Communication Protocol Supplementary Guide
Using the EPICS Capture Interface to Push Traceability Data
Overview
In the GDST’s Standards and Guidelines for Interoperable Seafood Traceability Systems – Technical Implementation Guidance (version 1.2) there are two workflows that are described, the Business-to-Business (B2B) workflow and the Internal System-to-System workflow. The Business-to-Business workflow focuses on where two external parties want to exchange traceability data, typically revolving around a seller and buyer.
The working group that helped to establish the technical standard and workflows decided that:
“For the purpose of this workflow, we will assume that the Receiver (Buyer) has received a list of EPC(s) through another workflow and is now attempting to resolve traceability data and master data for these EPC(s).” – GDST Technical Standard 1.2 – Page 11
However, some solution providers do not have a standardized way to meet this requirement and communicate a list of received EPCs from a seller. This document is meant to provide a way for a seller to communicate a list of EPCs to the buyer, so that the buyer can then use the Business-to-Business workflow to request the traceability data for the products.
Push Communication Protocol
The Push Communication Protocol introduces an optional preliminary step to the Business-to-Business communication protocol that takes advantage of the EPCIS Capture Interface, exposed on the EPCIS 2.0 REST API (“/capture”) endpoint. This endpoint would be allowed for a seller (sender) to send a single shipping event to the buyer (receiver) to act as an Advanced Shipment Notification (ASN).
EPCIS Capture Interface
The EPCIS Capture Interface allows for one or more events to be pushed to an EPCIS server. While this interface was originally designed around an internal application that is recording events as they occur in real time, it is possible to use the interface to also push an event from a seller to a buyer.