2017-07-25: CEF eDelivery: SML 3.1 (Final Release) Out Now
European Commission, 2017
Following the successful release of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) eDelivery building block Service Metadata Locator (SML) Release Candidate 3.1, the European Commission is happy to announce the final release of the SML 3.1.
Following extensive testing, the SML 3.1 includes the following improvements:
- Added detection of data inconsistency between database and DNS in the SML
Fixed bug in Change Certificate operation – made it possible for subject-based policy (Non Root CA - non PEPPOL domains)
Improve certificate validation messages
Improved validation of LogicalAddress field of Create SMP action, made configurable
- Improve data model for domains
Allowed registration of SMPs that are accessible through HTTPS (new feature can be switched OFF/ON by configuration)
Allowed creation of NAPTR records that point to HTTPS URLs (new feature can be switched OFF/ON by configuration)
Improved authentication for setup without reverse-proxy and with subject-based policy (Non Root CA – non PEPPOL domains)
- Added flag to configure NAPTR protocol HTTP or HTTPS
- Added participant ID regular expression validation
- Added configuration flag to disable/enable BlueCoat Authentication with header Client-Cert
- Improved response while special characters in the request
The CEF eDelivery building block helps users to exchange electronic data and documents with one another in a reliable and trusted way. It is based on the AS4 messaging protocol, open and free for all, developed by the OASIS standards development organisation.
CEF eDelivery works as a collection of distributed nodes that are conformant to the same technical rules, and therefore capable of interacting with each other. CEF eDelivery prescribes technical specifications that can be used in any Policy Domain of the EU (Justice, Procurement, Consumer Protection, etc.) to enable secure and reliable exchange of documents and data (structured, non-structured and/or binary), both across borders and sectors.
CEF eDelivery is based on a distributed model called the “4-corner model”. In this model, the back-end systems of the users don’t exchange data directly with each other but do this through Access Points. These Access Points are conformant to the same technical specifications and are therefore capable of communicating with each other.
The SML is the only centrally operated component in the CEF eDelivery Messaging Infrastructure.
In order to send a message, a sender needs to discover where the information about a receiver is stored. The SML serves this purpose, and guides the sender towards this location, which is called Service Metadata Publisher (SMP).
CEF eDelivery's Dynamic Service Location (DSL) enables the sending Access Point to dynamically discover the IP address of the receiving Access Point. Instead of looking at a static list of IP addresses, the sending Access Point consults a SMP where information about every participant in the document and data exchange network is kept up to date, including IP addresses of their Access Point.
To see how CEF eDelivery and the CEF building blocks are Connecting Europe, visit CEF Digital 2018 now.