Message Disposition Notifications (MDNs)
AS2 supports MDN (message disposition notification), a way for your partner to acknowledge that they have received your message. Some partners may require that you request and accept an MDN response, send MDN responses, or both.
What is an MDN?
An MDN (Message Disposition Notification) serves as a receipt to acknowledge that a message has been received and can verify various aspects of the message’s integrity and authenticity.
You or your trading partners may request MDNs for the following reasons:
- Acknowledge receipt: An MDN serves as a verifiable acknowledgment that a message has been received by the trading partner’s system.
- Security: If the sent message was signed, the MDN allows the sender to confirm that the receiving system has authenticated the sender and verified the message’s integrity.
- Non-Repudiation: MDNs provide evidence that a message has been both received and processed, which can be essential in dispute resolution or auditing scenarios.
According the AS2 specification, MDNs can either be synchronous (provided on the same connection as the HTTP request) or asynchronous (sent separately after the initial HTTP request), depending on the requirements of a given partnership.
Configure MDNs
For outbound messages, Stedi only supports accepting synchronous MDNs, so you need to tell your partner to send synchronous MDNs if they wish to send an MDN response. Visit Requirements for configuration details.
For inbound messages, Stedi automatically sends MDNs when requested. Stedi delivers MDNs either asynchronously or synchronously, depending on the specified parameters in your partner’s request. Visit Requirements for configuration details.
View MDN responses
To view the MDN response associated with a file:
- Go to the Files page and click the file to view its details.
- Click Connection deliveries.
- Under MDN Status click View file.
You can review the contents of the MDN response and optionally download it to your machine.