Chapter 9 -- The BizTalk Framework

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Chapter 9

What happens if a hundred different companies all create their own schemas to describe an invoice? What are the chances that any of these schemas will be compatible? The schemas might contain the same elements, but each schema will use different element names. For example, all invoices will probably have invoice numbers, but the element names for invoice numbers might be called InvNum, InvNo, InvoiceNo, InvoiceNum, and so on. We could end up with a hundred different XML documents, all referencing the same data. Each document would have a different structure, making it difficult to share these documents among companies. If each of your business partners used its own schema, you would need to write a different program to work with each XML document. Clearly you wouldn't want to do that. You would want every partner to use the same structure.

The example I just described illustrates that we need a framework for developing industry schemas. This framework should specify a common set of elements for some objects but should also have enough flexibility to allow people to collaborate on the development of schemas. The BizTalk Framework tries to be just that.

The BizTalk Framework provides a set of rules and a set of starter tags for creating schemas for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. BizTalk was created to foster the use of XML by making it easier to build schemas that partners can share. A common set of rules for creating schemas will promote the creation of more schemas, which will make it easier for partners to agree upon which schema to use. The BizTalk Framework enables a broad audience to adopt a common approach to using XML.

To process BizTalk documents, you need a BizTalk Framework Compliant (BFC) server. The BizTalk Framework enables independent software vendors (ISVs) and developers to more easily map one business process to another, thereby allowing for faster adoption of electronic interchange in a wide variety of industries that are using XML. Further, by establishing a critical mass of schemas implemented in a consistent format, the BizTalk Framework provides a clear design target for tools and infrastructure ISVs building next generation products for e-commerce and application integration.

BizTalk comprises four facets of a single initiative:

• The BizTalk Framework Independent Document Specification The BizTalk Framework is a set of tags that provides an addressing definition to get documents from one place to another and to invoke processing at each end. The BizTalk Framework works like a virtual envelope for sending business documents between trading partners. You can find a copy of this specification in Appendix B, and on the book's companion CD in the \References folder.
• BizTalk.org BizTalk.org is a Web site that provides a place to learn about e-commerce technologies—XML in general and BizTalk in particular. This site has discussion groups offering peer support for developing (schemas) and help in integrating them into the BizTalk Framework. (I talk more about BizTalk.org in Appendix C.) BizTalk.org is also a repository for schemas, allowing you to post your schemas for others to access. This service is free.
• BizTalk server To process your BizTalk documents, you'll need a BizTalk server, which is the software that reads BizTalk documents and then does something intelligent with them. The intelligent thing will depend on what systems you have in place and what needs to be done to process the documents. Consider other server software such as a mail server. Many different mail servers are available for companies to use. Mail servers run on any computer platform and range in price from free to expensive. Similarly, a BizTalk server can be written in any language to run on any computer platform. Several companies are working on servers that will process BizTalk documents and integrate with corporate back-end systems. You will see an example of a basic BizTalk server in Chapter 11.
• Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 The Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server only. Because of the nature of the open specification BizTalk Framework, you can create BizTalk messages on a Linux system running a BizTalk server written in Java, and read the messages on a Windows 2000 Advanced Server using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000. Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 is more than just a piece of software that writes and reads BizTalk documents. The product contains a complete B2B integration environment that allows you to communicate with your business partners using XML.