver. 

2. Listener – This optional module is usually located in the DMZ to receive message 

from the outside and to forward them to the Messenger within the secure zone of 

an organization. No further processing takes place by the Listener. No Listeners are 

required if Messengers are installed within the DMZ or if they are used for internal 

integration. 

3. Adapters – The are many ways to integrate the Messenger with the application 

software in the back-end. An adapter helps bridging this gap. To name some of the 

adapters, Ponton X/D is a Database Adapter that maps XML payload content 

directly to and from a database. The Hot Folder Adapter frequently scans outbox 

folders and transfers these documents to the Messenger. Vice-versa, messages 

received from a business partner will be dropped into an inbox folder. 

ERP 

Test 

Adapter 

Hot Folder 

Adapter 

Generic 

Adapter 

Generic 

Adapter 

1.3 Features 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Messenger 

ebXML Message 

Listener 

Listener 

ebXML Acknowledgement 

Messenger 

Platform independence: Currently in productive use under Windows (from NT to 

XP), Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX 

Supports vendor independent messaging standards ebXML 2.0, AS1, and AS2 

Processing of XML documents with a size of up to 150 MB 

Encryption of documents 

Validation of documents against any document types based on XML Schemas – in 

particular all papiNet and EFETnet documents. 

Generic 

Adapter 

Generic 

Adapter 

Electronic signatures based on the PKCS and XML Signature standards 

Compression of documents to less than 5% of their original size 

Archiving of documents, signatures, certificates, etc. 

Comprehensive logging and notification services 


Test 

Adapter 

Hot Folder 

Adapter 

ERP

Introduction 

Synchronous or asynchronous data transmission – supporting transmission via 

HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP or S/MIME 

Simple installation of electronic keys and certificates 

Use of the built-in Ponton CA or third-party certification authorities 

Set-up, configuration and monitoring via Web interface 

Supports SOAP as base communication protocol 

Extension of the processing pipeline by means of supplementary modules 

Partner specific configuration of communication and security functions 

Simple installation – just 5 clicks! 

Localized versions for English, German and French 

Bundled with Ponton X/E – the visual XML Editor developed by Ponton Consulting 

to easily create and send papiNet PurchaseOrders or any other XML documents 

based on XML Schema. 

Backward compatibility with EPC Messenger 2.03 – 2.2 

Comes with a complete preinstalled set of papiNet Schemas and XML stylesheets 

Guaranteed delivery of documents by using ebXML message acknowledgement 

Configuration of different users and access rights 

Archiving of all information: papiNet documents, ebXML envelopes, PKCS objects, 

certificates, back-end envelope, etc. 

Verification of stored signatures via the GUI 

Extended and enriched Adapter API with access to ebXML acknowledgement data 

Easy installation of electronic keys and certificates – from Ponton or from third 

parties 

Extensive testing facilities – including Ponton’s preinstalled XPTEST server to test 

external document transfer (http://xptest.ponton-consulting.de:8080/pontonxp). 

Extended processing pipeline with software development framework for custom 

filters (i.e. an extended archiving components, alternate signing modules, etc.) 

A set of useful, pre-packaged adapters: Test Adapter, Stress Test Adapter, Hot 

Folder Adapter and HTTP Adapter. 

In-depth product documentation providing a look “under the hood”. 

Can be integrated with Ponton X/D – the Database Adapter for direct data 

exchange between XML documents and your database (see http://www.pontonconsulting.de/english/xd.html). 


2 Downloading Ponton X/P 2.3 

The software can be downloaded from the product page of Ponton Consulting: 

http://www.ponton-consulting.de/en/products/downloads.html 

Please fill in the download request form. You will receive an e-mail containing a hotlink 

for access to the installation file. 

2.1 Components 

You will find the following components in the installation package: 

 

 

 

 

 

Ponton X/P Messenger – the core component for guaranteed, secure delivery 

of XML messages 

Ponton X/P Hot Folder Adapter – allows easy connection of the Messenger to 

your application software 

HTTP Adapter – allows HTTP-based back-end integration with your ERP 

system(s). 

HTTP Listener – a lightweight process to receive XML documents via HTTP and 

forward them to your Messenger over the firewall. 

E-mail Listener – another lightweight process that polls your mail server for 

new messages. 


3 Installing Ponton X/P 2.3 

3.1 Minimum system requirements 

Hardware 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disk space 100 MB 

Memory space 256 MB 

Processor Pentium III, 500 MHz 

Depending on the number of XML schema files and the corresponding XSL stylesheets 

that are pre-loaded by your Messenger, you should increase your main memory as 

follows: 

5-8 schemas: 512 MB 

8-20 schemas: 1024 MB 

This avoids unnecessary swapping overhead. 

Operating systems 

Windows NT4, Service Pack 6 (Workstation or Server) 

Windows 2000, Service Pack 2 (Workstation or Server) 

Windows X/P Home or Professional, Service Pack 1 

Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX 

In general, any platform supporting Java Runtime Environment 1.4. 


Databases 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Installing Ponton X/P 2.3 

HSQL – an open source database bundled with the distributed configuration of 

Ponton X/P 

Oracle (version 8.1.5 or higher) 

MS SQL Server 2000 

MySQL (version 3.2 or higher) 

SAPdb (version 7.3) 

Informix (on request) 

Sybase (on request) 

DB2 (on request) 

Any other database that supports JDBC 2.0 

3.2 Installation procedure 

The software is installed using a self-extracting executable, which guides the user 

through the installation process. If only standard options are chosen, the whole 

installation should not take more than 10 minutes. 

Note: Under certain circumstances the installer may run into conflicts with other 

software running on the same computer. In this case, you should exit all other 

applications and then restart the installation. 

Start the installation by double-clicking the Ponton XP 2.3 setup file, and go through 

the installation screens as follows: 

Welcome: A short introduction to the installation process. Click on Next to 

continue. 

License Agreement: This screen contains the license terms for use of Ponton XP. 

To continue the installation you have agree to the license terms by clicking on I 

Agree. 

Choose Components: Select the components you want to install. If you are sure 

you won’t need certain components, such as the Stress Adapter or the XML 

Editor, you can exclude them from the installation to save disk space. Simply 

deactivate the relevant check boxes. Click on Next to continue. 

Choose Install Location: Select the installation root folder either by typing it in, or 

by clicking on Browse and navigating to the folder you want to use. Click on 

Next to continue. 

For the purposes of this documentation let’s assume that you have installed 

Ponton X/P in C:\Ponton XP 2.3 (or in a UNIX environment in /Ponton XP 2.3). 

This folder will be referred to here as the installation root. 

Choose Start Menu Folder: Specify a folder in the Start Menu in which you want 

to install the program shortcuts. Click on Next to continue. 

Installing: Shows a progress bar to indicate how far the actual installation has 

proceeded 


Installing Ponton X/P 2.3 

Installation Complete: The installation is now complete. After clicking on Next 

and Finish you can procede with the configuration of the software. 

3.3 Updating from a previous version 

At this time, Ponton X/P only supports updating from Ponton X/P version 2.2. Using the 

setup program you can install the new version in the same program folder as your 

previous version – your current configuration will be retained. 

In addition, one further step is necessary when updating from version 2.2: Due to a 

slight change in the database structure, you will need to run a database update script. 

Scripts for the following databases are included in the distribution: 

Oracle 

MS SQL Server 

MySQL 

Sybase 

DB2 

The scripts are located in the subfolders of /sql – the filename is 

upgrade_to_2.3.sql. 


4 Quick-Starting the Software 

You can start the Messenger either via the Windows Start menu, or by executing 

startup.bat in the installation root directory. If you have not started the Messenger 

from a command shell, but via the Windows interface, this will open an output window. 

Please wait until the webserver has fully initialized all the software components. When 

the initialization is finished, the following text should be shown near the bottom of the 

output window: 

*********************************************** 

Messenger 2.3 is initialized 

(c) Ponton Consulting GmbH 

Please log in to the Admin tool at 

*********************************************** 

If any errors occur during startup, this will be indicated in the output window and 

logged in the file 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\log\Boot.log. 

Please note that the Messenger’s processing log file 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\log\Messenger.log 

does not come into play until the Messenger has initialized successfully. 

4.1 Logging in 

Now the Messenger is ready for use: open your web browser and enter the URL: 

http://localhost:8080/pontonxp 

This will bring up the login screen, allowing you to log in to the Ponton X/P 

Administration Tool. 

The initial user name and password are: 

User: xpadmin 

Password: xppass 


Quick-Starting the Software 

Note: Since these initial user login settings are the same on every installation, you are 

advised to change the password as soon as possible to prevent unauthorized access to 

the Administration Tool. 

On startup, the Messenger status screen is displayed, showing information on the 

current server configuration and the status of different Messenger processes 

(Threads). You can switch to this screen at any time by choosing Messenger Status 

from the menu. 

Note: Click on the folder icons in the menu panel to open and close the folders. Click 

on the page labels to display the corresponding screens. 

4.2 Stopping the Messenger 

If you started the software from the start menu (or if it was installed as a Windows 

service), you can stop the Messenger by selecting Stop Ponton XP from the start 

menu. Alternatively, you can execute the batch file shutdown.bat (located in the 

installation root directory). 

If you started the Messenger from a command shell, you may also press CTRL-C to 

stop the process. 

4.3 Basic configuration 

The basic functionality of Ponton XP is to enable the secure exchange of messages 

between business partners. This entails setting up at least two partner configurations: 


a local partner (representing your own organization) 

a remote partner (representing your business partner’s organization) 


Of course, for your actual daily business you will generally exchange messages with a 

number of different business partners, so you will need to define different remote 

partner configurations. 

If you want to set up an initial test installation, it is often easier to install two 

Messengers on separate PCs within your local environment to avoid firewall 

restrictions. On the other hand, if you want to immediately test with a remote partner, 

please ensure with your technical administration staff that your firewall is configured to 

allow the necessary connections. 

The following steps describe a basic configuration for test purposes. 

Define a local partner 

Create a local partner 

Open the Configuration menu in the left frame, then click on Partners → Create/Delete 

Partners. 

On the Create/Delete Partners screen, enter a Local ID for yourself, and activate the 

local radio button in order to create a local partner. Then click Create New Partner. 

The next step is to specify the configuration details for this new partner. When you 

create a new partner, the Local Partner Configuration screen is displayed with the new 

partner name selected. You can call up a partner configuration afterwards by going to 



Configuration → Partners → Local Partners and selecting a partner name from the 

drop down menu at the top of the page. The configuration settings are distributed on 

different tabs: Identification, Communication, etc. 

Identification settings 

On the Identification tab, you can edit the different IDs used to refer to the given 

partner (in this case your new local partner): 

 

 

 

Partner Display Name – the Display Name is used within Ponton X/P in 

menus, selection lists, etc. 

Internal Partner ID – the Internal Partner ID is used for communication with 

the backend (ERP) system. 

PartyID – the PartyID is used for the identification of business partners in the 

messaging process. Please note that the different partners have to use correct 

PartyIDs in their partner configurations to identify the relevant partners. For 

further details see the Define remote partners section below. 

Note: By default, the Partner Display Name, the Internal Partner ID and the PartyID 

are all preset to the same value as the Local ID used when a new partner is created. 

On the Identification tab you can modify these settings as required. 

The default PartyID Type is PontonCertificate (issued by the Ponton Certificate 

Authority). Other Party ID types can also be used, for example EIC, Duns Number, GLN 

(Global Location Number) or URI. For a single partner you can create multiple Party 

IDs by using different Party ID types. 

Click Save to confirm your settings for this new partner. 



Note: After making any changes in your configuration settings, remember to click the 

Save button before you move on. If you switch to a different page or tab without 

saving the new settings, your modifications will be lost. 

Communication settings 

On the Communication tab, enter the communication settings for your new partner 

configuration. Please specify the access details for the communication protocols you 

want to support: HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP and SMIME. 

URI of Messenger Service – when entering the URI for HTTP (or HTTPS), 

please be sure to include the port. A complete setting looks like this: 

http://your.server.com:8080/pontonxp/SoapListener 

Other settings 

On the Schema Sets tab, indicate which schema sets you want to support. 

Certificates 

Ponton XP enables you to send signed and/or encrypted messages based on the use of 

certificates. The installation of a certificate is not required, however, and you may want 

to skip this step for your initial tests. In this case, please take note of the restrictions 

described below under Basic testing without certificates. 

In any case, your configuration for actual business purposes should include the 

installation of certificates for your local and remote partners. 

Requesting and installing a certificate 

Ponton offers a lightweight certificate authority (CA) that allows you to easily request 

and install certificates for the Messenger. The Certificate tab has subordinate tabs for 

requesting, installing and subsequently exporting a certificate (for a local partner). To 

request a certificate from the Ponton CA, click on the Request tab and fill in the 

certificate request form. 



If you activate the Send request to CA check box your request will be sent directly to 

the CA (using the configured E-Mail connection). Otherwise, you will see a page with a 

text box containing the certificate request. This page includes an e-mail link that can 

be used to submit the certificate request to the Ponton CA. 

For further details on working with certificates see the Partner Certificates section 

(beginning on page 48). 

Basic testing without certificates 

If you decide to run your initial tests without installing certificates for your partner 

configurations, please note that the following settings have to be modified to 

compensate for the absence of a certificate. 

For your local partner configuration: 

 

 

 

 

Configuration → Partners → → Processing 

⇒ 

⇒ 

⇒ 

⇒ 

Deactivate the Signing and Encryption options 

Configuration → Partners → → Packaging 

Deactivate the Use XML Signatur option 

For each of your remote partner configurations (see below): 


Deactivate the Signing and Encryption options 

Configuration → Partners → → Packaging 

Deactivate the Use XML Signatur option 


Activate the software (trial version) 


You can run Ponton X/P as a trial version for 60 days. To activate the trial version go 

to Configuration → Messenger → Activation/License and click on the Activation 

Request tab - or simply click the Create Activation Request link shown on the startup 

screen (Messenger Status). This will call up the Activation Request tab with a box 

containing your activation request. 

For the trial version, please click on the e-mail link at the top of the page. This will 

copy the activation request to your e-mail client. Using your e-mail client, please send 

the activation request to activation@ponton-consulting.de. 

Note: The Send Activation Request by HTTP option is only available for license 

activation and is disabled in the trial version. 

You will receive a reply e-mail containing the activation code for your system. Please 

copy the complete activation code and paste it into the text box on the Install tab: 


Notes 

 


When sending your activation request by e-mail, it is important to copy the 

complete activation request code, including the lines “----- Begin Activation 

Request -----” and “----- End Activation Request -----”. This is also the case when 

copying the activation code from the reply e-mail into the Install tab. Again, 

please be sure to include the “Begin” and “End” lines. 

After installing a license key you may have to repeat 

the activation process to 

activate your license (depending on certain license conditions). 

Define remote partners 

 

To test your Messenger configuration, Ponton Consulting offers a test server 

called xptest.ponton-consulting.de. This server is pre-configured in your 

Messenger set-up. 

Before integrating with your business partners, you can start out using this test 

server as your messaging partner to experiment with different functions and 

configuration options, etc. 

Please note, however, that your new Messenger configuration is not known to 

the Ponton test server. For this reason, you only have limited options available 

for exchanging messages with the Ponton test server – in particular, you can 

send messages to the test server, but the replies will generally indicate that the 

sender was “unknown”. 

If your tests with the xptest server are successful, you can go ahead and create 

external partner settings for your business partners. The procedure is the same 



as with a local partner with a few minor exceptions. The main difference is that 

you have to have your partners inform you about the settings used in their 

respective Messenger installations and also have them send you their certificates 

for installation in your respective partner configurations. 

Hint! To check if your partner’s Messenger is up and running, open your browser 

and go to the URL: 

http://:/pontonxp/SoapListener 

The URL for the test server (version 2.3) at Ponton Consulting is: 

http://xptest.ponton-consulting.de/pontonxp/SoapListener 

Note: When exchanging partner configurations with your business partners 

please keep in mind that identical party IDs have to be used in the local and 

remote configurations. The partner display names and internal IDs, on the other 

hand, may be different. 

ABC’s local 

partner config. 

ABC’s external 


XYZ’s local 


XYZ’s external 


Partner display name ABC Local XYZ Global XYZ Local ABC Corp 

Internal partner ID ABC015 (ERP ID) XYZ381 (ERP ID) 401690 (DB ID) 494230 (DB ID) 

Party ID ABC12201 XYZ2950A XYZ2950A ABC12201 

Set up a partner agreement 

 

 

The partner configuration settings specify the options supported by each partner. 

Agreements, on the other hand, determine the actual settings to be used for 

communication and processing between two specific partners. 

For test purposes it may be helpful to switch off encryption and signing in your 

partner agreement (on the Processing tab). In any case, please ensure that the 

settings are compatible for both partners – otherwise you may experience errors 

in the transfer or processing of messages between the two partners. 



In any case, your partner configurations must be set up so that the encryption 

and signing options match the settings chosen by the respective partner. 

For further details on partner agreements see the Partner Agreements section. 

4.4 Check if adapters are running 

To check whether your adapters are running, go to Adapter Monitor in the main menu. 

If no built-in adapter was used before (Test Adapter or Hot Folder Adapter) and no 

external adapter has connected to the Messenger, the Adapter Monitor will indicate: 

“No adapter info available…” 



Now start the Test Adapter, and go back to the Adapter Monitor. It should indicate: 

“Test Adapter ready to receive messages…” 


Call up the Test Adapter from the main menu of Ponton X/P: 

Send your partner a Ping 


To check whether the Messenger configurations (on both your own system and your 

remote partner’s system) are set up correctly, you can begin by sending a Ping 

message: 

1. Select a sending partner (your local partner) 

2. Select a receiving partner (one of the defined remote partners) 

3. Click the Ping button to test whether communication with the selected partner is 

possible. 

If your connection to the remote partner is successful, you should see Remote reply: 

Pong Message in the Status column of the ping message. If not, you will see an error 

message in the Status column. 

For further details on the status of your messages, check the Message Monitor as 

described in the Message Monitor section below. 

Send your partner a test message 

As your next step, please send a test message to your remote partner: 

1. Select a document (from the File on server list or by choosing a Local file) 

2. For test purposes, activate the Test Message checkbox 


3. Send the document by clicking Send Message 


Your Test Adapter then forwards the document to your Messenger. The document is 

processed by the Messenger according to the settings and filters defined in the 

relevant partner agreement. Finally the document is sent to the specified receiver 

party’s Messenger (or Listener) address. 

4.5 Check the status of your messages 

The status of messages can be monitored in the Message Monitor window, which you 

can select from the main menu of Ponton X/P. This is where you can check whether 

your messages have been properly transferred to the receiver. The status of your 

messages is shown in the Result column (located in the message overview in the 

upper right panel). 

Note: In the Message Monitor, please be sure to click the Search button (located 

below the filter settings on the left), otherwise the list of messages on the right will be 

empty. If you want to include Ping messages, Acknowlegements and other nonbusiness 

documents in the list, please set the Type to All documents (instead of All 

business documents). 

The following color codes are used to indicate the transfer/processing status: 

 

 

 

Green checkmark – the transfer was successful. 

Red cross – something went wrong (in this case, the complete entry is 

highlighted red). 

Question mark – the message is still unconfirmed (in this case, the entry is 

highlighted yellow). 



To check for details, click on the MessageID and look at the log information (in the 

lower right panel). Each processing step carried out by your Messenger is displayed 

here. As long as no errors occurred, the log entries are highlighted green. 

The right-hand columns show 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How the message was transferred from your test adapter to the Messenger 

Which Messenger filters were applied to the message 

How the document was transferred to the receiver 

You may experiment with the Test Adapter and the Message Monitor and send other 

documents. Please also ask your test partner to send documents to your Messenger. 

The results shown in the Message Monitor indicate the processing sequence: 

A Sender’s Adapter 

M Sender’s Messenger 

L Sender’s Listener 

Net Network/Transmission 

L Receiver’s Listener 

M Receiver’s Messenger 

A Receiver’s Adapter 


5 Configuration Options 

The overall configuration of Ponton X/P breaks down into the following sections: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Messenger configuration. This section focuses on your local setting for the 

Messenger. This includes database connections, default filter settings, 

communication protocol selection etc. 

Partner configuration. Per partner, several setting are required: Partner 

identification, filter activation (which overrides the default setting), 

communication settings, etc. 

Certificate management. For own partners, key pairs may be created and 

certificates requested. For certificate authorities as well as for each individual 

partner, certificates can be installed. Certificates may be requested for signing 

and encryption, for SSL, and for S/MIME. 

Hot folder configuration. The Hot Folder Adapter is tightly integrated with the 

Messenger and can therefore be configured through the same interface. It 

supports the definition of multiple hot folders for sending and receiving 

documents as well as dedicated folders for business partners. 

5.1 Messenger Configuration 

Messenger Database 

The Messenger stores log entries in a database. By default, the log database is preconfigured 

as an HSQL database. HSQL is an open source database implementation 

written entirely in Java. If there is no requirement to store log data in an existing 

database in your organization, you may continue with HSQL. 

It is also possible to configure the Messenger to use a different database system, for 

example: 

Oracle (version 8.1.5 or higher) 

MS SQL Server 2000 

MySQL (version 3.2 or higher) 

SAPdb (version 7.3) 

Informix (on request) 

Sybase (on request) 

DB2 (on request) 

Any other database that supports JDBC 2.0 

The log database is accessed via JDBC connection. The Ponton X/P distribution 

includes configuration scripts to set up the tables for the database systems mentioned 


Configuration Options 

above. You can refer to these scripts as examples to create scripts for your own 

database system. 

If you do not yet have a database system with JDBC support in use, you can download 

the setup files for MySQL from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads. 

To configure the Messenger database, the following set-up needs to be performed: 

1. Go to Configuration → Messenger → Database. 

2. Enter the driver class name and the URL for the JDBC connection to your 

database. 

3. Enter the user name and password for the connection, if required. 

4. Click Test to test the connection. 

5. Important! Don’t click Save unless the connection test was successful. 

Note: The connection to the standard HSQL database supplied with the Messenger 

requires a “truncated” URL that does not contain the database name (as shown 

above). When using a different database system, please consult the relevant driver 

documentation for details on how to specify the database URL. 


Logging Level 


To specify the logging level, go to Configuration → Messenger → Logging and select 

the desired settings for Messenger and JDBC logging. 

There is a range of settings available: 

 

 

 

OFF turns logging off completely. 

… 

DEBUG logs all the messages output by the system. 

Note: Please keep in mind that the chosen logging level can have an effect on the 

performance of your system. In particular, it is advisable to use DEBUG logging only in 

connection with error tracking and analysis. 


Message Queue Scan Interval 


Under Configuration → Messenger → Message Queues you can specify the interval to 

scan the (inbound and outbound) message queues. 

The default setting is 5000 msec. To boost the message throughput on a faster 

system, you can increase the scan frequency by setting this interval to a lower 

(i.e. shorter) value. 


Partner Registry Configuration 


The partner registry allows you to exchange profiles with other partners by uploading 

and downloading partner configurations to/from the registry. The connection and 

authentication to access the registry are configured on this page. 

 

 

 

 

Registry URL – enter the address where the registry is to be accessed. 

Username/Password – enter the user name and password for access to the 

registry. These will be provided by the registry administrator. 

Automatic updates – this option allows you to automatically update your 

imported profiles at a specified interval. Please note that the download interval is 

only enabled when automatic updating is active. 

Download partners now – click on the Download button to update your 

imported profiles immediately. 


E-mail Configuration 

By setting up inbound and outbound e-mail connections in your Messenger 

configuration you can enable a number of useful options, in particular: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-mail notification – this requires an outbound e-mail connection. 


SMTP and SMIME protocols – the use of SMTP and/or SMIME as a transport 

protocols requires an outbound e-mail connection for sending messages and an 

inbound e-mail connection for receiving messages. 

Inbound connection 

You can enable your Messenger to receive e-mail messages by setting up a POP/IMAP 

connection with the following entries: 

Protocol – set to pop3 / IMAP (depending on the type of mail server) 

Server – the hostname or IP address of your mail server 

Interval – the frequency for accessing the server for mail download 

Username / password – must be properly set to authenticate the Messenger 

on the mail server 


Outbound connection 


This connection is used for e-mail messages sent by your Messenger to your business 

partners. The following data needs to be configured: 

 

 

 

From – the sender’s address to be used for your e-mails 

SMTP – the outgoing mail server to be contacted by your Messenger in order to 

submit the e-mail 

Username / password – must be entered if your mail server requires 

authentication for outgoing e-mails, in this case enter the settings to be used by 

the Messenger to log in on the mail server 

To test the e-mail connection, enter a receiver e-mail address (in the Send test mail 

to field) and click on Test. 

Certificate 

This tab is used to request and install an S/MIME certificate for your Messenger, 

allowing you to exchange messages via e-mail. Fill in the request form and submit your 

request to the Ponton CA. When you receive the S/MIME certificate go to the 

Show/Install tab and paste it in the entry box. 

Note: This is the S/MIME certificate for your local Messenger configuration. For 

information on requesting and installing S/MIME certificates for your remote partner 



configurations please refer to the Transport Certificates section. Further details on 

requesting and installing certificates can be found in the Partner Certificates section. 


E-mail Notification 


You can use the notification service to send e-mails to specified addresses whenever 

certain events occur. For example, you might want to notify your system administrator 

whenever certain errors are encountered. 

To specify an address, go to Messenger → eMail Notification and click New Receiver. 

Enter the e-mail address for this receiver in the text field, and select the events for 

which this receiver is to be notified. You can use CTRL-click to activate multiple entries 

in the list. 

Subject Elements 

If no subject elements are defined, the subject of the e-mail notification will be as 

follows: 

“Notification for message” + Message ID 

By defining one or more subject elements you can customize the subject of the e-mail 

notification. If you define several subject elements, they will be separated by blanks in 

the subject line. 


For defining subject elements you can use the following element types: 

 

 

 

Text – a static text that you enter in the text box. 

⇒ 

⇒ 

⇒ 

⇒ 


Variable - a predefined variable such as the Message ID, the Message Type or 

the Receiver ID/Display Name. 

Xpath - the xpath to an element/value contained in the payload message. 

Please note that the use of xpath values as notification subject elements may 

lead to decreased performance, because the entire payload message has to be 

parsed in order to resolve the xpath expression. 

Please note as well that only a subset of the complete xpath syntax is supported 

for the definition of subject elements. In particular, the following restrictions 

apply: 

The xpath must be an absolute path starting with the root node of the 

payload document. 

The xpath must refer to an actual node within the document. In the case of 

multiple nodes that satisfy the xpath, the first occurrence will be used. 

Reference to node attributes is not possible. 

Use of conditional expressions is not possible. 


Communication Settings 

On this screen you can specify 

 

 


Proxy settings – if your Messenger will be connecting to the Internet via a proxy 

server. Please note: The NT Domain is only required if your proxy server uses 

NTLM authentication. 

Retransmission Handling – you can use this setting to specify the number of 

retransmission attempts and the interval (in seconds) between attempts. If a 

message cannot be transmitted successfully in the specified number of retries, 

the Messenger will give up and mark the message as “failed”. 

Tomcat SSL Configuration 

This page allows you to request and install a certificate for use with a Tomcat SSL 

connection. To request a certificate, go to the Request tab and fill in the form – then 

click OK. 

Note: If your messenger is configured to send outgoing e-mail messages, you can 

activate the Send request to CA checkbox. Your certificate request will then be 

forwarded to the Ponton CA automatically. If you leave this checkbox deactivated, the 

certificate request will be generated and displayed on the next page. In this case, 

please copy the request to a text file and send it via e-mail to the address indicated 

(from a computer that has an e-mail connection). 



When you receive the SSL certificate, copy and paste it into the text box on the 

Show/Install tab. 


Listener Settings 


The settings on this page can be used to specify the Listener configuration in a 

distributed installation. If your Messenger is to receive incoming connections directly, 

there is no need to set up a Listener configuration, as the Listener then runs internally 

within the Messenger. 

For details on setting up a distributed system please refer to the Distributed Installation section. 

Archive Settings 

The archiving filter stores the following information in a dedicated directory: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backend Envelope 

ebXML Envelope 

Payload – this is the actual business document 

Certificate 

Signature 

Attachment 

Each part is stored in a separate file. 



The Archive Folder setting can be used to indicate the location of the archiving folder. 

This can be expressed as 

 

 

An absolute path to the required folder. 

A relative path beginning with '$CONTEXT' – this placeholder refers to the folder 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot. 

The Maximum Age setting specifies how long the files will be archived – expressed in 

days. 

Activation / License Configuration 

This section describes how to install and activate licenses for Ponton X/P. If you want 

to activate the software as a trial version, please see the description starting on page 

18. 

Installing a license 

You will generally receive your Ponton X/P license as a text or e-mail from Ponton or 

from your licensing organization. 

To install your license go to Configuration → Messenger → Activation / License and 

click on the License tab. Copy the complete license text (including the lines -----BEGIN 

CERTIFICATE----- and -----END CERTIFICATE-----) and paste the license text into the 

text box on the Install tab. 

Click on Save to complete the installation of the license. You should see a message 

indicating that the license was successfully installed. 


Activating an installed license 


Depending on your license conditions it may be necessary to activate your license after 

it is installed. If so, you will see a Create Activation link in the upper right corner and 

on the Messenger Status screen. 

To activate your license go to Configuration → Messenger → Activation / License and 

click on the Activation Request tab - or simply click the Create Activation link. This will 

call up the Activation Request tab with a box containing your activation request. 

The easiest and fastest way to complete your license activation is to click on the Send 

button (below the text box on the Activation Request tab). This will activate the license 

almost immediately. You should see a message indicating that the your license was 

successfully activated. 



You can also submit your activation request by e-mail, as with the trial version (see 

page 18). To do so, click on the e-mail link at the top of the Activation Request tab or 

copy the complete activation request and send it to activation@ponton-consulting.de 

using your e-mail client. 

You will receive a reply e-mail containing your activation code, which you can then 

copy and paste into the text box on the Install tab. Then click the Save button to 

complete your license activation. 

Following the activation the message in the upper right corner and on the Messenger 

Status screen will indicate the name and the remaining lifetime of the license, for 

example: 

Notes 

 

 

Licensed for: ABC Corp, Days left: 1096 

When sending your activation request by e-mail, it is important to copy the 

complete activation request code, including the lines “----- Begin Activation 

Request -----” and “----- End Activation Request -----”. This is also the case when 

copying the activation code from the reply e-mail into the Install tab. Again, 

please be sure to include the “Begin” and “End” lines. 

Depending on your license conditions, you may need to repeat the license 

activation process after making certain changes to your local partner 

configuration. 


5.2 Partner Configuration 


The partner configuration distinguishes between Local and Remote partners – this 

distinction indicates whether the partner refers to a local partner configuration within 

your own Ponton XP system or to a remote partner configuration on an external 

system. In certain cases, the configuration steps may differ slightly. For example, you 

can submit a certificate request for a local partner, but not for a remote partner. In the 

case of remote partners you would receive the certificate from the partner directly or 

by downloading the partner’s profile from the registry. 

A partner profile can be seen as representing the communication capability of the 

respective partner. A partner may, for example, support HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP and 

SMIME as transport protocols. An agreement (as explained further down) then restricts 

the capabilities of two partners to a choice of options that are supported by both sides. 

In the case of the transport protocol, the partners might define HTTP as the protocol 

they want to use. 

Create a Partner Entry 

To create a new partner entry, go to Configuration → Partners → Create Partner, enter 

a Local ID for the new partner (this is the local identifier for your configuration) and 

indicate whether this partner entry is for 

 

 

A local partner – this might be a department within your organization. 

A remote partner – these entries refer to your business partners, for example: 

customers, suppliers, carriers, warehouse operators, etc. 



Finally, click on Create New Partner to generate the new partner entry – you will 

then see the partner configuration screen. 

Delete a Partner Entry 

To delete a partner entry, go to Configuration → Partners → Delete Partner, select the 

relevant Partner Name (the display name in your configuration), and then click Delete 

Partner. 

Partner Identification 

 

 

 

 

Partner display name – this is the name shown in the lists and screens within 

Ponton XP. 

Disable – this option allows you to disable a specific partner within your 

Messenger configuration, without deleting the partner configuration. In this case 

the Messenger will reject any message received from this partner. 

Internal Partner ID – this identifier is used internally by Ponton XP for 

communication with the backend and the file system. 

PartyID / PartyID Type – PartyIDs are used to identify partners externally. To 

avoid name clashes and duplication, well-known naming schemas exist to identify 

partners, e.g., DUNS codes, VAT numbers, IANA codes etc. For this reason, 

trading partners should agree on a minimal set of identification types (like DUNS 

numbers and IANA codes) that is to be used by all partners. 



Note: Please ensure that identical PartyIDs are used in the different Messenger 

configurations – otherwise there will be errors when you attempt to exchange 

messages with your partners. 

More than one PartyID can be defined per partner. The limit is given by the number of 

PartyID types. These are configured separately – please check the Advanced 

Configuration section. 

Hint! Please also check the Ponton X/P Technical Overview document for a 

detailed explanation of ebXML codes and partner identification. 

Note: There is an additional checkbox on this screen for the configuration of remote 

partners. If the Automatic updates option is activated, the profile for the remote 

partner will be downloaded from the registry automatically whenever it changes. This 

is only the case, however, if the global setting to Enable automatic updates has 

been activated in the Profile Registry configuration. 

Communication Settings 

The communication settings specify the URI of Partner’s Messenger Service for 

each of the supported communication protocols. Enter the address to be used to 

access the partner’s Messenger via the given protocol, for example: 

http://partner.server:8080/pontonxp/SoapListener. 




Schema Sets 


The Schema Sets tab allows you to specify which schema sets are “allowed” for 

message exchange with this partner. The actual set of schemas to be used can be 

specified individually in each partner agreement. 

On the Schema Sets tab you will see a list of the schema sets installed on your 

Messenger system. Each entry in the list comprises the following elements: 

 

 

 

 

A checkbox for activating/deactivating the given schema set. 

The name of the schema set. 

A numerical entry indicating the number of selected/defined document types in 

the schema set – for example, 8/10 means that there are 10 document types 

included in the schema set and 8 of them are currently activated. 

A Details link that can be used to call up the document type configuration for the 

given schema set. 

To specify which of the document types contained in a schema set are to be used, click 

on the Details link. This calls up a window showing a list of the defined document 

types in the schema set. You can use the checkboxes to activate/deactivate the 

individual document types. The checkbox above the list (in the upper left corner) can 

be used as a select all/select none shortcut. 



Note: Please click the OK button after making any changes to the document type 

configuration, and then be sure to click the Save button on the Schema Set tab. 

Otherwise your changes will not be saved. 


Processing Configuration 


The Validation, Signing, Compression, Encryption options specify whether the 

relevant message processing methods are supported by the given partner. 

Partner Certificates 

For local partners you can go to the Request tab and fill in the certificate request form 

to obtain a certificate from the Ponton CA. When you receive the certificate via e-mail, 

copy and paste it into the text box on the Show/Install tab. You will need to enter the 

private key password (i.e. the password you entered when you filled in the certificate 

request) to confirm that this certificate is actually yours. 

To install a remote partner’s certificate, have the partner send you the certificate via email 

and then cut and paste the certificate code into the relevant partner configuration. 

Likewise, you can share your certificate with your business partners by sending the 

certificate to them via e-mail and having them paste it into their partner configurations. 

Note: It is important to cut and paste the complete certificate code, including the lines 

“----- Begin Certificate -----” and “----- End Certificate -----”. 

Important: A partner certificate will only be accepted after the certificate of the 

issuing CA (certificate authority) has been installed. Otherwise the trust relationship 

between the partner and the CA cannot be traced. The certificate for the Ponton CA is 

automatically included in the default installation. For other certificate authorities you 

will need to obtain and install the relevant CA certificate. 




Message Packaging 


The options on this page specify how the messages sent by this partner will be 

packaged for transmission and backend processing. 

The different settings specify whether the relevant packaging elements will be used by 

this partner. For details on the specific settings please refer to the descriptions of 

packaging elements in the Partner Agreements section. 

Upload Partner Profile to Registry 

To upload the current partner configuration to the profile registry go to the Registry 

tab and click on Upload. If the current partner configuration has not changed since it 

was last uploaded to the registry, you will see a corresponding message. 

Please note that the Messenger has to establish a connection with the registry in order 

to compare the current partner configuration with the profile stored in the registry. For 

this reason you may experience a short delay when you open the Registry tab. 


Transport Certificates 

Transport certificates are used for S/MIME connections. 


To install a transport certificate for a remote partner go to Configuration → Partners → 

Transport Certificate and select the intended S/MIME connection from the URL list. 

Then paste the certificate into the displayed text box. 

To install a transport certificate for a local partner go to Configuration → Messenger → 

eMail → Certificate and select the intended S/MIME connection from the URL list. Then 

paste the certificate into the displayed text box. 

5.3 Partner Agreements 

About Partner Agreements 

Partner agreements serve to specify the communication, processing and other settings 

to be used when messages are exchanged between specific partners. Each agreement 

applies to a given combination of a local and a remote partner. The agreements define 

specific settings relating to the sending and the receipt of messages, as well as global 

settings for both sending and receiving. 

When setting up a partner agreement it should be noted that the range of options 

available for selection is dependent on the options supported by the two partner 

configurations. Only options that are activated in both partner configurations can be 

chosen as part of the partner agreement. 


Internal Partner 

„LondonTrading“ 

- Use http/https/smtp/ 

smime 

- Use 3.0/3.1 Schemas 

- Encrypt, Sign, Compress 

- IP = 203.112.4.133 


„LondonTest“ 


smime 



- IP = 177.22.54.215 


„ParisTrading“ 


smime 



- IP = 36.117.210.3 

. . . 

Messenger Partner Configuration 

Agreement 

LTr/XYZ 

-https, 3.0 

- Signing, Encr. 

Agreement 

LTst/XYZ 

-https, 3.0 


Agreement 

LTr/Centr. 

-https, 3.1 


Agreement 

Ptr/Timbuktu 

-http 



Internal Partners External Partners 

External Partner 

„Stadtwerke XYZ“ 

- Use https 

- Use 3.0 Schemas 


- IP = 144.211.59.172 

External Partner 

„Centrica“ 


smime 



- IP = 113.74.251.1 


„TimbuktuTrading“ 

- Use http 

- Use 3.1 Schemas 

- Encryption, Signing 

- IP = 182.144.21.1 

The settings in each partner agreement are based on how the two partners want to 

handle the communication, packaging and processing of messages. Each partner 

agreement implements a specific combination of settings according to the 

requirements of the given partners. For details on what the individual settings mean 

and how they work, please see the descriptions in the Partner Configuration section. 

Creating a Partner Agreement 

To create a new partner agreement, go to Configuration → Agreements → 

Create/Delete Agreement. From the list of Local and Remote Partners, select your local 

partner and the intended remote partner for this new agreement. Then click on 

Create New Agreement. 

Note: If an agreement already exists between the chosen partners, you will get an 

error message. In this case, you can open the existing agreement by going to 

Configuration → Agreements → Agreements and selecting the two partners there. For 

further details see Editing a Partner Agreement below. 


. . .


This leads you to the agreement configuration page. You can call up this page 

afterwards by going to Configuration → Agreements → Agreements and selecting the 

relevant partners at the top of the page or by clicking on an entry in the Agreements 

List (Configuration → Agreements → Agreements List). 

Editing a Partner Agreement 

To display or edit the settings in an existing partner agreement, go to Configuration → 

Agreements → Agreements. From the list of Local and Remote Partners at the top of 

the screen, select the local partner and remote partner the agreement applies to. Then 

click the Outbound, Inbound or Global radio button (in the upper right corner) to 

call up the respective settings for this agreement: 

 

 

 

Outbound – these settings apply to messages that the local partner sends to 

the remote partner. 

Inbound – these settings apply to messages that the local partner receives from 

the remote partner. 

Global – these settings apply to both outbound and inbound messages. 

The agreement settings for communication, packaging, processing etc. are located on 

different tabs. Most of the settings in an agreement configuration are based on options 

specified in the partner configurations. For details on the different topics please refer 

to the Partner Configuration section. 



Once again, please note that you will only be able to select options that have been 

activated for both of the partners in question. So if you and your communication 

partner have not specified a common set of options, there will be no options to agree 

upon and the page will have no content. In this case the settings in the partner 

configurations will need to be modified so that an agreement configuration is possible. 

Please note, however, that the agreement has to be compatible on both sides, so you 

will want to contact the partner in question to specify the options to be supported. 

Note: If you subsequently change your partner configurations so that certain settings 

in the partner agreement are no longer applicable, you will see a red X at the top of 

the agreement configuration screens and the relevant settings will be highlighted red. 

Please deactivate any settings in the agreement that are not supported by both 

partners. You can quickly check which settings are affected by going to the Messenger 

Status screen. The Events list at the bottom of the screen will contain an entry for each 

of the “conflicting settings”. To call up the relevant configuration screen you can simply 

click on the error description. 

Note: If you imported a partner configuration from the profile registry, you will not be 

able to change your partner’s configuration settings locally. You will have to contact 

the relevant partner, agree on a common set of configuration options, and then 

upload/update each other’s modified configurations via the profile registry. 


Communication 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Transport Protocol – specifies the transport protocol to be used for sending 

messages based on this agreement. 

Retries / Retry Interval – indicates how often and how long the Messenger 

will try to send a message until it receives an acknowledgement. 

Packaging 

The ebXML Service / ebXML ServiceType settings can be used to specify the 

ebXML service that handles the message. For papiNet messaging 

“%TESTFLAG%” can be used as the service identifier (to automatically set the 

service to Test or Production) and “papiNet” can be used as the service type. 

ebXML Action – This setting identifies a process within the specified ebXML 

Service. For papiNet messaging “%MESSAGETYPE%” can be used here to 

automatically set the action to the message type. 

CPA Id – The CPA Id specifies the parameters governing the exchange of 

messages between the parties. For papiNet messaging the following agreement 

can be used: www.papiNet.org/data/CPABasicHTTP.xml. 

Processing 

Rules 

Validation – enables XML validation for incoming/outgoing messages. 

Signing – specifies whether signing is to be used. If activated you can select the 

signature algorithm: “SHA1withRSA” or “MD5withRSA”. 

Compression Type – specifies whether compression is to be used. If activated 

you can select the compression type: “Zlib” or “Deflated”. The default value is 

“Zlib”. 

Encryption – It is recommended to encrypt messages to achieve secure 

messaging. 

The settings on this tab can be used to specify Content Rules for inbound and 

outbound messages based on the current partner agreement. The Inbound / Outbound 

radio buttons are used to display the settings for the respective message processing 

direction. 

For details on defining Content Rules please refer to the Content Rules section (see 

page 71). 

Schema Sets 

The Schema Sets tab allows you to specify which schema sets are to be used for 

message exchange based on the current partner agreement. To access the Schema 

Sets tab, open the relevant partner agreement and click the Global settings button. 



Please note that the schema sets available for selection in a given partner agreement 

are dependent on the basic settings in your partner profiles for the two relevant 

partners. In the above example, the schema set for EFET3. x cannot be activated, 

because one of the partner profiles does not support this schema set. Please keep in 

mind, however, that this consistency check is local, i.e. it applies to the partner profiles 

and agreements in your own Messenger configuration. To ensure successful message 

exchange with your remote partners you will need to cross check the selected options 

(as well as your other configuration settings) with your partners. 

For further details, please refer to Partner Configuration→Schema Se s. t 

5.4 CA Certificates 

 

 

 

Ponton XP uses trusted certificates to ensure the identity and authorization of 

partner configurations. Ponton offers its own lightweight certification authority, 

which can be used in connection with Ponton XP messaging. This is the default 

CA in a standard Ponton XP installation and the Ponton CA certificate is 

automatically installed with the software. 

If you want to use certificates issued by a 3 rd party CA you will need to request 

and install the root certificate of the CA. You will not be able to install partner 

certificates issued by a given CA until the CA’s root certificate has been installed. 

When you receive the CA’s root certificate go to Configuration → Certificates → 

Install CA Cert and then copy and paste the certificate into the text field. 




5.5 Hot Folder Adapter 

General Configuration 


Address / Port – the Hot Folder Adapter (HFA) is addressed as a separate process 

that communicates with the Messenger via HTTP. Therefore, the hostname and port 

number need to be set up for the Messenger. If the HFA is co-located with the 

Messenger on the same machine, use “localhost” for the IP address. In this case, the 

HFA does not run as a separate Java process but will be hosted on the same Tomcat 

server. 

Path – the HFA needs to know the Adapter communication path of the Messenger. By 

default it is /pontonxp/AdapterService 

Console / File Log Level – the HFA provides log output to the console and to log 

files. Both can be configured regarding the level of detail. The console log is only 

useful if the HFA is running as a standalone application, so you can safely leave it 

disabled in the default configuration. 

Create / Delete Hot Folder 

Several HFAs may be created. The HFAs are created and deleted on the respective 

configuration pages under Configuration → Hot Folder Adapters → Create Hot Folder 

(or Delete Hot Folder). 



Each HFA registers under a different ID with the Messenger. HFAs may be created for 

individual partners – in this case, messages exchanged with other partners will be 

stored and processed by means of the default HFA. 

Configure a HFA 

Each HFA requires several directories to be defined: 

 

 

 

 

Inbox – a document will be stored in the Inbox whenever it was received from a 

partner. 

Outbox – documents to be sent to the business partner are dropped here. The 

HFA grabs them in a defined frequency. 

Failed – if a document could not be sent to a partner and all retries failed, it will 

be stored in this folder. 

Work – if a document transfer is in progress or all attempts to send the 

document have not yet been tried, the document will remain here. After a final 

failure, it will be transferred to the Failed folder. 


The following settings are also supported: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Port – the port to be used by the HFA (optional) 

Receiver format – standard format is XML 

Save Backend envelope – the Backend envelope is retained for incoming 

messages 


Support attachments – the HFA will save any files attached to an incoming 

message to the selected inbox folder 

Scan Interval – the interval to wait (in seconds) between checking the outbox 

Max. number of parallel messages – specifies the maximum number of receiving 

threads the adapter can process simultaneously. 

Use partner subfolders – if this is set, this HFA will create inbox and outbox 

folders for the defined local and remote partners. Inbound messages are 

automatically sorted into the according folder, depending on the specified (local) 

receiver. Outbound messages, on the other hand, have to be stored to the 

(remote) receiving partner’s outbox folder. 

Note: Please note that no backend message is used in this mode and it is ignored 

if it exists. 

Without partner subfolders, the HFA folder structure looks like this: 



If you activate the partner subfolders option, subfolders for each defined 

partner will be added to the inbox (local partners) and the outbox (remote 

partners): 

Use ERP acknowledgement – with this option activated, the ERP application 

receives an acknowledgement from the receiving Messenger on the partner’s 

side. This acknowledgement will be provided via the specified Inbox. 


5.6 Display Schema Configuration 


The schema sets to be supported for each partner are defined in the partner 

configuration. The standard sets available with the installation are shown under 

Configuration → Schemata: 


5.7 User Administration 

Two types of users are distinguished: 

 

 


Administrators – these users have full access to the Messenger’s configuration 

interface. 

Operators – these users only have access to the Adapter Monitor, the Message 

Monitor, and the Test Adapter. The options in the configuration menu are not 

available. 

Please note the following points in connection with the Messenger’s standard user 

administration: 

 

 

 

This is a very simple user administration based on the Tomcat implementation. If 

you want to integrate the Messenger with another user administration such as 

LDAP, please contact Ponton Consulting for support. 

A user’s access rights (administrator/operator) are defined when the user 

account is created – they cannot be changed subsequently. 

User accounts can only be created or deleted by administrators. 


6 Advanced Configuration 

6.1 XML Schema Configuration 

Important! The Messenger distinguishes between available schema sets and 

activated schema sets. Just inserting entries in the schema configuration, as described 

in this section, does not activate the schema sets or the corresponding schemas for 

use by the Messenger. In order to make use of the schemas in a schema set, you have 

to activate the schema set in the relevant partner configuration. To view or modify the 

activated schema sets in a partner configuration, go to 


and activate/deactivate the relevant checkboxes. 

In the Messenger’s configuration interface you can activate and deactivate schema sets 

for specific partner configurations. It is not possible, however, to modify the contents 

and specifications of the individual schema sets. Any necessary changes have to be 

made in the configuration file: 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\config\schemata.xml. 

The configuration entries in this file are structured as follows: 

 

 

 

Availability 2.1 

AvailabilityV2R10.xsd 

 

 

 

yourNamespace 

Your Display Name 

yourSchemaFile 

yourStylesheet 

 

… 

papinet2.10 

papinet2.10 

 


Advanced Configuration 

You can add a schema to an existing schema set in this file by inserting a 

block (just copy and paste one of the existing blocks and modify the configuration as 

required). Please ensure that your new schema specification includes correct settings 

for the attributes of the Schema element: 

Name= This attribute corresponds with the ebXML Schema Location 

of incoming messages. When an ebXML message is received, 

the Messenger looks for a schema configuration where the 

Schema Name attribute matches the Schema Location 

specified in the ebXML envelope. 

MessageType= This attribute corresponds with the attribute 

MessageMetaData/DocumentInfo@MessageName in the 

backend envelope of outgoing messages. 

MessageVersion= This attribute corresponds with the element 

MessageMetaData/DocumentInfo/DTDVersionNumber in the 

backend envelope of outgoing messages. 

Note: The specification of MessageType and MessageVersion must be used together 

for outgoing messages, as they are combined to form an identifier for the message 

schema. 

You also have the option of adding a new schema set with your own schema 

definitions to the schema configuration. In this case you would insert a 

block with subordinate blocks. Your added schema set will automatically be 

inserted in the list of available schema sets on the Messenger configuration pages. 

6.2 Advanced Database Configuration 

Important! Since the Messenger database is used for essential message processing 

and tracking purposes, you should not experiment with the database configuration on 

a “live” system. For test and debugging purposes, you are advised to set up a trial 

system. 

Installation with other Databases 

This section describes the main steps required to install a different database system on 

the Messenger, for example an Oracle database. 

1. Install database driver. Copy the database driver to 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\lib 

Note: Please note that only drivers with the extension *.jar are loaded by the 

Tomcat servlet engine. If the JDBC driver you want to use is a *.zip file, you will 

have to rename the file to *.jar. The JDBC driver for Oracle 9i is the file 

ojdbc14.jar. 

2. Create database and tables. Ponton XP is supplied with SQL scripts for HSQL 

and for Oracle that can be used to create the tables for the Messenger database. 



If you are using another database, you may need to modify these scripts to work 

correctly with your database system. 

The SQL scripts are located in the subfolders under [installation root]\sql. 

Once the database tables are in place, you will also need to carry out the SQL 

script that inserts the log messages into the database, i.e. 

[installation root]\sql\insert_log_messages.sql. 

3. Set up database connection. The configuration of database connections is 

described in the Messenger Database section beginning on page 26. To connect 

with a different database, choose “other” from the list of database drivers and 

enter the configuration for your database on the next page. 

The entries for the Oracle 9i JDBC driver are: 

Driver: oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver 

URL: jdbc:oracle:thin:@:: 

6.3 Advanced Message Monitor Configuration 

In the configuration directory “...\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\config” there is a file 

messagemonitor.xml which can be used to change the selection and ordering of the 

Message overview window in the Message Monitor. The default setting is displayed in 

the following picture: 

Here, the number of line items per page can be set. If a high resolution screen is used 

(beyond 1024 x 768 pixel) one may increase the number of lines 



Further, a mapping table defines which database column is to be displayed in which 

monitor column. The number of columns again depends on the screen resolution. 

Finally, if main memory size allows, caching of XSL stylesheet definitions helps 

accelerating processing speed for XSL transformations. 

6.4 Distributed Installation 

If the Messenger is installed on a server that cannot be reached from the Internet, you 

will need to install the Listener as well. The purpose of the Listener is to pick up 

incoming connections and forward them to the Messenger (across the firewall). The 

firewall rules must be set up to allow this connection between the Listener and the 

Messenger. When a message is received, the Listener notifies the Messenger and the 

Messenger then picks up the message. 

You also have the option of subsequently installing the Listener as a service under 

Windows – this service can then be configured to start automatically when the system 

starts up. 

Note: If you are going to run the Messenger in combination with the Listener, your 

partners will have to enter the URI of your Listener in their configurations (under 

Configuration → Partners → → URI of Partners Messenger Service). 

Listener Installation and Configuration 

The Listener is installed by running the installer program (e.g. PontonXP-2.3-setuplistener-windows.exe) 

on the relevant system. You are asked to specify an installation 

folder and also have the option of creating a desktop or menu shortcut. That’s it. 

The settings for the Listener are contained in the configuration file listener.properties, 

which is located in the folder [Listener root folder]\config. To modify these settings, 

you will have to edit the configuration file directly. Access via the Messenger’s 

configuration interface is not possible. 

The file contains the following settings: 

HttpPort = Port number (for external HTTP connections) 

HttpsPort = Port number (for external HTTPS connections) 

LogLevel = DEBUG | INFO | WARN | ERROR | FATAL | OFF 

The following settings specify the host and port of the Messenger for forwarding 

connections (HTTP/HTTPS). The forwarding connection mode is activated by entering 

the relevant host and port addresses (of the Messenger server) and removing the hash 

marks (#). 

#HttpServer = messenger_host:http_port (HTTP forwarding connection) 

#HttpsServer = messenger_host:https_port (HTTPS forwarding connection) 

Note: Hash marks are used to designate “comment lines” in Java property files. Thus, 

you can deactivate a given setting by adding a hash mark or activate the setting by 

removing the hash mark. 



The following settings specify the Listener’s port for callback connections 

(HTTP/HTTPS) with the Messenger. As with the forwarding connection, the callback 

connection mode is activated by entering the relevant port addresses and removing the 

hash marks. (Obviously, it makes no sense to have both connections activated at the 

same time.) 

#HttpServicePort = Port number (for internal HTTP connections to the Listener) 

#HttpsServicePort = Port number (for internal HTTPS connections to the Listener) 

Starting the Listener 

To start the Listener, open a command prompt and start the class 

de.pontonconsulting.xmlpipe.Listener 

with the classpath 

-cp lib\commons-logging-api-1.0.3.jar;lib\commonutils.jar;lib\xp_listener.jar;config\ 

You can also use the installed batch file [Listener root folder]\startListener.bat. 

Callback Mode 

Details of the communication flow: 

 

 

 

When the Messenger starts up, it searches for the Listener. 

Note: The Listener should start up first so that it can be found by the Messenger. 

If the search is successful, a permanent connection is established between the 

Messenger and the Listener. The Messenger uses the following settings in the 

configuration to establish the connection with the Listener: 

Configuration → Messenger → Listener → HTTP[S] → Hostname 

Configuration → Messenger → Listener → HTTP[S] → Internal Listener Port 



When the Listener receives an incoming message (or rather an HTTP/HTTPS 

request), it informs the Messenger – by way of the permanent connection – 

about the arrival of the new request, indicating which port the Messenger can 

use to pick up the connection. 

Note: This port number is randomly selected by the Listener and cannot be 

configured. 

The Messenger picks up the connection on the Listener’s specified port and 

redirects it to its own local port for further processing. 

This local port corresponds to the setting for 

Configuration → Messenger → Listener → HTTP[S] → Internal Messenger Port 

in the configuration GUI. 

Forwarding Mode 

Details of the communication flow: 

 

 

In forwarding mode, no permanent connection is established between the 

Messenger and the Listener. 

When the Listener receives an incoming HTTP/HTTPS request, it simply forwards 

the request to the Messenger using the address specified in listener.properties 

(HttpServer/HttpsServer). 

Note: To allow this forwarding connection, the firewall has to be configured so 

that the Listener is permitted to access the Messenger on the specified port(s). 


6.5 Access to the Administration Tool 


This section describes how to configure the Ponton XP system so that access to the 

Messenger administration tool (or other components) restricted based on IP addresses. 

By default only the HttpListener and the SoapListener are open to anyone. All other 

components are restricted to only local and private IP addresses. If you try to access 

any of these components from a non authorized IP address, you will get an Error 403 – 

Access denied. 

The authorized IPs are by default 

127.0.0.1 

192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 

10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255 

172.16.0.0-172.16.255.255 

169.254.0.0-169.254.255.255 

Note: Clearly, access restrictions to your Messenger system may also be defined by 

means of appropriate firewall settings. 

Within the Ponton XP/Tomcat configuration, access is defined by means of so-called 

security valves, any number of which may be specified. These security valves can 

restrict access from certain addresses/address spaces or to specific components of the 

Ponton XP system such as the Messenger, the Listener, the administration tool, the 

adapter interface, etc. 

The relevant access settings are specified in the Tomcat configuration file 

as follows. 

[installation root]/tomcat-4.1.27/conf/server.xml 

By default you will see the following line at the end of the server.xml: 

 

allow="127\.0\.0\.1,192\.168\..*,10\..*,172\.16\..*, 

169\.254\..*" 

pattern="/pontonxp/private/.*,/pontonxp/index.*, 

/pontonxp/Mess…" 

This will restrict the access to Admintool and Adapter-Service to just private IP 

networks. The values for allowed IPs and the URI patterns are regular expressions for 

maximum flexibility. These expressions have to be separated by commas. 

Characters in regular expressions have the following meaning: 

. – any character will match 



\ – escape character that causes the following character to be treated just as a regular 

character. 

* – the previous character can exist many times. 

Example: 192\.168\..* will cover IPs 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255. 

An unlimited number of SecurityValve definitions can be defined. They will be used in 

the order they appear in the configuration. 

On each access to the webserver, it will check all the SecurityValves if the requested 

URL matches the pattern of a definition. If that is the case then the IP will be checked. 

All the definitions that have a matching pattern will be considered to the access check. 

If just one of them denies the IP, then the check is stopped and the request is denied. 

6.6 Content Rules 

You can define special rules that determine how messages will be processed based on 

specified content (within the message or the envelope). The content rules are defined 

specifically for each partner agreement. 

To create a new content rule go to Configuration → Agreements and choose the 

agreement you want to modify (i.e. the relevant local and remote partner). Then open 

the Rules tab and click on Create New Rule. 


The basic definition of a content rule includes 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


XPath – this setting specifies the element or attribute to be checked for a given 

value or value range. 

Operator – the operator used for comparing values. 

Value – the value to be checked. 

In addition to the specification of an element or attribute within the document, it is 

also possible to use the following reference keys in the XPath field to specify the 

associated message information: 

!MessageType – The Message Type as specified in the document schema. 

Note: The available message types are displayed in the Message Monitor in the 

Message Type list. 

!MessageVersion – This field identifies the schema version. The relevant 

version IDs can be found in the schema set definition files located under 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\config\Schemata 

!TestFlag – This flag is set to TRUE for test messages, otherwise it is FALSE. 

!LogInfo – This field may contain remarks or any other text. The contents are 

displayed in the Message Monitor. 

For outgoing messages – based on the given agreement – the content rule simply 

serves to trigger a log entry and/or an e-mail notification. For incoming messages the 

content rule can also be used to determine which Adapter is used for message 

processing. 

The action to be taken is based on the Action setting: 

Action – you can select one of the following actions: Flag, EMailNotification, 

ChangeDestinationAdapter (for incoming messages only). 

Depending on the selected action, different settings are required: 

For EMailNotification – specify the receiver’s e-mail address as well as any 

subject elements to be used. For details on defining subject elements see the Email 

Notification section (beginning on page 34). 

For ChangeDestinationAdapter – choose the adapter to be used for message 

processing. The Value field contains a list of the available adapters. 

Note: The use of !SenderId or !ReceiverId as filter criteria is no longer supported since 

these are already specified as the local and remote partners of the relevant agreement. 

In other words, content rules are always sender and receiver specific. 

6.7 Port Configuration 

The Messenger’s standard configuration uses port 8080 for HTTP connections and port 

8443 for secure (HTTPS) connections. This section describes how to set up the 

messenger to use a non-standard port configuration. This involves making manual 

changes to several configuration files, in particular the Tomcat server.xml and the 

Messenger’s adapter configuration files. 


Tomcat Settings 


The port setting for the Messenger’s HTTP and HTTPS connections are specified in the 

Tomcat configuration file 

[installation root]\tomcat-x.x.x\conf\server.xml 

This file defines the connections (Connectors) for the Messenger as follows: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The standard settings for the Messenger ports are 

HTTP: 8080 

SSL: 8443 

To modify your connections, you will need to enter the relevant port numbers indicated 

above as yourMessengerPort, yourRedirectPort (which normally points to the SSL 

connection), and yourSSLPort. 

Adapter Settings 

The settings for the Messenger adapters are contained in the relevant XML files under 

[installation root]\xmlpipe\webroot\WEB-INF\config. 

In particular, a standard installation includes the files testadapter.xml and 

hotfolder.xml. Each of these configuration files contains a block specifying the 

connection to the messenger: 

 

yourMessengerHost 

yourMessengerPort 

… 

 

If you have configured the Messenger to run on a different port (see above), you will 

need to enter the relevant port number here.

Ponton X/P 2.3 ? Installation and Configuration Guide

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