RE: BizTalk

[Rachel Foerster]

Title: Re: BizTalk

John,

 

Many thanks for a clear and concise explanation of XML schemas and what BizTalk supports and expects. This now explains, for me at least, what appears to have been a "flaw" with BT. I guess until we have an approved W3C Schema (and from what I can glean from another XML listserv there's a bit of controversy about the current proposed recommendation among its developers) then BizTalk supporting only its schema version makes sense.

 

Here's a good example, though, of the interoperability problems when we don't have approved standards from recognized standards body that the developers can develop to. Ain't life fun!

 

Rachel

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 4:32 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: BizTalk

May I cut in?

I'd like to quickly summarize the concept of information modeling in XML. (Please forgive me if I'm over-simplifying things, I'm not familiar with anyone's experience regarding XML).

As you are probably already aware, XML enables us to make up our own tag names.  We can also structure these tags in any order we wish.  This could become quite an issue if there was no way to constrain the range of tag names and structures that might appear in a particular document (a trading partner would have a difficult time understanding the meaning of our messages). 

Using an agreed-upon information model, trading partners can utilize similar tag names and structures. 

The syntax for creating an information model is either DTD (document type definition - a unique syntax that is not XML) or some form of schema (utilizes XML syntax to describe our information model). 

One benefit of schema is support for data typing (DTDs have no concept of data types - most data is interpreted as simple text).

There are currently several schema languages available for creating an information model (examples include, but are not limited to, W3C's XML Schema, XDR, SOX, TREX and RELAX). 

While all of these schema languages use XML syntax, they are not interchangable.
Each of these schema languages requires a parser capable of processing their particular schema semantics (they all use XML syntax).

The BizTalk Server requires messages (XML documents) to be formatted according to the BizTalk Framework.  The BizTalk Framework requires information models to be created using the XDR schema language.  XDR requires us to use the Microsoft MSXML parser (thus tying us to a vendor-specific implementation of an XML-based schema language).

Note: Microsoft has promised to make the BizTalk Framework compliant with W3C XML Schema.  W3C has not yet approved the use of XML Schema in production environments - it is currently a Proposed Recommendation.

John Evdemon
CTO
Vitria/XMLSolutions
www.vitria.com
www.xmls.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Anson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wed Apr 25 19:47:46 2001
Subject: Re: xmledi-group Digest for 24 Apr 2001 in hour 22:00

Brad, Rachel

Thanks for forwarding your interchange of ideas to the list, it was most
instructive.

One point that particularly concerned me was when Brad wrote:

>However, run a BizTalk document through Xerces, or whichever parser you
>like-validating or not-and it will choke, unless it is MS's BizTalk parser.
>A BizTalk message looks nothing like XML Version 1.0. Whereas an X12 850 and
>an 810 are clearly of the same standard.

Now I haven't looked closely at BizTalk DTDs and software, I follow the
development of XML/EDI very much at a high level. This comment though rings
major alarm bells to me. Could you, Brad, or someone else give me a more
detailed explanation of how BizTalk fails to look like XML Version 1.0 and
why a BizTalk message must be run through a BizTalk parser?

Robin Anson
eCommerce Consultant
PO Box 572, Eltham, Victoria, Australia 3095
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
tel: 04 1938 1900

Every exit is an entry somewhere.
- Tom Stoppard

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