XCA Implementation

After publication of the August 2007 Trial Implementation version of Cross Community Access (XCA) profile several issues have come to light. These issues are documented in Change Proposals (CPs) which will be completed during the year and integrated in August 2008. Prior to August 2008 this page will list the issues and their expected resolution, both short term and long term.

Typos

CP 256 contains a couple of small typos. One of which is to change the name to be grammatically correct, from Cross Community to Cross-Community. Please communicate any further typos discovered in the XCA profile to the CP auther for inclusion in this CP. The current version of the CP can be accessed in the Assigned directory.

Missing Web Services protocol information

CP 257 contains the missing web services protocol information (WSDL and examples). Please use this information for your implementations. The latest version of the CP can be accessed in the Assigned directory. The example files and WSDL are also available in the SupportMaterial directory.

Implied assumption of Responding Gateway URLs

The design of XCA has an unstated assumption that a Responding Gateway will use the same URL for responding to Cross Gateway Retrieve transactions as it does for Cross Gateway Query transactions. The homeCommunityId attribute is associated with the url that responded to a Cross Gateway Query. This association is used in subsequent requests to determine which url to use to communicate to get more detailed information regarding elements returned in the previous request. This assumes that the same url will be used for subsequent query requests as well as retrieve requests. This assumption is not stated clearly. It poses a restriction on the design of a Responding Gateway that should be reviewed to verify that it is reasonable. Also, this mapping does not handle movement of service or changes in url values.

For this year we will require that Responding Gateways support query and retrieve from the same URL. CP 258 documents this issue. The long term resolution of this problem is not defined yet but will include either an update to the document to make the requirement clear or a change in the requirement.

The latest version of the CP can be accessed in the Assigned directory.