Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language, commonly known as e-business XML, or ebXML (pronounced ee-bee-ex-em-el, 'bi,eks,em'el as it is typically referred to, is a family of

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. ...

based standards sponsored by

OASIS In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentUN/CEFACT whose mission is to provide an open, XML-based infrastructure that enables the global use of

electronic business Electronic business (or "Online Business" or "e-business") is any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, grou ...

information in an interoperable, secure, and consistent manner by all trading partners. The ebXML architecture is a unique set of concepts; part theoretical and part implemented in the existing ebXML standards work. The ebXML work stemmed from earlier work on ooEDI (object oriented EDI),

UML The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. The creation of UML was originally ...

/ UMM, XML markup technologies and the

X12 X12 or X-12 may refer to: * ASC X12, the standard for the development and maintenance of Electronic Data Interchange standards for the United States * Convair X-12 The Convair SM-65B Atlas, or Atlas B, also designated X-12 was a prototype of th ...

EDI "Future Vision" work sponsored by ANSI X12 EDI. The melding of these components began in the original ebXML work and the theoretical discussion continues today. Other work relates, such as the

Object Management Group The Object Management Group (OMG) is a computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a range of technologies. Business activities The goal of the OMG was a common portable and interoperab ...

work and the OASIS BCM (Business-Centric Methodology) standard (2006).

Conceptual overview of ebXML architecture

While the ebXML standards adopted by ISO and OASIS seek to provide formal XML-enabled mechanisms that can be implemented directly, the ebXML architecture is on concepts and methodologies that can be more broadly applied to allow practitioners to better implement e-business solutions. A particular instance is the Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) work that continues within UN/CEFACT, whereas its cousin - UBL - Universal Business Language - specification is used within OASIS that implements specific XML transactions by applying the principles of CCTS to typical

supply chain In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, activ ...

transactions such as invoice, purchase order, ship notice and so on.

History

ebXML was started in 1999 as a joint initiative between the United Nations Centre for Trade facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and

Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS; ) is a nonprofit consortium that works on the development, convergence, and adoption of open standards for cybersecurity, blockchain, Internet of things (IoT), emer ...

(OASIS). A joint coordinating committee composed of representatives from each of the two organizations led the effort. Quarterly meetings of the working groups were held between November 1999 and May 2001. At the final plenary a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the two organizations, splitting up responsibility for the various specifications but continuing oversight by the joint coordinating committee. The original project envisioned five layers of data specification, including XML standards for: * Business processes, * Collaboration protocol agreements, * Core data components, * Messaging, * Registries and repositories All work was completed based on a normative requirements document and the ebXML Technical Architecture Specification. After completion of the 6 specifications by the two organizations, 5 parts of the work were submitted to ISO TC 154 for approval. The

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...

(ISO) has approved the following five ebXML specifications as the ISO 15000 standard, under the general title, Electronic business eXtensible markup language: * ISO 15000-1: ebXML Collaborative Partner Profile Agreement (ebCPP) * ISO 15000-2: ebXML Messaging Service Specification (ebMS) * ISO 15000-3: ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM) * ISO 15000-4: ebXML Registry Services Specification (ebRS) * ISO 15000-5: ebXML Core Components Specification (CCS) ISO 15000-5:2014
/ref> OASIS technical committees and UN/CEFACT retain the responsibility for maintaining and advancing the above specifications.

Collaborative Partner Profile Agreement

Collaborative Partner Profile Agreements are

based documents specifying a trading agreement between trading partners. Each trading partner will have their own Collaboration Protocol Profile (CPP) document that describes their abilities in an XML format. For instance, this can include the messaging protocols they support, or the security capabilities they support. A CPA (Collaboration Protocol Agreement) document is the intersection of two CPP documents, and describes the formal relationship between two parties. The following information will typically be contained in a CPA document: *Identification information: the unique identifiers for each party and their roles within the trading relationship *Security information: for instance, are digital signatures required, and what algorithms do they use *Communication information: the protocols that will be used when exchanging documents *Endpoint locations: the URL, service and action messages should be sent to *Rules to follow when acknowledgments are not received for messages, including how long to wait before resending, and how many times to resend *Whether duplicate messages should be ignored *Whether acknowledgments are required for all messages

Messaging Service Specification

The Message Service Specification (ebMS) describes a communication-neutral mechanism Message Service Handlers (MSH) must implement in order to exchange business documents. ebMS3.0 is the current version of the specification. ebMS3.0 is built as an extension on top of the

SOAP with Attachments SOAP with Attachments (SwA) or MIME for Web Services is the use of web services to send and receive files with a combination of SOAP and MIME, primarily over HTTP. Note that SwA is not a new specification, but rather a mechanism for using the e ...

specification. The

SOAP Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are used ...

message contains the meta-data required to exchange the business document in a secure and reliable manner, while the business payload is attached to the

message. Multiple business payloads may be attached to a single message, and the format of the payloads is beyond the scope of the ebXML specifications. The information trading partners place in ebMS messages is largely dictated by the CPA agreement that defines the relationship between them. The following information is typically contained within ebMS messages: *Unique message identifier *Who the message is for *Who sent the message *A conversation identifier for linking related messages *A digital signature based on the XML Signature specification *An indication for whether duplicate messages should be ignored *An indication for whether acknowledgments are required ebMS is communication protocol neutral, although the most common underlying protocols are

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...

and

SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typic ...

References

Citations

Sources

* * *

External links

XML.org ebXML communityebXML.org
{{OASIS Standards XML-based standards XML markup languages World Wide Web Consortium standards Technical communication Computer file formats Data modeling languages