Platform independent business to business messenger in an enterprise computer system

A method of communication between a first e-business partner and a second e-business partner by way of an e-business messenger subscribing to a messenger service, comprising:

• listening for a topic by a subscription manager based upon an associated subscription rule;
• receiving by the subscription manager a sent message from the topic when the topic points to the sent message;
• posting the sent message by the subscription manager from the first e-business partner based upon the associated subscription rule;
• passing the sent message to a subscription message adapter unit coupled to the subscription manager, wherein the subscription message adapter unit is arranged to convert the sent message from a first partner message format to a second partner message format based upon the associated subscription rule identifying the second partner message format as associated with the second e-business partner, the subscription rule providing a business to business contract between the first e-business partner and the second e-business partner;
• passing the formatted sent message to a partner adapter unit coupled to the subscription message adapter unit,
• sending the sent message to the second e-business partner by the partner adapter unit, wherein the partner adapter unit is arranged to use an appropriate transport protocol based upon an appropriate subscription rule;
• sending a response message corresponding to the sent message by the second e-business partner to the partner adapter unit;
• sending the response message to a delivery message adapter unit coupled to the partner adapter unit, wherein the delivery message adapter unit appropriately formats the response based upon an appropriate subscription rule;
• and
• delivering the appropriately formatted response to the first e-business partner.

A method of communication between a first e-business partner and a second e-business partner by way of a platform independent business-to-business messenger subscribing to a messenger service, comprising:

• listening, at a subscription manager, for a topic corresponding to a subscription rule;
• receiving, when the topic points to a message, the message from the topic at the subscription manager, the message sent on behalf of the first e-business partner;
• sending the message to a subscription message adapter coupled to the subscription manager, the subscription message adapter arranged to convert the message from a first partner message format to a second partner message format based upon the subscription rule identifying the second partner message format as associated with the second e-business partner;
• passing the formatted message to a partner adapter coupled to the subscription message adapter,
• sending the formatted message to the second e-business partner from the partner adapter.