Paul Williams, of the Kellogg Company, asked some simple reasonable
questions on how to move XML documents over the Internet, especially
how addressability is handled.
Addressability of business documents, whether X12, EDIFACT or
RosettaNet, is usually based on a logical business identifier such as a
DUNS, UCS ID, or EAN Location Number. One of a VAN's most important
value-adds is to route documents based on these IDs to the intended
recipient safely and securely. On the other hand, Internet EDI packages
like 8760's GISBAgent or Cyclone Interchange (which are based on
interoperable standards) require some sort of setup to equate the
logical business ID with Internet addresses. Add in key maintenance,
certificate exchange, etc. etc., and the maintenance headaches add up
quickly, perhaps allowing us to better appreciate the services of a VAN.
Also, don't forget to throw in the intimate relationship you need with
the corporate *NETWORK MAN* (i.e., the need to listen to his tirades
against Bill Gates) to get past firewalls and do that mumbo-jumbo with
proxy servers and port addresses.
IT Man, a.k.a. Paul Aoun, seems to think that both Internet EDI using
Interoperable standards and VANs are overkill. He instead says
everything Paul needs can be done in a snippet of Java code for *FREE*.
Now, IT Man and Kurt Svensson have squared off in a perverse duel,
goaded on by Brian Curtis, to establish their alpha-male position;
except in this case, he who has the *SMALLER* one wins.
Of course, I have no interest in reading any code which has no comments.
But from the little bit I saw of either IT Man's or Kurt's code, I don't
understand what all the stuff about doing queries against a database has
to do with the demo. Paul Williams asked about sending an *XML
document* across the internet; is it really of any interest how that
document is created? - it just confuses the issue.
But I'm going to assume Paul has serious needs (and I won't even
question here why he's using XML). If he's not interested in the VAN or
Internet EDI (i.e., those which use interoperable standards) solutions,
then he might also consider OnDisplay's *FREE* "B2B XML server for
secure, reliable information delivery over the Internet - XML Connect,"
at http://www.xmlconnect.net/xmlconnect/.
William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Memorial Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
+1 614 791-1600
Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
"Commerce for a New World"
------ XML/edi Group Discussion List ------
Homepage = http://www.XMLedi-Group.org
Unsubscribe = send email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Leave the subject and body of the message blank
Questions/requests: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To receive only one message per day (digest format)
send the following message to [EMAIL PROTECTED],
(leave the subject line blank)
digest xmledi-group your-email-address
To join the XML/edi Group complete the form located at:
http://www.xmledi-group.org/xmledigroup/mail1.htm
