Setting up Partner Profiles

360-Degree View of a Partner Profile

A partner profile holds partner-specific information. It can have many identities associated with it to facilitate partner recognition, using a combination of an identity name and an identity value while processing a document exchange.

Note: webMethods.io B2B obtains personal information from the user such as role, address, telephone details, contact details such as email ID, first name, and last name. This information is not processed and utilized by webMethods.io B2B for any purpose.

360-degree view in the partner profile provides a single view to:

To get a 360-degree view of a partner, go to Partners icon > Partner Profiles > 360 degree view.
Click icon to configure the following details:

For an enterprise, the cards for inbound channel, outbound channel , queue, and partner user are not available.

Adding a Partner Profile

A partner profile holds partner-specific information.

To add a partner

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Partner Profiles > Add Partner.

  2. On the Profile Description page, provide the following details:

    Field Description
    Name Specify a partner name. Ensure that the combination of partner name and organization unit is unique.
    Organization Unit (optional) Specify the organization unit for which partner profile is being set up.

  3. Click Add Identity.

  4. Provide a unique combination of Identity Type and Identity Value and click Add.
    For a list of ID type mapping for EDI documents, see Reference Information on ID type Mapping

  5. Click icon to invite an existing partner to provide additional details through Partner Portal.

  6. On the Partner profile summary page, click the appropriate pages to provide details for the following pages:

    Pages Description
    Identities Add additional identities to identify the partners.
    Users Associate users from the list of available users.
    Inbound Channels Associate an inbound channel to receive documents from partners.
    Outbound Channels Associate an outbound channel to send document to partners.
    Contacts Add contact details for the partners to contact you.
    Addresses Add addresses of all the business locations that you want your partners to know.
    Certificates Add certificates for all partners that act as senders and receivers of documents.

    Important: The enterprise profile always appears first on the Partner page even when you sort the partner profiles.

    When a partner profile with the same ID and same organization name as that of an existing partner profile is found while synchronizing partner profiles, the new duplicate partner profile entry is not created, and a message about such a duplicate occurrence is logged in the Activity logs page under the General category.

Onboarding a Partner

You can now send invitations to onboard business partners. You can either send a single invite or bulk invites to onboard business partners. You can manage the invitations by approving or revoking a partner either from the invited list after receiving their details, or after sending an email invitation to a partner.

You can select the branding details like logo, header color, email templates, and so on.

Before You Begin

Activity Flow

The basic flow to onboard a partner is as follows:

Invite Existing Partners to Partner Portal

  1. Select existing partners on the Partner profiles page. You can select a maximum of 10 partners to send the invitation.

  2. Click icon to invite the partners to provide additional details using Partner Portal (Beta).
    You must configure a unique email address for each of the partners in the partner profiles. If you have configured multiple contacts, select the email addresses of the contacts on the Partner invitation screen to send the invitation.

The partner will receive an email notification with a link to join Partner Portal.

On the Partner profiles page, the icon icon appears in the partner listing for partners that onboarded using Partner Portal.

Invite a User to Partner Portal to Manage Other Partners Profile

Assign a designated user to monitor and edit your partners’ accounts, feeds, and transactions through Partner Portal.

To add a user to manage partners:

  1. Configure the user’s email address as a contact in the partners profiles.

  2. Select the partners on the Partner profiles page.

  3. Click icon to invite the user to Partner Portal. Select the email address of the user you added as a contact in the previous step on the Partner invitation screen to send the invitation.

  4. The user will receive an email notification with a link to join Partner Portal.

To remove a partner from the user’s partner switching list in Partner Portal, either delete the partner or remove the user’s email address from the partner’s profile in webMethods.io B2B.

An illustration for the concept of managing partners on Partner Portal is shown as follows:

An Enterprise has five partners P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5. It intends different users to view and manage the accounts, feeds, and transactions of different partners:

  1. In webMethods.io B2B partner profiles, the enterprise configures email addresses as contact for the following:

    • U1’s email address for P1 and P2
    • U2’s email address for P3 and P4
    • U3’s email address for P5

  2. The enterprise selects P1 or P2, P3 or P4, and P5 on the Partner profiles page and clicks on icon.
    The enterprise selects the email address added as contact for U1, U2, and U3 to send an invite to their respective email addresses to onboard themselves on Partner Portal.

  3. U1, U2 and U3 logs in to Partner Portal with the login credentials received in an email from the enterprise.

  4. The users can now view and manage the accounts, feeds, and transactions for their partners by clicking on icon on Partner Portal.

    • User 1 (U1) for P1 and P2.
    • User 2 (U2) for P3 and P4.
    • User 3 (U3) for P5.

Send Invitation to a New Partner to Register on Partner Portal

From the Partner profiles section, the Administrator can send an invitation to a partner by clicking Onboard Partner. This takes you to the Send Invitation screen as shown here:

  1. Enter the email address of the partner along with the first name and last name.

  2. To add more rows, click Add more.

  3. To send to multiple partners with a single action, click Bulk invitation and type the email addresses of all the partners and use a comma to separate them out.

  4. Click Send invitation.

An email will be sent to the partners to initiate the onboarding process.

Note: webMethods.io B2B recommends not to use a private browser window to log in. If you log in through a private window and click the Onboard Partners icon on the Partner profile page, the system directs you to the login page. Provide your enterprise login credentials to open the Partner Invitation page.

Manage the Invitation Status

After you send the invite to onboard a partner, you can check the status on the Invitation Status page. An example is shown as follows:

  1. Click Onboard parnters and switch to the Invitation status tab.
  2. Select All to view the total number of invites that are in Seeking Approval and Invited state.
  3. Click Seeking Approval, to view the number of invites that are pending your approval or rejection.
  4. Click Invited, to view the number of invites that are sent by you and are still active.
  5. Click icon to view the details entered by the B2B partner in the application form.
  6. To revoke an active invite, select the invite and from the Action menu, select Revoke. The URL sent in the email invite becomes inactive.
  7. To approve or revoke the partner after the partner provides complete information, select the invite and from the Action menu, select Approve or Revoke accordingly.

Approving Partners

A partner approval request appears on the notification panel on the right-top corner of the page. Click on the notification tile to see the partner requests.

On the Invitation status page, approve or revoke the partner after the partner provides complete information. Select the invite and from the Action menu, select Approve or Reject accordingly.

Approving Updates from Partners

When a partner updates a few details in the partner portal, those details appear in the Partner engagement page under Partner profiles. A partner can add or update details pertaining to a partner user. Click on a partner name to see the updates from each partner user. In the Review/Approve dialog box, review all the changes and click either Approve or Reject.

You will be able to see the updates from a partner on the Partner engagement page only if the partner uses Partner Portal to provide the details.

For information on the enterprise details visible to a partner, see Partner Portal.

Note: When a partner has a Partner Portal instance and you import its partner profile in webMethods.io B2B, the feeds in Partner Portal do not capture the changes to the partner profile, and hence the changes do not reflect on Partner portal.

Enforcing Restrictions on Partner Portal for Partners

You can restrict your partners to view specific content parts of the document, document types, and attributes on Partner Portal.

To add the restrictions on Partner Portal, perform the following steps:

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partner > Partner engagement.
  2. On the Partner engagement page, click icon and select the Content parts of the document, Document types, and Attributes you want to restrict for your partners.
  3. Click Save.

What Does the Partner Invitation Look Like?

The following images show the details a business partner needs to fill-out in the Partner invitation form, when you send one.

Customize the Partner On-boarding Page

You can customize the partner on-boarding screens. For example, you can set the logo, header colors, email templates, and so on. To customize the details, perform the following actions:

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partner profiles.
  2. Select Onboard partners.
  3. Click icon from the dashboard to open the Settings page.
  4. In the Configuration tab, set the following details:
    • Logo of the organization. Upload a logo by clicking icon.
      This logo appears on the page where the partner fills the information required to get on-boarded. Also, type the name of the organization.
    • Select your theme. Set the theme color for your invitation form. You can set the colors for the background and the foreground.
    • Typography. Select the toggle button to enable custom font settings. On enabling this, you can set the Custom font URL and the Custom font family. If you do not enable this, select a predefined font from the available drop-down list.
    • Email Template.
      • From email name. Specify the email name to send an email with this name to your partners from a custom domain.
      • From email address. Specify the email address if you want to send an email with a custom domain.
        When both the SMTP server information and email address are configured, the custom domain uses the SMTP default sender email address from the SMTP server tab.
      • Cc email address. Type the email addresses (separated with comma) to whom you want the notification email to be carbon-copied.
      • Email template. Type an email template text to send partner invitations. Modify the default template as per your requirements.
      • Cc Response Email template. Those on the Cc email address will receive a copy of the email notification.
    • Terms and Conditions text. Enable this field to activate the terms and conditions, add the details for the Terms and Conditions that you want to share with your on-boarding partner.
    • Click Apply.

  5. In the Questionnaire section, define the questions to onboard the partners.
    To add the questions, perform the following steps:

    • Click on icon > Add new button.
    • Provide a title for the questionnaire and select the question type, either Text or Choice.
    • Click icon to customize the question.
      With Text questions, you can offer partners the option to provide a lengthy response and have the flexibility to make the questions mandatory.

      For Choice questions, you can provide an option for multiple answers for a question and have the flexibility to make questions mandatory.

    • Click Save changes to save the questionnaire.
    • To include the questionnaire in the partner onboarding process, select Set to default from action menu icon.

    Points to note:

    • The Enterprise can review the partner’s questionnaire responses in the Invitation details section before rejecting or approving the partner invitation.
    • The maximum limit for the questionnaire is 65,000 characters.

  6. In the SMTP server tab, set the following details:

    • SMTP default sender email. To send the email invitations from your custom domain email address.
    • Host, Port, Username, and Password for your SMTP server to establish a custom domain.
    • Auto TLS and Authentication must be always enabled to connect with the SMTP server.
    • Click Apply and Close.

    Note: You must type the password each time you make an update to the SMTP settings. It cannot be retrieved from the SMTP configuration.

Next Steps

Set up the necessary channels, partner users, processing rules, business document type, and trading partner agreements, and share the inbound channel endpoint URL with the partner.

Associating or Mapping a User with a Partner

To send a document to webMethods.io B2B, a partner must have at least one partner user associated with it.

To associate a partner user with a partner

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Profiles.

  2. Click the partner profile for which you want to associate a partner user.

  3. Click Users.

  4. In the Associated Users section, click Associate User.

  5. In the Associate users dialog box, select the partner users using the checkbox, and click Add.
    See Channel-Partner-User Association for the conceptual information.

Associating or Mapping an Outbound Channel with a Partner

Pre-requisite: Ensure to create at least outbound channel to associate it with a business partner.

You must associate a partner with at least one outbound channel for it to receive documents from webMethods.io B2B and set it as a preferred outbound channel. A partner can have many outbound channels associated with it, but only one outbound channel can be set as the preferred outbound channel.

A preferred outbound channel refers to a partner’s preferred protocol through which it wants to receive documents from webMethods.io B2B.

To associate an outbound channel with a partner

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Profiles.

  2. Click the partner profile for which you want to associate an outbound channel.

  3. Click icon next to Outbound channels.

  4. In the Outbound channel section, click Associate Outbound Channel.

  5. In the Associate outbound channels dialog box, select the outbound channels that you want to associate with this partner and click Add.
    If you want to set the newly associated outbound channel as the preferred outbound channel, click icon.

Associating or Mapping an Inbound Channel with a Partner

Pre-requisite: Ensure to create at least one inbound channel to associate it with a business partner.

You can associate more than one inbound channel with a partner to receive different types of business documents through various endpoints.

To associate an inbound channel with a partner

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Profiles.

  2. Click the partner profile for which you want to associate an inbound channel.

  3. Go to Inbound channels.

  4. On the Inbound channel page, click Associate Inbound Channel.

  5. In the Associate inbound channels dialog box, select the inbound channels that you want to associate with this partner, and click Add.
    After you associate an inbound channel, you can receive documents at the endpoint URL from partners in webMethods.io B2B.

Adding a Certificate Set for a Partner

Use digital certificates to exchange business documents in a secure manner.

When you add a public certificate set to a partner profile, you must also add the CA certificates associated with the digital certificate. Likewise, if you add a private key, you must also add the public certificate and CA certificates that are associated with the private key.

In the following example, consider that you are adding a certificate for partner_A in partner_B’s profile so that partner_B can start transacting with partner_A in a secure manner. This refers to adding a partner-specific certificate for partner_A to transact with partner_B. If you are adding a default certificate for partner_B, use the Default (All partners) option.

To add a certificate set to a partner profile

  1. On the Partner profiles page, click a partner profile to which you want to add a certificate set.

  2. In the left navigation bar, select Certificates.

  3. Click Add partner certificate set and select the partner to upload a certificate for one of the following types:

    • Default (all partners). Select to upload a default certificate that can be used for any partner if a partner-specific certificate is not available.

    • For a specific partner. If you define a specific certificate for a partner, webMethods.io B2B uses that for the usages you specify.

    • 2-Way SSL/TLS. Select to upload a 2-way SSL certificate that can be used for any partner, (for any inbound documents.)

      To add a 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate, see Adding a 2-Way SSL/TLS Certificate for a Partner.

  4. For each partner, upload the certificates depending on the type of usage you select. Specify the following usage details:

    Usages Usage Description
    Sign - Verify To sign a document or verify the digital signature.
    In the sender’s profile, webMethods.io B2B uses the private key associated with the receiver to digitally sign documents.
    webMethods.io B2B checks the sender’s profile to use the sender’s public certificate that is associated with receiver to verify the document that was digitally signed by the sender
    Encrypt - Decrypt To decrypt or encrypt documents.
    In the receiver’s profile, webMethods.io B2B uses public certificate associated with the receiver to encrypt information.
    webMethods.io B2B checks the receiver’s profile for the private key associated with the sender to decrypt document
    SSL Certificate that enables webMethods.io B2B to act as an SSL client and connect to a remote secure server.
    If you enable this usage to send documents, upload a valid private key in the sender’s profile.
    The supported private key file extensions are .cer, .der, .pk,.pkcs8, and .key

  5. If you want to upload a private key, click Upload private key and select the appropriate private key from your file system. Depending on the usage you specify, private keys are typically used in the following scenarios:

    • Sign - Verify. A sender uses the private key to sign the document.

    • Encrypt - Decrypt. A receiver uses the private key to decrypt the document.

    • SSL. A sender uses the private key to establish an SSL connection with a remote HTTPS server.

  6. In Public Certificate, select and upload the appropriate public certificate from your file system. The first certificate set you upload for each usage is considered as the primary certificate for that usage.

  7. Click Verify.
    The certificate chain is verified based on the following checks performed on the public certificates and private key:

    • Is the start date and end date for the validity of the certificate are configured?

    • Does the start date for the validity of the certificate have a future date?

    • Has the certificate expired?

    • Is the root certificate self-signed?

    • Does the certificate have a valid issuer in the chain?

    • Is the private key valid, if uploaded?

    • Is the private key file empty, if uploaded?

  8. If you want to upload a secondary certificate set, click icon and add a second certificate for each usage and upload the relevant certificate.

Note: icon appears after you add a primary certificate for a partner.

All the partners for whom you have configured certificates appear in the Partner profile summary page.
For more information on managing certificates, see How Do I Monitor Certificates?

Updating a Certificate Set for a Partner

You can update a certificate by replacing the entire certificate or an intermediary certificate by deleting one and replacing it with another.

webMethods.io B2B can upload certificate files that have a .der, .cer, or .p7b extension.

When you add a public certificate set to a partner profile, you must also add the CA certificates associated with the digital certificate. Likewise, if you add a private key, you must also add the public certificate and CA certificates that are associated with the private key.

To update a certificate set for a partner

  1. On the Partner Profiles page, select the profile for which you want to modify an existing certificate set.

  2. In the left navigation bar, click Certificates.

  3. Click the certificate set of the partner and Click icon.

  4. In the Edit partner certificate set wizard, select the certificate to replace, and click Delete.

Tip: Click icon to revert the delete action. You can additionally delete the existing private key and upload a new one, if required.

  1. Upload a new set of public certificates either by dragging and dropping a certificate or by selecting the appropriate public certificate set from the file system.

  2. Click Verify.
    When you upload a new certificate set to either replace or append with an existing certificate set, webMethods.io B2B ensures that it rearranges and validates the certificate set.
    You can update the certificate set only if the certificate chain is valid.

  3. Click Finish.

The updated certificates are used to secure any upcoming document exchanges.

Updating Profile Fields for a Partner

You can update the extended fields associated with the Partner profile by replacing the values with the required ones. When extended fields are associated with Partner profiles, the profile fields listed for the Partner profile also display the fields that are required for that partner profile.

Before you begin, ensure that all the available profile field groups are listed in the Partner profiles > Summary > Extended fields page. For details on adding extended fields, see Adding Extended Fields.

To update extended fields for a partner

  1. On the Partner Profiles page, select the profile for which you want to modify the profile fields.

  2. In the left navigation bar, click Extended fields. Alternatively, click icon for Extended fields in the Partner profiles > Summary page.

  3. Click icon to expand a group.

  4. Modify the value of the extended field as required.

  5. Click Update to save the modified extended field values. Click Revert if you do not want to save the updated values.

Adding a 2-Way SSL/TLS Certificate for a Partner

To handle any inbound business documents, a 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate can be used to authenticate a partner interaction with webMethods.io B2B by verifying the provided digital certificate so that both parties are assured of the others’ identity. It refers to a client (web browser or client application) authenticating itself to a server and the server also authenticating itself to the client by verifying the public key certificate or digital certificate issued by Certificate Authorities (CAs).

The 2-Way SSL/TLS document exchange applies to AS2-IN, HTTP-IN, and RNIF-IN channels.

2-Way SSL/TLS certificate capability provides additional level of validation and security. Along with the current partner-user-credential based authentication, 2-Way SSL/TLS usage ensures secure exchange of business documents. To uniquely identify a partner, only a single set of certificates per partner is allowed.

Before You Begin

To add a 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate

  1. On the Partner profiles page, click a partner profile to which you want to add a certificate set.
  2. In the left navigation bar, select Certificates.
  3. Click Add partner certificate set and upload the 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate:2-Way SSL/TLS.

  4. Select the manner in which you want to use the 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate feature:

    Method Action to take
    Upload new certificate Click Upload to add an existing 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate. The certificate is validated and then applied for all the upcoming interactions.
    Generate certificate Click Generate to create a 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate for the partner. While generating the certificate, the partner information you already added is auto filled. See Source of Information Auto-Filled During Certificate Generation for more information. You can also modify the partner information for the purpose of generating the certificate, but the modification does not affect the partner information in the partner profile.
    Uncheck the field, if you do not want to include any field information in the certificate.
    A 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate can be generated in .jks, .pfx, and .p12 formats.
    A copy of the certificate is automatically downloaded to your system along with the public and private key. webMethods.io B2B does not store the private key of the generated certificates. Only a copy of the public certificate remains with the system to perform authentications of inbound business documents. You can replace the certificate by uploading a new one.
    Note: The default password for the generated certificate is changeit. Software AG recommends that you change this default password.

Example: Sending Documents to webMethods.io B2B using 2-Way SSL/TLS

After you configure the 2-Way SSL/ TLS certificate for a partner as mentioned in instructions above, a partner can send the inbound documents to webMethods.io B2B with channel URLs appended with port 8443.

To test following instructions, use any software with which you can post an HTTP request to webMethods.io B2B after generating a 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate. In the following example, a document is sent to a channel that is associated with partner1, using a 2-way SSL certificate with the Postman REST client.

  1. Open the Postman REST client, click Settings > Certificates, and click Add Certificate. Configure the 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate for the post operation by adding the host name, the 2-Way SSL/TLS port number, and upload the 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate with which the document exchange will be authenticated for the documents that will be sent to partner1.

  2. Post a document payload to the channel endpoint that is associated with partner1.

  3. Ensure that you post the document with required header information. In this example, the document payload is sent to an AS2 channel. And an EDIINT AS2 identity type exists in the partner profile of Partner1.

  4. Click Send to post the document payload to partner1.

For an example in a tutorial format, see Support for 2-way-SSL (Client Certificate) in webMethods.io B2B.

Source of Information Automatically Filled During Certificate Generation

The information that is automatically filled during the certificate generation process is taken from the Partner profile of the selected business partner. The following table lists where the field information is selected from.

Field Name Source of Information
Common Name Server name or host name, for example, www.softwareag.com
Organization Partner > Organization unit
Organizational Unit Partner > Profile name
Locality Partner > Contact (Administrative type) > City
State Or Province Name Partner > Contact (Administrative type) > State/Province
Country Name Partner > Contact (Administrative type) > Country
Email Partner > Contact (Administrative type) > Email

Next Steps

You can also update the certificate by either adding a new certificate or modifying the field content and regenerate the 2-Way SSL/TLS certificate.

Click Download to download a copy of the public certificate to your local system.

You can download the available certificate only in .crt format. If your browser downloads the certificate in a compressed file format (for example, .zip format), then rename the certificate file to have only the .crt file extension.

For a tutorial on how inbound transactions are authenticated using 2-way SSL, see here.

Configuring Reliable Delivery Settings in a Partner Profile

webMethods.io B2B attempts to redeliver a document to a trading partner one or more times if the previous attempts to deliver the document fail. For an immediate delivery method, webMethods.io B2B automatically uses the reliable delivery when you set the pre-processing action to save the document.

If a partner uses the reliable mode of delivery, you must specify reliable delivery settings in the partner’s profile.

To configure reliable delivery settings in a partner profile

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Partner profiles > select a partner for whom you want to configure the delivery settings and then click Settings.

  2. In the Delivery settings section, specify the retry settings:

    Field Description
    Maximum number of retry attempts Number of times to try to redeliver a document to the partner. Specify an integer greater than 0.

    Note: Configure the Maximum number of retry attempts to 0, to re-run the task as per the count specified in the Maximum number of retries in the Runtime Options.
    Wait between retries The number of milliseconds to wait before trying to redeliver the document for the first time. Specify an integer greater than 0.
    Retry factor The factor to use when determining how long to wait before making subsequent attempts to redeliver the document. webMethods.io B2B calculates the time to wait by multiplying the last wait time by the Retry Factor.
    Specify an integer greater than zero. The following example shows sample values for the reliable delivery settings and how they affect the wait times between attempts to redeliver a document.
    Maximum number of retry attempts = 3
    Wait Between Retries = 10000 ms
    Retry Factor = 2
    Wait until next attempt:
    Retry attempt 1: 10000 ms
    Retry attempt 2: 20000 ms
    Retry attempt 3: 40000 ms

Suspending or Resuming Document Delivery for a Partner

At times you might want to suspend delivery for a partner (for example, when a partner’s system is unavailable).

Type of delivery webMethods.io B2B action when delivery is suspended
Immediate delivery method Delivery tasks for the partner are assigned to Held status and webMethods.io B2B does not try to deliver documents. When delivery is resumed for the partner, webMethods.io B2B changes the status to Pending and resumes trying to deliver documents.
Scheduled delivery method Delivery tasks for the partner are assigned Held status and webMethods.io B2B does not try to deliver documents. When delivery is resumed for the partner, webMethods.io B2B changes the status to Queued and resumes trying to deliver documents.

Note: When you use Immediate delivery method as a type of delivery and is not reliable then the documents delivery fails. This is because webMethods.io B2B does not save the document to the database, it cannot hold the delivery.

To suspend or resume delivery for a partner

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Partner profiles > select a partner for whom you want to suspend or resume the document delivery and then click Settings.
  2. Click the Delivery Settings tab.
  3. Select the Suspend Delivery check box, to suspend document delivery.

Managing Control Numbers Associated with a Partner Profile

You can add a control number or update the control numbers associated with a partner profile or an Enterprise. To know more about Control numbers, see Control Numbers.

You can manage control numbers in one of the following ways:

The following sections explain in detail how to add or update control numbers from the Partner profile page.

For details on how to manage control numbers from the Settings > Control numbers page, see Adding a Control Number and Updating a Control Number.

Defining a Control Number for a Partner Profile

You can view all the control numbers associated with a partner profile or an Enterprise on the Partner profiles > Partner name or Enterprise name > Control numbers page. When you define a control number for a Partner profile you can select the partner to be either a Sender or a Receiver.

To define a control number

  1. On the Partner profiles page, select the profile for which you want to define a control number.

  2. Select one of the following as required:

    • Add Control Number > Partner as sender if you want the partner to be a sender.

    • Add Control Number > Partner as receiver if you want the partner to be a receiver.

  3. In the Add control number dialog box, provide the following details in the control number definition section:

    Field Description
    Sender Sending partner’s full corporation name.
    This would be populated with the partners name if you have selected Add Control Number > Partner as sender
    Receiver Receiving partner’s full corporation name.
    This would be populated with the partners name if you have selected Add Control Number > Partner as receiver
    Standard The EDI standard of the documents in which to use the control number.
    Select one of the following from the list: EANCOM, ODETTE, TRADACOMS, UCS, UNEDIFACT, VICS, X12, VDA.
    Mode The production mode associated with the interchange or group (or transmission or batch) header for which to use the control number.
    Possible values are:
    • Production
    • Test
    • Custom
    Note:
    • For TRADACOMS, the only valid value is Production.
    • For VDA, the value is always set to Custom.
    Group Specifies whether the control number is to be used for an interchange (or transmission) header or a group (or batch) header.
    Possible values are:
    • All. If you are adding a control number that is to be used for all group-level documents.
    • Envelope. If you are adding a control number for an interchange-level (or transmission-level) document.
    • Custom. If you are adding a control number for a specific group type.
    Note: For VDA, the value is always set to Envelope.
    Group name This field is enabled when you select Custom in the Group field. It specifies the name of the group.
    For example, for group-level (or batch-level) document that has a specific group type you can provide the following:
    • For non-TRADACOMS documents, provide the name of the group. For example, PO or IN.
    • For TRADACOMS documents, the name of the batch or file type. For example, NVHDR or ORDHDR.
    Version Optional. The version of the EDI standard selected.
    For example, for an ANSI X12 or UNEDIFACT interchange the version might be 00401 and for a group it might be 4010. For a TRADACOMS batch or transmission, the version can only be 1. For a TRADACOMS file, specify the version of the file document type.
    Note:
    • When you select TRADACOMS as Standard the Version field is text box and you can type required value.
    • When you select TRADACOMS as Standard and Envelope as the Group, the version value in the Version field is auto-populated as 1.

  4. In the Settings section of the Add control number dialog box, provide the following details.

    Field Description
    Duplicate detection window Indicates a range of numbers that webMethods.io B2B uses to determine whether a number is duplicate or out-of-sequence.
    Default value is 100.
    This value should be less than half the difference between the maximum and minimum value specified, that is:
    Duplicate detection window < (maximum-minimum)/2
    Note: This is not applicable to outbound documents.
    Next control number The next control number that you expect for the interchange or group (or transmission or batch) to use.
    Default value is 1.
    The value should be as follows:
    Maximum<= Next control number <= Minimum
    Minimum The lowest number that the control number can have.
    Default value is 1.
    For VDA, the minimum value is 0.
    Maximum The highest number that the control number can have.
    Default value is 999999.
    The maximum value that you can specify is 99999999999999.
    If webMethods.io B2B calculates the next expected control number and that number is greater than the control number maximum, then webMethods.io B2B sets the control number to the value you specify in the Minimum field.
    Increment The value that webMethods.io B2B uses to increment the control number to determine the next expected control number.
    Default value is 1.
    The increment value should be within the range: maximum ~ minimum.

  5. Click Add. The control number is created and listed on the Control numbers page. You can modify the settings configured for a control number or delete a control number by clicking icon or icon in the Actions column.

Updating Control Numbers Associated with a Partner Profile

You can view all the control numbers associated with a partner or an Enterprise on the Partner profiles > Partner name or Enterprise name > Control numbers page. You can modify only the settings configured for the control numbers.

To update a control number associated with a partner profile

  1. On the Partner profiles page, select the profile for which you want to modify the profile fields.

  2. In the left navigation bar, click Control numbers. Alternatively, click icon for Control numbers in the Partner profiles > Summary page.

  3. Click icon in the actions column for the control number whose details you want to edit.

  4. Modify the values of the settings as required.

  5. Click Update to save the modified control number details.
    Click Cancel if you do not want to save the updated values.

Managing Extended Fields

Field Groups and Extended Fields

webMethods.io B2B provides standard fields for profiles. The information included in the standard fields is:

If you want to maintain additional information about your partners, you can define custom fields. For example, you might want to define fields for preferred shipping method, cost centres, or customer codes. These extended fields are grouped in a field group. You can mark these extended fields required or not required. When you mark a field as required, all profiles on your system must have a value for it.

You can search groups and fields by typing the characters of the search string in the search box on the Partners icon > Field groups page. The Field groups page displays a list of groups and the associated fields that match the criteria.

Adding Extended Fields

You can add an extended field, to maintain additional information about your partners, which automatically gets associated with all the partner profiles. To add an extended field, you must first define a field group and then add fields to the field group.

To add extended fields

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Field groups.

  2. Click Add Group.

  3. In the Add group dialog box, type a group name.

  4. Click Save. The group is created and listed in the Field groups page.

  5. In the Actions column for a group, select Actions > Add field. You can click Actions > Edit group to modify the group name.

  6. In the Add field dialog box, provide the following details.

    Field Description
    Name Name of the extended field.
    Description Optional. Description of the extended field.
    Datatype Data type of the extended field. By default, it is set as String.
    Required Specifies whether the field is required or optional. By default, it is set as not required.
    When you define a field, webMethods.io B2B automatically adds it to all profiles you create after you add the field but does not add the field to existing profiles. Therefore, if you mark the field required, you must add it to the existing profiles manually.
    Status Specifies whether the field is active or inactive. By default, it is set as inactive.
    When you mark a field as active, it appears in all profiles that contain it. When you deactivate a field, it does not appear in any profiles. If you create profiles while a field is in the inactivate state, the profiles do not contain the field. If you later mark the field as active and if the field is marked required, you have to update the new profiles manually.
    Maximum length Maximum number of characters to allow in the field. The default value is 128. Number of characters should be greater than 1 and less than 128.
    Default value Default value for the field. The default value is used when no other valid values are defined.
    Valid values Acceptable values for the field. Type a valid value and click Add value and repeat as necessary. The added values get listed. Click icon to delete the added values.
    The number of allowed values depends on the value of Maximum length configured.
    You can rearrange the order of the fields in the valid values list.

  7. Click Save. The field gets added to the group. To add more fields, you can repeat the procedure.

Once a field group is created it gets associated with all existing partner profiles and can be accessed from Partners > Partner profiles > Extended field section.

Customizing ID Type

Custom Identities

Create and manage custom ID types, to maintain additional information about your partners and associate them with partner profiles.

webMethods.io B2B provides several pre-defined standard set of identity types. Additionally, it offers you the flexibility to configure a new identity type with ID codes. You can use these custom ID types for custom recognition and processing of documents from your partners.

To create new ID types and ID code

  1. In webMethods.io B2B, go to Partners icon > Custom identities.

  2. Click icon to add identities.

  3. In the Add new ID type dialog box, type name of an ID type and configure a code for the ID type.

    Note: Configuring an ID code for the ID type is optional.

  4. Click Create. The ID type is created.

You can now add this ID type or ID code in the partner profile.

Points to note: