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      The ASPToday Article
June 23, 2000
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BizTalk, XML, & the Future of e-Commerce   Stephen T. Mohr  
by Stephen T. Mohr
 
CATEGORIES:  DNA 2000, E-commerce, XML/Data Transfer  
ARTICLE TYPE: Overview Reader Comments
   
    ABSTRACT  
 
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 82 responses

Much has been said about how XML stands to revolutionize business to business


(B2B) e-commerce. The ability of a business to electronically connect to a


supplier or customer and conduct routine business without manual intervention


promises to cut costs and reduce time to market. In reality, practical problems


remain. And since you live in the real world, you have a keen interest in the


emergence of a variety of B2B intermediaries, third parties who look to


facilitate XML-based e-commerce. In this, the first of a two-part series, we’ll


see why intermediaries are important and how they work. I’ll focus on BizTalk,


an initiative driven by Microsoft but not dependent on Microsoft software, but


also mention some competing efforts and how they differ.

   
                   
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    ARTICLE

Much has been said, in these pages and elsewhere, about how XML stands to revolutionize business to business (B2B) e-commerce. The ability of a business to electronically connect to a supplier or customer and conduct routine business without manual intervention promises to cut costs and reduce time to market. For developers, this means some exciting opportunities to do something that will have a dramatic impact on your company. A widely supported open standard will solve all our interoperability problems, won’t it? XML is self-describing – applications will deduce the data format, won’t they?

The truth is, XML and related standards provide the theoretical basis for friction-free B2B transactions. In reality, practical problems remain. Since you live in the real world, you have a keen interest in the emergence of a variety of B2B intermediaries. These third parties look to facilitate XML-based e-commerce. In this, the first of a two-part series, we’ll see why intermediaries are important and how they work. I’ll focus on BizTalk, an initiative driven by Microsoft but not dependent on Microsoft software. BizTalk is arguably the most useful site for developers, but I’ll make mention of some competing efforts and how they differ. In next week’s article, I’ll dive into the XML syntax issues BizTalk requires.

The Value of Intermediaries

In theory, my company sends your company an XML document – invoice, catalog, etc. – and your company performs some service before replying with another XML document. In practice, while we may share the same concepts, e.g., purchase orders, my representation of those concepts probably differs from yours. Equally important, unless we are the leaders in our respective markets, we may never find each other. There’s nothing wrong with doing B2B with your partners from the paper era, but e-commerce is supposed to make everyone more efficient by helping them connect with the "best" vendor of a particular product.

E-commerce intermediaries, then, serve two functions. First, they act as a well-known clearinghouse for e-commerce companies. Second, they should provide technical support that enables one party to start sending messages to another party with a minimum of contact. After all, if your programmers have to explain the details of your message formats and communications protocols to every potential partner, you’ll be unlikely to do e-commerce with very many partners.

The Many Faces of BizTalk

A B2B intermediary does two things. The first is the clearinghouse mentioned above. The other is to provide a common syntax identifying a document as being compatible with the intermediary. This vocabulary lets participants handle communications issues in a standard way. There needs to be a way to translate documents in my format into documents in your format – my invoice should be translated from my syntax into your syntax for an invoice. The intermediary need not handle this, but the translation process should be compatible with the standard communications vocabulary we mentioned. BizTalk as a concept addresses these things with three faces: the BizTalk.org web site, BizTalk Framework, and Microsoft BizTalk Server.

BizTalk.org

BizTalk.org is the intermediary. It hosts a library of e-commerce schemas and related documentation. It provides background information on related XML standards to help you get started. It is also responsible for the BizTalk Framework. BizTalk.org is the place where prospective partners can go to connect. It requires a free membership sign-up.

BizTalk Framework

The BizTalk Framework is Biztalk.org’s XML vocabulary for routing and communications. Your message is embedded within the wrapper whose form is specified by the Framework. I’ll be going into detail on this vocabulary tomorrow. For now, you should know that the Framework requires very little in terms of message structure. It provides many optional elements and attributes that may convey application-specific information. This information is intended to help a document get where it’s going, and help the recipient fit it into the proper business context when it arrives.

Microsoft BizTalk Server

Once you have an XML schema, validation becomes a mechanical process. A major function of validating XML parsers is to compare the structure of an XML document to its associated schema and ensure all the document conforms to the schema. If you have two schemas and a mapping between them, XSL lets you do the translation as a data-driven process. If you have a common communications vocabulary, routing and delivery should similarly be a matter of configuration. The more we can do as configuration, the less custom code we have to write and maintain. With all these standards, there should be some off the shelf software to make B2B e-commerce easier.

Neither BizTalk.org nor the BizTalk Framework require any particular software or platform. Indeed, it is the hope of BizTalk that Windows platforms will be able to interoperate with Unix and Mac servers through the exchange of XML. Of course, Microsoft is in the business of selling software, so they are preparing a BizTalk product. BizTalk Server is due for release later this year. It is a Windows implementation of the translation and delivery tasks envisioned by BizTalk.org and the Framework. BizTalk Server will let systems administrators outline the technical characteristics of a B2B agreement. During operation, BizTalk Server will take incoming and outgoing messages and compare them to the agreements in its database. Based on what it finds, it will handle the appropriate translations and transmit the message on the desired protocol. It will support files with positional formats or non-XML delimited formats as well as XML, and is expected to handle the major Internet protocols as well as proprietary interprocess exchange methods like DCOM and MSMQ.

What this means for an ASP programmer is that you concentrate on the business process, turning interactions into XML documents. Techniques for doing this have been amply demonstrated in past ASPToday articles. BizTalk Server will worry about the details of translation and transmission.

A Tour of BizTalk.org

After you’ve visited the site and registered for membership, you’ll be able to access a lot of useful content. There is a News section to keep you advised of developments in the community. While much of the general news serves mainly to promote the site (which, arguably, is a useful function for an intermediary), there are breakdowns by industry groups as well. There is a resources section where you will find pointers to outside sites as well as white papers covering the Framework and related topics. One resource you may find interesting is the BizTalk Jumpstart Kit. At the moment, the BizTalk Server product is available only as an evolving technology preview, although a beta is expected later this summer. While you’re waiting for a feature complete beta, you can do pilot projects and learn about BizTalk by working with the Jumpstart Kit. It includes the full source for several applications that provide a limited sort of the features you’ll see in BizTalk Server. It is particularly useful for experimenting with the routing of messages. The kit is not intended for use in production systems and there are features of BizTalk Server that have no equal in the Jumpstart Kit. If you haven’t got access to the server code, though, the kit will allow you to explore the architecture of a BizTalk-based system.

An especially interesting feature of the site is the Community section. You’ll find threaded discussions ranging from beginner to expert about all facets of BizTalk development. You can get the latest information direct from the developers or exchange views with other BizTalk developers.

The real value of the site, however, is the library. This is a searchable repository of schemas submitted by real companies. You may search by keyword or by the NAICS classification of a company. Each schema submitted must be accompanied by HTML documentation and a sample of a valid BizTalk message composed according to the schema. BizTalk.org verifies all submissions, so programmers are assured of the accuracy of the samples. At the moment, over 150 companies have submitted hundreds of schemas, and the number of companies and schemas is growing daily.

The process works like this. A company submits a schema and its accompanying documentation. Schema submission requires a separate application from the registration you performed to get into the site, incidentally; the intent is to ensure each company is represented by a single contact designated by the submitting company. You, a prospective trading partner, come along and search the library for a schema relevant to your business. You find the schema and download the package. You can even register your interest in the schema. This tells the submitting company how many people are using their schema and allows the site to notify you when the schema is updated. With the schema and documentation in hand, you can begin configuring your BizTalk Server or write your own code to submit messages in the schema format. You will still need to contact the company for business arrangements, e.g., contracts and terms, but you will need little direct contact with the schema developers to begin talking to their e-commerce system. The library thus fulfills two purposes. The first, as we have just seen, is to help trading partners come together and perform the technical tasks to facilitate e-commerce. This function is just starting to take hold for BizTalk.org. In the meantime, the other function of the library is to provide you, a schema designer, with samples and useful structures you may reuse within the copyright terms set by the schema submitter.

Other Intermediaries

BizTalk.org is far from the only would-be B2B intermediary, of course. In fact, intermediaries seem to be popping up everywhere with the explosion of interest in using XML for e-commerce. Let’s have a look at some of the better known sites.

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) is a non-profit organization that hosts xml.org . They carry a certain amount of moral authority in the XML community as a non-commercial entity. Like BizTalk.org, xml.org seeks to host a schema repository, though they have not gone live with one as I write this. OASIS also participates in an international effort with the United Nations Body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) in the Electronic Business XML Initiative. The would-be repository site is found at http://www.xml.org%20/t%20_new?WROXEMPTOKEN=1563774Zpah5T5LqeNW1LvmdTo, while OASIS resides at http://www.oasis-open.org%20/t%20_new?WROXEMPTOKEN=1563774Zpah5T5LqeNW1LvmdTo.

RosettaNet takes a layered approach to developing e-commerce vocabularies. It is a consortium of businesses seeking to develop a framework for e-commerce. RosettaNet sees three layers for e-commerce: dictionaries, frameworks, and Partner Interface Processes (PIP). A dictionary is a collection of properties used to describe business transactions. RosettaNet is writing two data dictionaries, one for product properties and another for describing catalogs, partners, and transactions. These properties are combined through interchange protocols to form a grammar. RosettaNet’s framework will consist of XML DTDs that describe e-commerce protocols. RosettaNet’s, real focus is the PIP. A PIP is a dialog between partners consisting of some collection of XML documents and a business model describing how partners interact. A PIP also provides a mechanism for validating documents. RosettaNet imposes more structure on would-be partners than does BizTalk. Where BizTalk provides a loose framework for message vocabularies and some placeholders for information of interest to consuming applications, PIPs impose a protocol for the exchange of messages.

Our last site, CommerceNet, is also a consortium. It involves over 500 businesses and organizations and embraces a variety of e-commerce protocols. Founded in 1994, CommerceNet is farther along than the other intermediaries. Its focus is on bringing together partners to engage in particular opportunities. CommerceNet is behind the eCo Framework, which seeks to provide a common structure for all e-commerce specifications, including EDI, Open Buying on the Internet (OBI), and a variety of XML-based market vocabularies. CommerceNet is found at http://www.commerce.net%20/t%20_new?WROXEMPTOKEN=1563774Zpah5T5LqeNW1LvmdTo.

Where We Are Today

A quick visit to these sites will inform you that e-commerce intermediaries are just starting out. The entire XML community must learn more about the process as we deploy our first generation of e-commerce B2B sites. BizTalk.org is a healthy start. It is starting to attract content. Soon we may expect to hear the results of the first pilots projects built around the Framework. Whether you use BizTalk Server, the Jumpstart Kit, or custom code, though, the Framework and XML business documents provide a structured way to facilitate B2B exchanges.

Of course, this short article and a visit to the site won’t convince you of this. You should be ready to inspect the Framework more closely and see whether it will meet your data exchange needs. That’s precisely what we shall do next week. Part II will explain the rules of BizTalk Framework, show you a sample BizTalk document, and explain how such documents might be generated.

 
 
   
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  Related ASPToday Articles
   
  • Data Interoperability (August 30, 2000)
  • Generating XML Based "Auto-Request Quotes" From the Internet (July 6, 2000)
  • Writing to the BizTalk Framework (June 26, 2000)
  • The BizTalk Initiative (February 7, 2000)
  • Using the BizTalk JumpStart Kit to create a platform-independent e-commerce site (February 3, 2000)
  •  
           
     
     
      Related Sources
     
  • BizTalk.org: http://www.biztalk.org/
  • CommerceNet: http://www.commerce.net/
  • Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards: http://www.oasis-open.org/
  • RosettaNet: http://www.rosettanet.org/
  • United Nations Body for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business: http://www.xml.org/
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  • B2B, communications using BizTalk
  •  
  • BizTalk
  •  
  • BizTalk Framework, routing and communications use
  •  
  • BizTalk JumpStart Kit
  •  
  • BizTalk.org intermediary
  •  
  • BizTalk.org online library
  •  
  • BizTalk.org website
  •  
  • CommerceNet
  •  
  • CommerceNet B2B intermediary
  •  
  • e-commerce
  •  
  • e-commerce B2B intermediary
  •  
  • e-commerce intermediaries, functions
  •  
  • functionality
  •  
  • intermediaries, functions
  •  
  • MS BizTalk Server
  •  
  • MS BizTalk Server, translation and delivery tasks implementation tool
  •  
  • OASIS
  •  
  • Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
  •  
  • overview
  •  
  • parsers
  •  
  • Partner Interface Processes
  •  
  • PIP
  •  
  • PIP, using
  •  
  • RosettaNet
  •  
  • RosettaNet B2B intermediary
  •  
  • RosettaNet, used by
  •  
  • schemas
  •  
  • schemas, BizTalk.org online library
  •  
  • schemas, e-commerce
  •  
  • translation and delivery tasks implementation tool
  •  
  • using BizTalk in B2B communications
  •  
  • using in B2B communication
  •  
  • XML
  •  
  • XML parsers validation
  •  
  • XML parsers validation, BizTalk
  •  
  • xml.org website, schema hosting plans
  •  
     
     
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