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Technical Information

Partnership Network 

  The PARTnerShip Network: How it Works

The PARTnerShip Network software was developed by automotive distributors and their suppliers to meet their rigorous requirements for secure and dependable communication of critical business documents. The software takes message files from the originating system, wraps them in an XML envelop addressed to the intended recipient, and outputs the message to the Internet. Receipt of successful delivery and acknowledgements are built into the software.

How does it work?
The PARTnerShip Network software operates in a peer-to-peer fashion and connects any enterprise with any other enterprise running the PARTnerShip Network software. Enterprises are assigned Trading Partners ID's that are shared only with the partners they wish to exchange messages with. Digital Certificates are highly recommended to ensure the identity of a trading partner. Click here to view a diagram.

The PARTnerShip Network software is written in Java Programming language so it can be installed on a wide variety of platforms and operating systems. The software is normally installed on an Internet server and integrated with the backend systems of an enterprise. Electronic messages that would normally be received by way of a VAN (value-added network) are directed to the PARTnerShip Network, where they are verified and forwarded to the enterprise software for sorting and processing. If, for example, the inbound message is an EDI purchase Order, it would be directed to the EDI translation application for processing.

The PARTnerShip Network is designed to transport data in a wide variety of formats, including EDI, word files, spreadsheets, and image files. The software uses HTTP/S protocol and SSL encrypted connections to securely transport the payload to the intended recipient.

Technical Requirements
The PARTnerShip Network is designed to operate in a wide variety of environments with a minimum of software requirements. There are several prerequisites for the web server that the PARTnerShip Network is installed on:

Click here to download the Technical Guides zip file.

Java Sun Java SDK JDK 1.4 (or higher)
Application Server Software Must support Java Servlet (see Tested and Approved software)
Network / HTTP Server Must have static external IP Address on the Internet
Digital Certificate Highly Recommended
Database Software JDBC / SQL Capable (see Tested and Approved)
Internet Web Browser JavaScript Enabled (see Tested and Approved)

Tested and Approved Software
The PARTnerShip Network has been tested on a wide variety of platforms and in many common operating systems and database applications.

 Operating Systems     Web/Application Servers     Databases
MS Windows NT/2000 Server Microsoft IIS Web Server Microsoft SQL 2000+
IBM AS/400 IBM Websphere / IBM HTTP Application Server DB2
AIX Unix
HP Unix Apache with Tomcat* Oracle
Sun Solaris
Linux* MySQL Server*
* Software that is available to download and use free of charge




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