Chapter Twelve. ebXML and Application Integration

There are standards, and there are standards. The ebXML (Electronic Business Extensible Markup Language) standard has evolved over the last few years into something very viable. Today, many organizations leverage ebXML as a B2B collaboration standard; sometimes they just use it within the enterprise.

To keep up with more modern Web services standards, ebXML has been updated to leverage Web services-based facilities such as UDDI and SOAP. Today, ebXML is a full-blown collaboration standard that supports everything from simple information exchange all the way to complex process integration.

One of the notions expressed in the world of ebXML is the concept of collaboration, or the ability to electronically exchange information, ideas, designs, or what have you, all while adhering to a common logical sequence.

What's important about ebXML in the context of application integration is the standard's ability to guide facilitation of information and processes in and between enterprises. Also note how it's one of those standards that is learning to leverage other standards, such as Web services.

While there are many standards that look like ebXML, ebXML is the first horizontal standard designed to address the exchange of information and adherence to interenterprise processes. However, in attempting to reach this lofty goal, ebXML is also a complex standard and takes some understanding before we can comprehend its value to the world of application integration and electronic business.

So, why do we need the ebXML standard? It's really a matter of leveraging the Internet to automate how we do business in real time, leveraging common processes and common information formats. The use of an electronic information standard and enabling technology are driving how we do business, and the interest in standards that provide a common mechanism to do this will only push us further along.

Thus was born ebXML, a collaboration between UN/CEFACT and OASIS. As you can tell by the name, ebXML is built on top of XML, as well as other Internet standards, including Web services, to create an infrastructure for information-based and process-based electronic business. This is a good standard, with growing interest from those doing B2B automation. ebXML provides just enough good technology to make it useful in the real world, without overhyping its capabilities, thus disappointing its implementers.

What is unique about ebXML is that it's a complete standard, addressing:

  • Process

  • Trading partner management

  • Semantics

  • Notation

  • Security

  • Agreements

  • Standard information exchange

  • Standard information structure

Other standards we discuss in this book, such as Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS), only address the notion of process and semantics, or other more narrow aspects of application integration between trading partners or internal systems.

However, the aggressiveness of ebXML is also its most limiting factor, because it will take years before the standard finds its way into many enterprises and trading communities. This is due to the amount of work that must occur to get a trading community to leverage ebXML.



Next Generation Application Integration(c) From Simple Information to Web Services
Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services
ISBN: 0201844567
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 220

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