Patent ID: 8775654

Claim:
A method for mediating messages within a message interchange network for facilitating communication among a plurality of entities, each entity having policy data corresponding thereto governing interaction with the entity via the message interchange network, the method comprising: a) receiving a format preference for a first service in the message interchange network, wherein the format preference specifies an expected format for messages received by such first service, the expected format from a group including MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), DIME (Direct Internet Mail Extensions), AS2 (Applicability Statement 2), and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol); b) storing the format preference in a repository associated with the message interchange network; and c) mediating messages sent to the first service using the format preference stored for the first service by receiving the messages, determining a received format of the messages by inspecting at least one of the received messages, translating the messages into the expected format specified by the format preference for the first service, and sending the translated messages to the first service in the expected format, the translated messages having the specified message format.