Dear Michael,
This seems to be an interesting enough idea, but are
you going to use DTDs or Schemas in your conversion
process.
I have already converted EDIFACT messages (PO,
PRICAT..) to XML and used Schemas because I couldn't
find a way to make an element conditional in DTDs.
Paul Aoun, Technical Manager
--- Michael Thiele <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 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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