XML/EDI Overview for Electronic Standards in Higher Education Michael C. Rawlins Rawlins EDI Consulting

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins2 Accompanying Text: I was born in the great state of Oklahoma, a state known across the country for oil and cattle. Now, I didn’t grow up on a ranch, but I spent a fair amount of time tromping through pastures when I went fishing with my dad. What does that have to do with anything? I’ve read a lot in the last year about how XML is going to fix all of our problems with EDI. To me, most of it bears a very strong resemblance to what I used to step in out in those pastures. What I would like to do for you all this morning is get out the brush and saddle soap, and clean off some of the … hype about XML; to tell you a bit about what it is, what it will and won’t do for EDI, and what it may mean to you as people concerned with electronic standards for higher education.

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins3 Topics XML Technology Overview XML/EDI Standards Overview

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins4 XML - Extensible Markup Language A “markup” language: This is Italic becomes This is Italic Subset of ISO SGML More powerful than HTML World Wide Web Consortium approval 2/98

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins5 XML as an Integration Technology Define tags for data Rawlins Many tools for software developers Can use mature file-oriented technologies “Mind share” advantage

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins6 XML/EDI - X12’s Effort 2/98 - 9/98 Joint Report with CommerceNet and the XML/EDI Group 10/98 - Began X12 Technical Report 6/99 - Technical Report planned completion 6/99 - Start phase 2

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins7 X12-XML Goal - “represent X12 semantics in XML syntax” Enable XML as an alternate syntax Primary target - small to medium enterprises

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins8 One Approach for X12-XML Encoding Native X12 ST*850*0001 BEG*00*KC*999** N1*SE*MIKE RAWLINS N3*PMB 29*14 CANYON CREEK VILLAGE N4*RICHARDSON*TX*75080 PER*CD**TE* line items, and so on … SE*25*0001 Equivalent X12-XML ORIGINAL CONTRACT MIKE RAWLINS PMB CANYON CREEK VILLAGE RICHARDSON TX line items, and so on… …

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins9 An X12-XML Architecture

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins10 Data Exchange using Browsers Ima Scholar 33 MAPLE STREET

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins11 Other XML/EDI Efforts Proprietary –CBL - Common Business Language –cXML - Commerce XML –BizTalk - Microsoft Voluntary Standards –EDIFACT –HL7 in Health Care

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins12 Two X12 Implementations

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins13 Many Implementations

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins14 Preventing Chaos XML/EDI Group UDEF Repository Work with X12 Education Subcommittee OO-edi

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins15 A Possible Evolution Technology X12-XML OO-edi by XML OO-edi via Object Technology Problems Addressed Integration and Mapping (somewhat) Business processes, Implementations Mapping

XML/EDI - Michael C. Rawlins16 Summary XML may ease some technical problems, but it’s still EDI Standards are needed Avoid technology-specific business standards For more information, visit