eDelivery Roadmap for 2022 and beyond
Secure digital data exchange is becoming ever easier thanks to the constant upgrade of the eDelivery service package. The building block’s roadmap for the second half of 2022 - beginning of 2023 includes several major updates that offer a wide range of new features in response to user needs and the latest evolutions of the underlying technologies. In particular, an upgraded version the Service Metadata Locator (SML) is scheduled for release still this year, while new versions of Domibus and the Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) should be released in the first and second quarter of 2023, respectively.
In October 2022, a new version of the European Commission’s sample implementation of an eDelivery Service Metadata Locator, SML 4.2, will be released. SML is an eDelivery software component central to a messaging infrastructure that enables dynamic discovery through DNS lookups. Access Points can perform such lookups to discover the location where they can find the service metadata (e.g., the URL, certificate and capabilities) of the destination Access Point for a particular message. The DNS entries required for this model to work are created by the SML component according to a defined technical specification.
SML 4.2 will be largely a technical release building upon the currently used version 4.1.1 that will upgrade libraries to the latest versions to mitigate security threats, support the latest versions Tomcat and MySql and facilitate integration into the Docker ecosystem by adding support for SpringBoot.
A new version of the Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) is also being prepared for release in mid-2023. Along with the SML, the SMP enables the process of dynamic discovery of service metadata information by storing, exchanging and performing lookups of the service metadata (e.g., the URL, certificate and capabilities) of participants in an eDelivery messaging infrastructure.
The new version of the software, SMP 5.0, will introduce support for publishing multiple metadata documents (in particular, OASIS ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile 3.0 and OASIS SMP 2.0 ones), cater for Access Points that want to publish different configurations for the security algorithms they understand, update to the latest versions of Java, Tomcat, WebLogic and MySQL and facilitate integration into the Docker ecosystem by adding support for SpringBoot.
Last but not least, an upgraded sample implementation of an eDelivery Access Point, Domibus 5.1, is planned for release in Q1 2023. Domibus is an open-source sample implementation of the eDelivery AS4 Profile, maintained and supported by the European Commission.
Domibus 5.1 will include, e.g., support for different security algorithm configurations, separate and multiple types of private keys to be used by the different security configurations, retry strategy with increasing delay between attempts, separately configurable retention policy for metadata and further new features and improvements
Stay tuned for the latest updates on the eDelivery services by checking the building block's web page. For more information, please contact us via our portal or by e-mail: EC-EDELIVERY-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.
The eDelivery Building Block
eDelivery is a building block that provides technical specifications and standards, installable software and ancillary services to allow projects to create a network of nodes for secure digital data exchange.
Domibus is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery AS4 Access Point for the interoperable, secure and reliable exchange of data. It is based on the eDelivery AS4 profile, an open technical specification for the secure, web-based, payload-agnostic exchange of data or documents.
SMP is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) for publishing and retrieving data necessary for an eDelivery party to dynamically configure its system for message exchange with counterparties using eDelivery. It is based on the eDelivery SMP profile, an open technical specification for publishing service metadata within a 4-corner network.
BDMSL is the sample software provided by the European Commission to implement an eDelivery Service Metadata Locator (SML) for an eDelivery party to discover the URLs of other counterparties using eDelivery Access Points and their corresponding metadata. It is based on the eDelivery BDXL profile, an open technical specification for locating Access Points within a network.
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