Using XSLT for B2B Application Integration

Although a number of standards exist for information interchange and process definition, industry standards have yet to emerge for defining common integration server and B2B integration server services such as routing, rules processing, and transformation. In the absence of such standards, individual vendors have created proprietary approaches to these basic information-processing services. As a result, we are confronted with features that are not interchangeable, require specialized training, and do not provide a common framework of services.

Even as we begin to implement standards such as XML, ebXML, RosettaNet, and BizTalk as mechanisms to manage information interchange, we are also looking to create standards that support information processing within the middle ware. These standards will define services common to most integration servers and to B2B integration servers, including rules and transformation.

XSLT seeks to fill the need for a standard approach to both rules and transformation processing. Like XML, XSLT is a standard written by the W3C, and it could become the preferred standard mechanism for transforming content and application semantics as information moves from application to application and business to business.

The power of XSLT resides in its simplicity, tight integration with XML, and the completeness of the standard. Although it does not provide every type of out-of-the-box transformation service currently found in most integration servers and B2B integration servers, XSLT provides the infrastructure to create such services through an extensible and declarative programming language. The operative word here is "currently." You can bet the farm that, as this standard evolves, more intracompany application integration and B2B vendors will create their transformation and rules-processing technology to reflect XSLT.