The BizTalk Document and Message Specification

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The BizTalk Framework promotes the use of XML in B2B transactions by proposing a structure for creating XML documents. In this section, you will learn more about the BizTalk Framework.

Some people say that using XML to encode data is like using ASCII to produce text documents: the format is so flexible that no two uncoordinated efforts wind up being compatible. Let's say you use ASCII to encode your documents. I should be able to read them, right? Well, let's say that you write in French and read in English. Even though we are both using ASCII, we can't necessarily communicate. Using the same encoding technique just means that I can read your files on my machine. Full understanding doesn't take place until I can understand the framework in which you create your information. We have the same problem with XML. Just because you create an XML document doesn't mean that I can understand it. It just means that I can assure the document follows the rules of XML syntax and, if a schema is available, whether the document is valid according to the structure defined in the schema.

The problems with using XML to describe information range from deciding what to describe to deciding what to name each field. Once users get beyond these important issues, they need to tag their data so that another party or application can recognize what has been sent.

The BizTalk Framework provides a way for developers to write applications that can more easily process XML documents. The BizTalk Framework defines a set of tags and provides design guidelines and ideas for creating your own tag sets for exchanging information with your business partners. In other words, the BizTalk Framework defines a consistent way to use XML. As a result, you can easily determine what type of XML document you have received and what information the document contains.

The BizTalk Framework views XML documents as messages that businesses pass around. It is concerned partly with how these documents are created and partly with how they are routed. The BizTalk Framework provides the mechanisms to programmatically "mail" XML documents.

Many industries are working on schemas devoted to solving the information interchange problems in their particular industry. These schemas can't necessarily be shared across industries. A schema written to transmit medical records, for example, is not appropriate for financial transactions. An insurance claim schema would not be used for real estate transactions. These industry groups are concerned with defining the data structures, not necessarily with how the transactions get from one place to another.

BizTalk is driven by Microsoft and includes many organizations on its steering committee, including Ariba, Boeing, Compaq, J.D. Edwards, SAP, webMethods, UPS. Because many different industries are collaborating, BizTalk is a little different from efforts being made by particular industries or global organizations. BizTalk provides a framework for integration by specifying how to get information from one place to another.

As you will see, the actual information being sent can be any document using any schema. In this way, BizTalk becomes the wrapper for business documents, much like a paper envelope works now. Let's take a look at a typical business transaction the old way, and then see how we might use XML to do the same transaction.