What we all need now (and maybe we should all start building it together) is
a central repository of EDIFACT message structures in an XML structure.
This means XML documents that are built using XML but whose structure
conforms to the EDIFACT message standards and whose XML tags are actually
the EDIFACT data element tags, group tags, etc....
There are a lot of companies out there that are racing to make this stuff
proprietary, but for the standards to have any effect in the new eBusiness
world the repository should be created on either the UN/EDIFACT site, or the
XML/EDI site or something like that.
X12 and EDIFACT represent the greatest effort of the human race to
standardise not only the structures of many standard business documents but
also on the business processes and trading systems that they are used in.
The fact that these two standards bodies have agreed to merge into a single
standard tells us that we are capable of coming together on issues such as
this.
The success of the XML/EDI effort is dependent on OUR involvement...
recipients of this list... and anyone involved in pushing the use of
standards based eBusiness processes.
I have started to build the INVOIC message into and XML document,
translating the EDI tags directly into XML tags and the EDI group and
segement structures directly into XML group structures... a direct mapping
that represents the most effective way to use XML for EDI.
I will send my resulting document to this list once it is complete.
Why not try doing this with a message yourself? It's not that hard, it's
just time consuming. XML is very simple.
If you don't know where to start, try this....
Download the text specifications of the segment directories, element
directories, and the message from UN/EDIFACT site.
You will have to break the message definition into a couple of
sections to capture the different types of information into different
tables (because there is a branching diagram, and a section that explains
usage of segments in the message)
Import the text specifications into database tables (I used MS SQL
Server DTS, but you could do it in Access.. Sybase... etc)
Once you have the specifications in a database, you can use database
scripts to re-create the message structure from the element and
segment tables.
You should then be able to script the generation of an XML document
(which is just text like HTML) which has the structure of an EDIFACT
document.
Like I said, this is time consuming, but if you've been wondering
how to get right into the heart of this XML/EDI issue these steps will
take you there...
We don't have to do this, we can all sit around until something like BizTank
provides this functionality in the form of XML documents wrapped into a
binary business object that Microsomething sells as a proprietary SmartDoc
or something... and we pay for it because we dont know that underneath it is
the EDIFACT standards that we, the human race, developed for Microsomeone
over the past 25 years...
There is only one way to do eBusiness and that is EDI. Everyone knows this.
The best form of EDI is the result of combining everything that was learnt
by EDIFACT and X12 and other standards and putting it in an XML wrapper. I
think everyone would agree with this...
Are we going to use XML/EDI for our benefit or are we going to keep
messaging everyone until commercial products make us feel like we're wasting
our time here?
Or are you all in this list to see how you can squeeze a profitable
proprietary angle out of standards based XML/EDI? If thats your deal give
this message to your programmers and feel happy in the knowledge that you
are developing on the path that every eBusiness software developer will take
if they want to survive in eBusiness software....
The upshot of all this is... lets build a repository of XML/EDI documents.
Where can we put it?
Regards,
Michael Thiele
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