Background
B2B 11g supports ebXML messaging protocol, where multiple CPAs can be imported via command-line utilities.
This note highlights one aspect of the best practices for import of CPA, when large numbers of CPAs in the excess of several hundreds are required
to be maintained within the B2B repository.
Symptoms
The import of CPA usually is a 2-step process, namely creating a soa.zip file using b2bcpaimport utility based on a CPA properties file and then using b2bimport
to import the b2b repository. The commands are provided below:
ant -f ant-b2b-util.xml b2bcpaimport -Dpropfile="<Path
to cpp_cpa.properties>" -Dstandard=true
ant -f ant-b2b-util.xml b2bimport -Dlocalfile=true -Dexportfile="<Path
to soa.zip>" -Doverwrite=true
Usually the first command completes fairly quickly regardless of the number of CPAs in the repository. However, as the number of trading partners within the repository goes up, the time
to complete the second command could go up
to ~30 secs per operation. So, this could add up
to a significant amount, if there is a need
to import hundreds of CPA in a production system within a limited downtime, maintenance window.
Remedy
In situations, where there is a large number of entries
to be imported, it is best
to setup a staging environment and go through the import operation of each individual CPA in an empty repository. Since, this will be done in an empty repository, the time taken for completion should be reasonable.
After all the partner profiles have been imported, a full repository
export can be taken
to capture the metadata for all the entries in one file.
If this single file with all the partner entries is imported in a loaded repository, the total time taken for import of all the CPAs should see a dramatic reduction.
Results
Let us take a look at the numbers
to see the benefit of this approach. With a pre-loaded repository of ~400 partners, the individual import time for each entry takes ~30 secs. So, if we had
to import another 100 partners, the individual entries will take ~50 minutes (100 times ~30 secs). On the other hand, if we prepare the repository
export file of the same 100 partners from a staging environment earlier, the import takes about ~5 mins.
The total processing time for the loading of metadata, specially in a production environment, can thus be shortened by almost a factor of 10.
Summary
The following diagram summarizes the entire approach and process.
Acknowledgements
The material posted here has been compiled with the help from B2B Engineering and Product Management teams.
