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AS4 Archives - Holodeck B2B

Mar 08 2023
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Holodeck B2B 6.0 – new API, new configuration options

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We’ve been working on a lot of things this past year and one of them was a big update of Holodeck B2B. This major update introduces a lot of internal changes, of which the following are most interesting to users:

You can now define the service type to be used in the P-Mode. This saves having to define the service type for every submitter.

We’ve upgraded to Java 11. And although Holodeck B2B was already very fast and resource-efficient, we’ve improved resource management even further.

Most importantly this release includes a new, extended API. We’ve added new interfaces for delivery of message units to the back-end. There is now also support for a-synchronous delivery of messages and for redelivery.
This major update means that when updating Holodeck B2B you will also need to update all extensions and connectors that you use.
If you’ve created your own extensions to Holodeck B2B, you will also have to update these.

You can find the full list of changes in the Changelog, also included in the download.

Sep 03 2020
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Holodeck B2B 5.0 – new UI’s and Certificate manager

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Holodeck B2B 5.0 is out and these are the changes we’d like to highlight.

User interfaces

Although Holodeck B2B is back end software, we thought that system admins would appreciate a quick and easy way to monitor the gateway without referring to the business system logs. That’s why we’ve added two user interfaces to Holodeck B2B.
With these UI’s, gateway admins can monitor message status and check gateway configuration.

Command line UI: Overviews of P-Modes, Certificates, Message status and Message history are included. Run the tool without entering a parameter for a list of all available functions.
Graphic UI: lets you quickly see how your gateway is configured in a graphical interface.
You’ll find an overview of the UI functions available in the documentation.

We’d love to hear what you think of the new UI and if there is anything else you’d like to be able to monitor. Let us know through our contact form or our social media!

2-way Asynchronous messaging

You can now specify a 2-way Async message exchange in 1 single P-Mode for simpler gateway configuration. This increases the ways in which you can manage P-Modes.

Certificate Manager

We are continuously making Holodeck B2B more modular and flexible. This release, we’ve added a new separate Certificate Manager to Holodeck B2B. It manages trust validation of signing and encryption certificates, as well as more security configuration options.
The default security manager supports OCSP validation. This is used in for example the Peppol network. You can now check the Peppol CA online to validate whether a certificate is still valid or has been revoked.
In addition, the Certificate manager lets you implement your own certificate policies.

REST API

You can add a REST interface to your gateway for connecting with your back end system using our new REST extension.

And there’s more…

For a full overview of all changes, please consult the Changelog in the download.

Mar 07 2019
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Holodeck B2B 4.1: Selective pulling

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The latest release of Holodeck B2B sees the the addition of support for sending a selective pull request. We’ve also added enhancements in the message processing event mechanism and improvements in the P-Mode finding algorithm. Together with some smaller adjustments these improve the interoperability with other AS4 gateways used for implementation of the ENTSOG and ATO SBR ebMS profiles.

Selective Pulling

Holodeck B2B already featured support for Pull messaging scenarios. With support for sending selective pull requests using simple selection items as described in section 5.1 of the ebMS 3 Part 2 specification, you now have more ways of configuring how and when you want your gateway to send a pull request. 
Another big change is that the back end system can now trigger a pull request, instead of having to use the default interval defined in the gateway itself.
In this release, the support is limited to sending of selective pull requests with “simple selection items” as described in the specification. Selection criteria are not used when processing received pull requests.
To use these new features, you will need to add the Holodeck B2B Pull Request Trigger extension to your gateway. 

New Pull Request Trigger extension

In addition to the new version of Holodeck B2B, we’ve also released a new extension which you will need to install to use the new selective pulling functionality.
This extension allows the Consumer application (your back end application) to control when a Pull Request is sent by Holodeck B2B instead of using the default fixed intervals. It is also where you configure the criteria for your selective pull requests.

More message processing events

But wait, there’s more! 😉 We’ve also added more message processing events around message submission, processing and header validation. These give you even more hooks to add custom functionality to your solution. And of course we’ve fixed a few bugs along the way. You’ll find the full overview of additions in the Change Log.

Get your Holodeck B2B gateway

Download Holodeck B2B now!
And get the Pull Request Trigger extension here.

Looking for support on your AS4 gateway? Chasquis, the creators and maintainers of Holodeck B2B are available to provide support contracts and consultancy services. We can help you get your gateway up and running, or optimise your existing gateway.
We also offer fixed-price packages for installed on-premises gateways that include profile specific extensions, for example for PEPPOL, ENTSOG and ATO Single Touch Payroll (STP), as well as full service hosted gateways.
Get in touch and let us know how we can help you.

Nov 04 2018
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Holodeck B2B 4.0 – create a multiprotocol gateway with AS2 support

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The Holodeck B2B stack is growing! Today we’ve released the latest version of our AS4 gateway, as well as a new open source extension you can use to add AS2 messaging functionality to your gateway. Finally, we’ve also made the BDXR Common toolkit available – a set of libraries you can use to build SML/SMP clients.

Holodeck B2B 4.0

This latest release adds some important new features to an already highly configurable message service handler that still works out of the box.

  • More validation options:
    • Strict validation of ebMS headers.
    • Implement your own validations that will run during message processing by the gateway. Problems that are caught kan be reported directly back to the receiver. On ebMS level messages can also be rejected based on business rules.
  • More flexible configuration of retries. Interval times are individually configurable – for example, a very quick first retry and increasingly larger intervals for the following retries.
  • More message processing events. These allow automated monitoring of message processing and let you follow up on certain events by a technical management system or on the business application layer.
  • Improved logging. Operators can follow the message flow on various levels of detail.
  • Option to add AS2 functionality using the Holodeck B2B AS2 extension.
  • Introduction of a security module.  You now have the option to use your own security module, which may be needed for specific security policies / business requirements.

See more in the full changelog or download Holodeck B2B now.

AS2 extension

Holodeck B2B AS2 is an extension for Holodeck B2B 4.0 and higher that lets you add AS2 messaging functionality to your existing AS4 gateway. Whether the gateway uses AS2 or AS4 can be configured in the P-Mode of the message exchange.
Chasquis (the creators of Holodeck B2B) offer even more functionality in their PEPPOL gateway, that adds auto configuration using SMP – including automatic selection of the correct protocol to use per receiver (AS2 or AS4).

We have created this extension for businesses that need to make the transition from AS2 to AS4. Instead of having to switch from one gateway to another on a cut off date you can now plan your migration on your own terms. When the time comes for you to switch from AS2 to AS4, all you need to do is edit the P-Mode for the message exchange – no more than a few minutes work.
The AS2 module includes the following features:

  • Signing (including SHA-256 and many others)
  • Encryption
  • Compression
  • Single attachment
  • Configuration based on Holodeck B2B P-Modes

Download the Holodeck B2B AS2 extension from the repository.

BDXR Common toolkit

A toolkit containing libraries for building  SML / SMP clients, to retrieve messaging partners’ metadata from  the SMP. This metadata is then used to configure the gateway. This setup is required by the PEPPOL messaging profile.
This toolkit is aimed at developers who want to create their own client. It is not a ready to use SMP client. The download does include a sample client for you to base your work on.
Like Holodeck B2B, it’s design is modular and it can easily be adapted to the needs of your business environment.
Download the BDXR Common toolkit.

Oct 18 2016
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Holodeck B2B 2.1 now available

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Today we’ve released a large update for our popular open source AS4 messaging software, Holodeck B2B 2.1. We’ve added some important new functionality, fixed several bugs and made some general code improvements.

New features

The most important new features of Holodeck B2B 2.1 are:

    • Multi-hop messaging, where a message passes through multiple intermediaries to reach it’s destination but still maintains end-to-end security
    • Messages without attachments sent as single part messages and not SOAP with attachments
    • Trust store to hold the certificates of trusted Certificate Authorities
    • Event framework to enable additional notification to external components
    • Automatic message purging cleans up all meta data (including payload data for User Messages) after a configurable number of days
    • Flexible configuration of pulling, giving the option to build your own policies
    • All received ebMS error signals are logged, even if they can’t be processed or are not for Holodeck B2B

e-SENS and EESSI compliant

Holodeck B2B 2.1 is again fully AS4, ENTSOG and e-SENS compliant, having passed the eSENS compliancy test. And with the introduction of Multi-hop messaging, it now also EESSI compliant. It has been interoperability tested with various other AS4 open source and commercial products including .Net implementations.

Download

Get the latest version now from the Download page.

Support and consultancy

If you are looking for support for your Holodeck B2B AS4 gateway, or would like advice on how our MSH can be used with your current business software, feel free to contact us at info@Chasquis-consulting.com

Apr 21 2016
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Holodeck B2B 2.0 released

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Big news – we’re out of beta!

The completely rewritten Holodeck B2B 2.0 has full support for all AS4 features, including

  • One-Way/Push and One-Way/Pull message exchange patterns
  • AS4 Compression feature
  • Message delivery configuration in P-Mode with support for specific delivery options for receipt and errors
  • Option to include refToMessageId in a user message to enable easy reference of related messages
  • Generic P-Modes. Only define the parameters common to a set of messages in the P-Mode and supply the remaining details when the message is sent
  • Message authorization
  • Non-repudiation of receipt
  • Multiple submitters
  • Multiple receivers
  • Signing and encrypting the message using WS-Security
  • Large messages

and also offers improved logging and lots of documentation, both in the code and online.
Holodeck is fast, light weight, stand-alone and as it is Java based it runs on most platforms.

Interfaces for easy extensibility

To improve extensiblity, Holodeck B2B has been split into 2 parts: Core and Interfaces, both with their own license. Core code is GPLv3 but the Interfaces are LGPLv3, making it possible to connect Holodeck to your own system, even if that is not open-source software.

Versatile and fully AS4 and e-SENS compliant

Holodeck B2B 2.0 is not only fully AS4 compliant, it has also passed the e-SENS conformance and interoperability tests. It can be used as the e-Delivery building block in e-SENS, in CEF projects and any project using the ENTSOG / e-SENS AS4 profile. As Holodeck B2B has full support for AS4 it can also be used for STP and Superstream gateways.

Download a copy now

Download the latest version, or take a look at the sources in the repository.

Mar 10 2016
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Meet us at CeBIT!

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CeBIT 2016 Banner

CeBIT, the largest and most internationally represented IT fair in the world, will take place between 14th and 18th March 2016 in Hannover (Germany).

The European project e-SENS together with CEF and e-CODEX have a booth showing Digital Public Services Across Borders.
Among the topics presented will be
– IT solutions addressing the problems of compliance with EU legislation
– Interoperability achieved in various policy domains

Furthermore, e-SENS will demonstrate the interoperability of the e-Delivery solutions of different vendors that comply to the ebMS3/AS4 profile.
Holodeck B2B is one of the solutions presented. Having passed the e-SENS interoperability and conformance tests, Holodeck B2B is ready for use in all e-Delivery projects.

Part of the Holodeck B2B team will be at Cebit on friday march 18th. Hall 7, stand 39. Come and say hello!

Nov 02 2015
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e-SENS interoperability tests succesful

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During the summer of 2015 we participated in the interoperability tests for the EU e-SENS program. We ran tests against AS4 implementations by IBM, Flame, Axway and Domibus. Holodeck B2B completed all succesfully.
During the tests, Holodeck B2B showed that it supports all features of the e-SENS AS4 profile, including the AES-128 GCM encryption algorithm.

Features tested included:

  • AS4 reception awareness
  • Non-repudiation of receipt
  • Signing
  • Encryption using the AES-128 GCM algorithm
  • AS4 compression

Holodeck B2B and AS4 proved capable of processing large files up tot 2GB. Further tests of sending large files are planned for later this year.
If you would like to run tests yourself, you can request the release candidate of Holodeck B2B.

Apr 16 2015
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Holodeck B2B 2, beta 3 featuring AS4 security

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The latest beta of the Holodeck B2B AS4 message service handler is now available on request. Most important new features are encryption and signing based on WS-Security, making Holodeck B2B now fully AS4 compliant.

Encryption

Holodeck B2B supports end-to-end message encryption in a point to point exchange. The Holodeck B2B security module uses your system’s default crypto provider to encrypt the message. By changing the crypto engine you can configure the supported algorithms.

Signing

With signing of messages implemented, Holodeck B2B now offers

  • Authorization of pull requests based on the X.509 certificate.
  • Authentication of push and pull messages including non-repudiation receipts.

Compliancy

The AS4 specification defines three conformance profiles: ebHandler, Light and Minimal Client. Holodeck B2B complies with all three. We have a full overview under the Detailed feature list.

With the addition of message authentication and encryption the Holodeck B2B open source messaging solution is ready to support Superstream and Entsog AS4 profiles.

Download

Beta 3 is available on request.
We’d like to know more about why you are considering using Holodeck B2B. Which features are most important to you, looking at the current features as well as things you’d like to see in Holodeck B2B in the future?
If you would like to try the new version, please contact us using the form below.

*edit: As Holodeck B2B 2.0 is out of beta per april 2016, you can find the latest version on the Download page.*