ebXML Framework Overview 葉 慶 隆 大同大學 資訊工程系 URL: From: Chapter 6, ebXML: Concepts and Application, by Brian Gibb and Suresh Damodaran, Wiley, 2003

Beyond Messaging2 Introduction We present a sample purchase order scenario to demonstrate the use of ebXML BPSS, CPPA, and Registry specifications.

Beyond Messaging3 The Purchase Use Case International purchase use case, adapted from a CEFACT model of international supply chain –Identify a partner –Negotiate a contract –Order goods –Ship the goods –Make payment The goal of ebXML framework is to create e-business solutions that automate the above steps.

Beyond Messaging4 Observations on the use case The following observations help to identify –what you can automate and –How to do so. Observation 1: Common business processes exist 1.Identify a partner (Step 1 of use case) 2.Negotiate and create a contract (Step 2 of use case) 3.Place order based on contract (Step 3 of use case) 4.Ship merchandise (Step 4 of use case) 5.Pay for merchandise (Step 5 of use case) 6.Archive trade records for auditing by authorities and to settle nonrepudiation of claims by collaboration partners.

Beyond Messaging5 Observations on the use case Observation 2: –Standardized yet customizable business documents in multiple formats are required –Request for Invoice (RFI), RFQ, Order –ASC X12, EDIFACT, OAGIS Business Object Document (BOD) Observation 3: –Standardized description of collaboration steps is required

Beyond Messaging6 Public and private processes BSI=Business Service Interface

Beyond Messaging7 Observations on the use case Observation 4: –Standardized description of each partners’s profile and the contract between partners are required Observation 5: –Support for intermediaries is required Observation 6: –Support for verification of authority constraints is required Observation 7: –Standardized protocols for discovery are essential Observation 8: –Security is paramount

Beyond Messaging8 The Move Toward Automation Each of the steps can benefit from automation. Step 3 is of higher priority to business than others steps Assumption is therefore made to the automation of Step 3. Business contracts that set the business terms of the trade between the customer and supplier, as well as with any intermediaries already exist

Beyond Messaging9 Performing the automation

The ebXML Framework at Work

Beyond Messaging11 The ebXML Framework at Work A hypothetical scenario –One customer, a retail chain store in the United States, does business transaction with one supplier, who is selling orchids in India Assumptions: –The supplier has been already identified by the customer, and a business contract is already in place between the partner regarding the economic and legal aspect of the deal. –The supplier and customer are already aware of the ebXML Registry where the business-process for ordering, shipping, and payment are store. –The supplier and customer are notified of references to the relevant business-process specifications and profiles in the registry through the exchanged RFQ, RFI, or other means

Beyond Messaging12 The ebXML Framework at Work The transaction process is outlined in the following steps: 1.The supplier queries the ebXML registry for the orchid purchase, orchid ship, and orchid payment process specifications that exist in the registry. The process specification contains business collaboration specified using the ebXML BPSS. 2.The supplier implements services and actions required to support the business collaborations. The supplier may implement new BSIs to facilitate invocation of the services and actions. The services for the role of supplier may be Purchase Service, and actions of this service may be Receive new purchase order, Send Confirmation or Query Status.

Beyond Messaging13 The ebXML Framework at Work 3.The supplier creates a profile of the services implemented. To define the profile, the supplier uses the ebXML CPP schema. The supplier’s schema is then registered and stored in the registry.The registry implements the model and interfaces specified in ebXML Registry. 4.The customer looks into ebXML Registry and finds the CPPs of the supplier and any intermediary.

Beyond Messaging14 The ebXML Framework at Work 5.The customer starts a negotiation with the supplier for finalizing the technical contract for flowers. –This step matches the supplier and customer CPPs, as published in the ebXML Registry. The contract covers only technical details required to send and receive interoperable, secure, and reliable message between the customer and supplier to allow invocation of services and actions the supplier and customer implement. These details are embodied in a CPA. –If intermediaries are involved, the negotiation is also carried out with each intermediary, by customer and supplier, and appropriate CPAs are created.

Beyond Messaging15 The ebXML Framework at Work 6.Both customer and supplier modify existing BSIs or create new BSIs to satisfy the newly created CPA, if necessary. –The Purchase service is executed using the BSI at each partner. –For shipping and payment of the money, similar BSIs are created at each partner involved, and appropriate business processes are carried between the customer and supplier through intermediaries. –The supplier uses a shipping intermediary to ship the orchids to the customer, and the customer makes the payment for the orchids through an intermediary, such as an international trade bank.

Phases in the Use of the ebXML Framework The implementation phase

Phases in the Use of the ebXML Framework The discovery phase

Phases in the Use of the ebXML Framework The runtime phase

Beyond Messaging19 Components of the ebXML Framework Defining how public business-process must be described using the ebXML BPSS standard. Defining the semantics of business documents that are exchanged in public processes using ebXML’s Core Component (ebCC) standard. Definition of services and the constraints in using the services using Collaboration Protocol Profile (CPP) defined in the ebXML CPPA standard. Description of the mutual agreement between the business partners – Collaboration Protocol Agreement (CPA) – to carry out the public business process. The schema for a CPA is also defined by ebXML CPPA standard. Protocols for registering, storing, and retrieving public business processes and associated business documents, and CPPs using the ebXML Registry standard. A standard way to send and receive messages between business partners, as defined in the ebXML Message specification.

Beyond Messaging20 The ebXML standards BPSS Registry Repository CC CPP CPA MS Business ProcessBusiness Document Discovery Partner Profile and Agreement Message Service

Beyond Messaging21 Syntax binding Standard Business Documents Instead of a syntax-based approach, the ebXML Core Components standard takes a semantic-based approach to defining business document. Core Component Business Information Entity EDI MIGXML Schema Other UML Context

Beyond Messaging22 Standard Business Documents A core component is a semantic element used for building the semantic structure of a business document. –E.g., the semantic structure of a purchase order will have semantic elements such as item, quantify, and so on. A CC represent a single piece of business information, e.g., TAX.Amount. CC+context  BIE (Business Information Entity) –A business context can be classified as belonging to a context category. –The ebXML CC standard specifies a few context categories, such as Industry Classification Category.

Beyond Messaging23 Standard Business Documents For example, when the Business Process Context is Purchasing, and the Geographical Context is EU, a BIE of VAT.Amount has the same structure and type as Tax.Amount. –Thus, when purchasing in EU countries, Tax.Amount is interpreted as Value Added Tax described as VAT.Amount.

Beyond Messaging24 Standard Business Documents The ebXML CC standard specifies the core components in a core component catalog. Similarly a BIE catalog can be created to store BIEs. The CCs and BIEs are described in UML and are stored in the ebXML registry in the same format. The UML representation of BIE may be converted into a variety of syntactic representation ranging from EDIFACT MIG, XML Schema, XML DTD, and others. To find the unique semantics of each of the data elements appearing in a business document, a Unique Identifier (UID), which maps to an entry in the core component catalog, is used.

Beyond Messaging25 Public Business Process Specification The ebXML BPSS provides an XML Schema for describing business processes. Advantages of XML-specified BP specifications –Being processed easily by computers –Promoting unambiguous interpretation by software providers –Improving interoperability –Being less costly. A process specification expressed in BPSS is –declarative, and can be interpreted; –Used to create a CPA, which, in turn, is used to created the BSI that is used to execute the business transactions.

Beyond Messaging26 Discovery The business partners use the ebXML Registry to retrieve and store the business process descriptions, business documents, and CPPs. An ebXML Registry can be thought of as a warehouse, and a catalog for this warehouse. Registry Contents are classified by the Submitting Organization. The classification can be done using one or more classification scheme, each with its own taxonomy. An SO may submit its own taxonomy as well. E.g., NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) classification scheme can be used to –Register a company as a book-publishing company by registering with the NAICS code of

Beyond Messaging27 Discovery The ebXML Registry does not restrict the type of registry contents that an SO can register and store. Some examples of information: –Company name, brand name, products, and services. –EDI implementation guidelines –UML diagrams (for information models or business-process models as in UMM) –Core component catalog –Business information entity catalog –Data dictionary –Business-process specifications –Collaboration protocol profiles and agreements –Images

Beyond Messaging28 Partner Profiles and Agreements The ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPPA) provides templates to define a CPP and a CPA using XML Schema. The CPP has two layers –A process-specification layer The information about a party and the business process specification the party supports –A delivery-channel specification layer The characteristics of the channels available for message delivery so that the services described in the business-process specification cab be invoked.

Beyond Messaging29 Partner Profiles and Agreements The process-specification layer contains the references to one or more process specifications. –The business process may be specified using ebXML BPSS. –The business process may typically specified by an industrial consortium. –The role the party is going to play in the business process is identified in the CPP The delivery-channel layer contains –a specification of the attributes of transport protocol (e.g., HTTP, or SMTP) used in transporting messages, and –the specification of document-exchange characteristics.

Beyond Messaging30 Interoperable Messaging The interoperable messaging component of the ebXML framework is specified in the ebXML Message Service Specification (MS). The ebMS provides the syntax and semantics of the message structure, which consists of a message header, body and attachments. The message header includes information about –Who is sending the message, –Who is the message intended for, –Which CPA the message conforms to, –The message ID, –A Conversation ID, and so on. The header contains optional reliability messaging parameters –Whether an ack is required, –How many times a message needs to be retried in case a message is not received, and so on The header also contains optional digital signatures to ensure its integrity.

Beyond Messaging31 Interoperable Messaging The ebMS uses existing technology as much as possible. –SOAP 1.1 for message structure, –SOAP with attachments and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) specification for packaging, and –XML signature for the digital signature. The ebMS specifies binding to HTTP and SMTP protocols for carrying the message. The message communication can be synchronous and asynchronous, and is defined independently of the underlying transport protocols.

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