1. 20012001 The ebXML Technical Architecture Presented by: Duane Nickull CTO, XML Global Technologies May 2001

2. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Before we begin… Caveats – ebXML is a work in progress and the work you see today could be subject to change.

3. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Presenter – Duane Nickull Co-lead/Chief Editor - ebXML Technical Architecture, ebXML Steering Committee Founder and CTO of XML Global Technologies (www.xmlglobal.com)www.xmlglobal.com Co-engineered / invented –GoXML – First Context based XML Search Engine. –First XML e-Commerce Pro (launched Mar 1999). Working with OAG, OASIS, UDDI, HRXML, WSDL Built a reference implementation of ebXML Technical Editor / Director of XSLT.com duane@xmlglobal.com

4. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Initial Thoughts: Examine some business technical needs Look at the overall architecture of ebXML. Show working example of XML Global ebXML marketplace Discuss implementing ebXML today Followed by: ebXML Proof of Concept Demonstration

5. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Business Technical Needs Link traditional data exchanges (EDI or new XML) to business applications. Create business processes based on smart documents. Provide means for trading partners to quickly and easily locate re-usable components. Provide means for trading partners to customize methods to their own internal systems. Low cost server and client based solutions.

6. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 The need for XML It is desirable to transport data around networks (including the internet). Ideally, that data should be self describing. SGML was too complex, HTML not robust enough.

7. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 What is Self Describing??? ST*323*712990413 V1*7039610*NEW ZEALAND QUEEN*D*104N*SCAC***L LS*0100 R4*D*D*JAX*JACKSONVILLE FL**** V9*EAD**920819**JACKSONVILLE FL***A26 R4*D*D*ORF*NORFOLK, VA**NORFOLK INTL TERMIN** V9*EAD**920817**NORFOLK, VA***A26 R4*L*K*MEB*MELBOURNE, AUST**** V9*EDD**920712**MELBOURNE, AUST***A40 R4*L*K*SYD*SYDNEY, AUST**** V9*EDD**920715**SYDNEY, AUST***A40 R4*L*K*WLG*WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND**** V9*EDD**920721**WELLINGTON, NEW ZEA***A40 LE*0100 SE*25*712990413

8. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 XML is Self Describing Rod 12.00 1 Reel 15.00 1 Bait 24.00 3

9. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 XML issues… XML is a markup language XML, by itself, does not solve interoperability problems yet it is an important tool for doing so. Using XML alone, does not provide semantics XML is a not programming language XML is not a fixed element language XML is not difficult to understand XML will not replace HTML XML does not solve business problems XML Schemas do not provide semantics or solve business problems. –What we really need is a dynamic cross-walk mechanism for XML based vocabularies.

10. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Thus the need for ebXML Through the “Electronic Business XML” (ebXML) Initiative OASIS and UN/CEFACT want to lower the barrier of entry to electronic business in order to facilitate trade, particularly with respect to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and developing nations. ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

11. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 The ebXML Technical Architecture

12. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Ebxml Architecture design BUSINESSTRANSACTIONSBUSINESSTRANSACTIONS BUSINESSTRANSACTIONSBUSINESSTRANSACTIONS Viewed as Information technology aspects of business transactions Information technology aspects of business transactions Business Operational View Functional Service View Business aspects of business transactions Comply with Covered by BOV related standards* Comply with Covered by FSV related standards * UML Models

13. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Business Operational View

14. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Business Operational View (BOV) The BOV addresses the semantics of: 1) The semantics of business data in transactions and associated data interchanges 2) The architecture for business transactions, including: i) operational conventions; ii) agreements; iii) mutual obligations and requirements. These specifically apply to the business needs of ebXML Trading Partners.

15. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 FSV Architecture Interface CPA

16. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Functional Service View (FSV) The FSV addresses the supporting services meeting the mechanistic needs of ebXML. It focuses on the Information Technology aspects of: i) functional capabilities; ii) service interfaces; iii) protocols.

17. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 TA Philosophy Architect ebXML in Layers Start with the high level use cases The first layer has to recognize the Repository Items that constitute Core Components (ie address, tel). The second Layer has to recognize the Business Process (BPM) Third Layer is discovery of what partners require (CPP – Collaborative Process Protocol) Use existing work – the wheel is already round!!!! Write test code (informally) to test concepts!!!

18. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML High Level use case

19. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 The conceptual overview has therefore introduced the following concepts and architectural components: 1. A standard mechanism for describing a business process and its associated information model (BPSS) 2. A mechanism for registering and storing a business process and information model so that it can be shared/reused (Registry) 3. Discovery of information (from the CPP) about each participant including:  What business processes they support.  What service interfaces they offer in support of the business process.  What business messages are to be exchanged between their respective service interfaces.  Technical configuration of the supported transport, security and encoding protocols Concepts

20. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Concepts (continued) 4. A mechanism for registering the aforementioned information so that it may be discovered and retrieved (Registry Client or Interface) 5. A mechanism for describing a Trading Partner Agreement (CPA) which can be derived from the information about each participant from their CPP. 6. A standardized messaging service which enables interoperable, secure and reliable exchange of messages between two parties (ebXML TRP) 7. Mechanism for configuration of the respective messaging services to engage in the agreed upon business process in accordance with the constraints defined in the CPA.

21. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Architecture At the heart of ebXML is a powerful system of Registries and Distributed Repositories. The Registry is really the interface to the documents. Registries contain pointers and meta information about many different items - Core Components, DTD, Trading Partner Profiles and Business Process documents. It is important that we can reference items (CC) from Business Process Layer down to the most atomic Element Level. Repository Registry Synchronization API I / O

22. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Repository Item Examples Registry systems can give you information about many types of ebXML documents - CPP and CPA templates - Business Process Documents - Core Components and CC Aggregates - DTD’s and Schemas (Assembly documents)

23. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Registry Item Examples XML elements in business messages can reference items callable from a Registry. Examples: – All are the same item!!!

24. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Registry Item Examples XML elements in business messages can reference items in a registry. Examples: – All are the same item!!!

25. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 XML Elements in document instances contain pointers to RI’s Registry Items are metadata – not instances of data Registry API Duane API 12345 name PersonName Managed object Managed object Managed object

26. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Registries – deployment Both centralized and decentralized RegRep models shall be acceptable within the ebXML infrastructure. The ebXML registry architecture supports distribution. No single point of failure

27. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Centralized System User Registry (API) Repository

28. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Decentralized Repository / Distributed Registry User Registry (API) Searching and indexing only Repository Items Repository Items Repository Items Repository Items Repository Items Repository Items Registry (subscribes to decentralized Repository Items sync

29. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML – CPP and CPA Tells you who, interfaces, tModels etc. Provide a list of interfaces expressed as Business Processes (and binding’s) Each Process has a Globally Unique Identifier (called UUID in UDDI, GUID in ebXML) Similar efforts – IBM TPAML, UDDI, eCo. CPP PreviewPreview

30. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Business Process BP describe document choreography and overall process interfaces. Identify which business data needs to be present to ensure requirements of a party is being met. Examples can be “Deliver a service” or “Purchase a product” Identify DTD’s by GUID BPM PreviewPreview

31. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Core Components: A Core Component captures information about a real world (business) concept. A Core Component can be either an individual piece of business information (atomic data element), or a natural 'go-together' family of business information pieces (aggregate data element). It is ‘ Core ’ because it occurs in many different areas of industry/business information exchange. CC PreviewPreview

32. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML CC and XML Vocabularies Vocabularies (eg. xCBL 2.0, Ariba cXML) contain elements that may be semantically identical to some of the common core components. Examples can be an element on a xCBL invoice and the on a Visa XML Invoice. Core Components MAY have contextual behaviour at run time –i.e. PurchaseOrder.sendParty(name) != PurchaseOrder.buyerParty(name)

33. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Phases Phases of implementing and running ebXML..

34. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Implementation Phase ebXML Specification ebXML Business Service Interface (application) ebXML Registry Business Process and Information Models Request / Send Receive RequestSpecification() ReceiveSpecification() RequestLexicon() ReceiveLexicon() RequestBusinessObjectLibrary() ReceiveBusinessObjectLibrary() RequestSomeOnesBusinessProcessInformationModel() ReceiveBusinessSomeOnesBusinessProcessInformationModel() SendOwnBusinessProcessInformationModel() ReceiveAcknowledgementForOwnBusinessProcessInformationModelAcceptance() SendOwnTradingPartnerProfile () ReceiveAcknowledgementForOwnTradingPartnerProfile () Lexicon (Core Component) Content Business Object Library

35. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Business Service Interface (application) ebXML Registry Business Process and Information Models Request Receive Update TPP Registry Query Retrieve (abstract) Lexicon (Core Component) Content Business Object Library ebXML Service Interface (application) Send RequestSomeOnesTradingPartnerProfile() ReceiveSomeOnesTradingPartnerProfile () RequestSomeOnesNew/UpdatedBusinessProcessInformationModel() ReceiveBusinessSomeOnesNew/UpdatedBusinessProcessInformationModel() SendTradingPartnerAgreement() ReceiveAcknowledgementForTradingPartnerAgreement() RequestLexiconUpdate() ReceiveLexiconUpdate() RequestBusinessObjectLibraryUpdate() ReceiveBusinessObjectLibraryUpdate() Some examples of possible access service methods List of Scenarios Messaging Constraints Security Constraints Discovery Phase

36. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Run Time Phase ebXML Business Service Interface (application) SendBusinessMessage() ReceiveBusinessMessageAcknowledgement() ReceiveBusinessMessage() SendBusinessMessageAcknowledgement() GenerateErrorMessage() ReceiveErrorMessage() Send Retrieve ebXML Business Service Interface (application) Some examples of possible transport methods

37. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Business Profile Registry Business Process Registry DTD / Schema Registry Core Component Library Registry Trading Partner “A” Big Co. Trading Partner “B” Big Co. Business Profile Document (XML) Business Process Document (XML) GUI Reg DTD’s / Schemas Indexes XML instances based on rules and meta data in index.xml Core Component Library Registry Abstract Layers.

38. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Special Considerations for SME’s SME’s will not likely have the expertise to start modeling business processes in UML. Address complexity issues – part of the reason why EDI failed to scale/ SME’s need a cost effective solution – plug and play type components. ebXML is designed to allow lightweight packages and scaled integration. DEMO – ALPHA (online)

39. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Repository system How ebXML SME’s interact SME’s will likely use packages from ASP’s which will present simple web forms for them to fill out. These will include many stock business processes, identifiable by a GUID (UUID). An SME may also identify and use BPM’s (Business Processes) and DTD’s / Schemas used by its partners. Trading Partner (ebXML Compliant) Trading Partner Profile Trading Partner Profile Registry APIHuman Interface SECURITY LAYER GUI Tool

40. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Business information Collaborat ion Protocol Profile (CPP) 1.. Supported Business Process > DTD’s Schemas? DTD’s Schemas? DTD’s Schemas? > 1.. Core Comp. Core Comp. Core Comp. Core Comp. Core Comp. Core Comp. Core Comp Common Business Objects > Decomposition to the most atomic level is the winning strategy for ebXML. It allows for automated semantic recognition of business information by using Registry services.

41. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Business Message References Business Process Layer Business Info Layer Examples: eCo.xml UDDI Repository Items Registry References to: Examples: xCBL, cXML Visa Inv. Business Messages Human Search Interface API Business Application Interface Partner Discovery Layer Examples: ebXML BP Syntax Human Actors

42. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Building an ebXML Marketplace Caveat – do not claim you have an ebXML compliant marketplace until the spec is done and conformancy tests are available. Start with slow transition. Adopting ebXML is not really complex but needs to be well though out. Some specific tools are needed.

43. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Marketplace Architecture Registry/Repository is used as a central mechanism for Registration and subsequent discovery of XML meta data. XML Global uses XML Search Engine tightly coupled with Native XML Database. Facilitates ebXML TRP as messaging.

44. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Marketplace Architecture Tools on front end allow companies to Register their CPP’s.

45. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Building an ebXML Markeplace Once a Skeleton CPP is built, the user may add one or more Business Processes

46. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 XML Global ebXML Marketplace Users’ CPP is now complete with BP’s and other participants can query the Registry using published API. Registry ebXML Users CPP

47. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 XML Global ebXML Marketplace Another User can now retrieve and examine the CPP if they are wanting to do business with the first user. Registry CPP

48. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Building an ebXML Marketplace As long as they know some basic information, they can compose a CPA and propose it to the first organization. Self(CPP)other(CPP) CPA Verify() TRP_Packaging Propose()

49. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Building an ebXML Marketplace The recipient can then examine the CPA and check it. If it is acceptable, they may wish to sign it. A business Agreement is now in place. ReceiveProposedCPA() Validate() Recognize BP() Accept() | Reject() | CounterPropose()

50. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 ebXML Marketplace Once a CPA and BP have been recognized (by GUID or by query), business information can be transformed using a declarative transformation tool. Backend System Proprietary Data Format ebXML Compliant XML Syntax Data Exchange

51. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Data Transformation is key DEMO.NET Transformation http://demo.xmlglobal.com

52. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Interface xCBL UDDI Biztalk Schema s Repository XML Cache XML Cache API Human Search Interface INDEX TP #1TP #2 EbXML Application Local Cache INTERCHANGE Manual Search ebXML App. Business modeling Registry API Human Interface SECURITY LAYER Syntax Validation synchronizes QUERIES Repository Registry QUERIES Business Interface Putting all the pieces together

53. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Some Final Thoughts.. ebXML to build an open architecture, not a “Standard” Truly interoperable and Extensible (Global) Includes everyone from SME’s to Fortune 1000 XML Global has begun implementing this year (2001) Thank you! Duane Nickull

54. © Copyright, January 2001, see final slide. 20012001 Copyright Notice / Credits Copyright Notice / Credits Copyright is owned by the Author however, you are hereby granted the right to reuse, distribute, translate and show this presentation, free of any royalty in the spirit of open sharing of information. There are no restrictions other than modification of this copyright notice or credits which must remain intact. Contact Duane Nickull, duane@xmlglobal.com You may use this presentation freely for your purposes!