For interaction roles, it is recommended that each role is modeled as a separate entity object in the system; each interaction role exists once as an interaction role entity. This globally defined approach allows all business partner entities to reference particular role(s) without redundancy, while at the same time, drive the necessary role validations.
A ‘Requires’ reference between two interaction role entities is used to indicate the required relationship between two interaction roles. For example, the interaction role of ‘ship-to’ requires that there must be a ‘payer’ role.
Regardless of which business partner role data model is implemented, entities are assigned interaction roles by way of an ‘Interaction Role’ reference. The source of this reference is the legal entity, and the target is the interaction role entity.
