The OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism ebXML 2003, London, May 5 th .

1. The OASIS Content Assembly MechanismebXML 2003, London, May 5th. David RR Webber Chair OASIS CAM TC http://drrw.net david@drrw.net

2. The CAM family in a nutshell • CAM syntax - tool for business users to express the information exchange semantics and context of their business process steps as XML-based templates. • library of CAM templates – provides discovery and re-use of common transaction details and sharing of domain context along with consistent referencing to shared nouns and verbs. • CAM processing engine – component to provide consistent information exchanges that creates agile information networks with reduced costs of entry and support.

3. Agenda • Problem Understanding • What are we trying to solve and for whom? • Using CAM • Approach • Building templates • Next Steps • Roadmap for 2003

4. Content Assembly Landscape Business Requirements • Lower costs and reduced errors. • Greater efficiency of processes. • Drive consistent business conduct. • Increase speed of deployment. • Improve management controls. • Reduce risk for businesses. • Provide broad adoption profile Key: Enable use of XML metadata to build consistent information exchanges

5. Standards – OASIS mission OASIS drives the development, convergence & adoption of e-business standards - (XML plumbing) 

6. Conceptual Model for OASIS Transaction Instance Transaction Patterns Vertical Industry Area Specialized Content Specialized Processes Generalized Content Generalized Processes Content Definition Language Process Description Language Registry / Directory Conformance and Interoperability Management Quality of Services S e c u r i t y Repository XML and Web Services / ebXML Area Presentation Description Service Description Language Messaging XML Syntax Transport Network

7. Industry Trends According to the Gartner Group, by 2003, at least 70 percent of all new applications will be built primarily from components Components allow developers the ability to integrate multiple software modules when creating new applications, reducing in-house programming effort, leveraging sophisticated services, and increasing software quality which can significantly reduce the time, cost and effort of integrations projects. "

8. What are we trying to solve and for whom? Understanding the Problem

9. Building e-Business Orchestration • Define business ideas and needs • Capture steps and workflow • Then describe the business processing • Top layer – rules and context • Middle layer – industry/application integration • Implementation layer – physical application systems and content delivery / exchange

10. Business Layers Designing for Flexibility 2 1 Components Architectural Conceptual UDDI 5 ebXML CPA } 3 Constraints, Context, & Structure Business Layers Logical • BODs, MIGs, PIPs • Documentation 4 Process BPSS • transaction • schema • instance Implementation Physical

11. Business Layers - Objectives • Reduce complexity of managing large numbers of transaction formats - document the differences • Want to speed adoption by formalizing business rules • Want context-driven transaction generation • Empowers business users to build interchange details • Need to define in a neutral format: works with variety of structures, not just XML. • Augment current standards and industry specifications • Provide multi-step process support

12. Business Challenges for XML • Totally static transaction formats do not work – need configurable structures • How to apply business context assertions to a information structure? • How to derive a consistent way of specifying the interchange parameters to a partner? • How to enable business domain users to implement the exchanges? Key: Context is Everywhere The ability to create re-usable information components is driven by the ability to enable context

13. XML Schema? • Why not just use XML Schema? • OAGI did this for BODs V8.0 – but required supplementing schema with XSLT and XPath to capture business rules • Show stopper - no ability to enable business context

14. Lessons learned: Which XML Method(s)? • We need business collaboration on elements syntax: • Global complexType definition? • Global element definition? • or define both? • Reuse • Reference global element in external namespace? • Define local element as substitutionGroup of global element (bring into local namespace)? • Define local element using external Namespace complexType (bring into local namespace)? • Derive by extension, local element can have additional sub-elements added to it?

15. XML Schema - SWOT

16. XML by itself is not enough • XML, by itself, does not solve interoperability problems yet it is an important tool for doing so. • XML does not provide instant semantics. • XML by itself is not the magic bullet. • What we need are clear policies and vision of how electronic information enables interoperability

17. Using CAM The Approach

18. Building the right pieces • Need to intelligently use XML – get maximum benefit, while avoiding potential pitfalls. • Exploit work that others have done pathfinder for: OAGIS V8 use of Schema techniques; and best-practices on XML use • Provide syntax neutral methods wherever possible

19. e-Business Architecture Stack

20. XML Information Exchange Quality (and long-term consistency) Secure Authenticated Delivery and Tracking: Messaging system, envelope format and payload with exchange source profile controls Delivery Assembly XML OASIS CAM: Business logic for content structure decisions and explicit rules to enforce content, and interdependencies, with business exchange context, and content definition - UID references Schema: Content structure definition and simple content typing Schema Registry/ Dictionary business information UID content referencing system ensures consistent definition usage UID

21. Concept to Runtime Approach Re-usable Business Information components Registry Components Vocabulary nouns, and Industry Dictionaries Physical Conceptual Application Database Structure Choices 1 2 Required Content Structure 3 Payload Assembly CAM Assembly Structure Process Engine Content References Context Values Payload / Rendering Logical

22. Example : Address Horizontal and Vertical Use Matrix A = Government (Domestic) B = Vendor C = International Organization D = Customer E = Consortiums Top = Authoritative source D A A D C & A A, B B, D, E B, E A, B, C, E A, C, E Bottom = User and Implementers

23. Technology Positioning • We can use W3C Schema to show basic typing and structural permutations for all XML transaction content, matching the levels of the business model. • To provide automation of the business logic at-point-of-use requires OASIS CAM to supplement the Schema. • This gives us short-term implementation today, with long-term extensibility and improvement of business value and information quality. • Leverages today’s in-place XML technology, provides enhanced functionality for next generation.

24. CAM Dissection Required Components and Rendering in XML

25. Making Assembly Work <CAM> <AssemblyStructure/> <BusinessUseContext/> <ContentReference/> <DataValidations/> <ExternalMapping/> </CAM> • A,B,C,D,E! • Assembly Structure • Business Context Rules • Content Referencing • Data Validations • External Application Mapping

26. Technology Foundation excludeAttribute() excludeElement() excludeTree() makeOptional() makeMandatory() makeRepeatable() setRequired() setChoice() setId() setLength() setLimit() setMask() setValue() restrictValues() restrictValuesByUID() useAttribute() useChoice() useElement() useTree() useAttributeByID() useChoiceByID() useElementByID() useTreeByID() lookup() startBlock(), endBlock() • Simple XML V1.0 • XPath • Neutral approach to structure content • Assertion predicates

27. Simple Example • Simple Purchase Order • Straight up XML structure • Second example – structure choices • Included sub-assemblies

28. UBL Example – Ordering – OP70 • Two examples – USA: office supplies and UK: carpentry supplies. • UBL - W3C Schema • CAM - UK carpentry • CAM - USA office supplies • Combined CAM template with context

29. OAGIS V8.0 BOD Example Synch Party Example: BOD XPath validation extensions: Comparators equal() NOTequal() greaterthan () lessthan () greaterthanEQ () lessthanEQ () begins () ends () lookup () member () contains() +

30. Business Context Mechanism • Link between messaging layer, business process layer and assembly layer. <ebContext UIDref='SDIR03400' interchangeID='123456789' BPMref='ABC123456:01' CPAref='ABC012345' xmlns:as="http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/cam"> <header> <description>An example context instance</description> <version>1.0</version> <language refcode='eng' codelist='ISO639-2' name='English'/> <usage>CAM</usage> <usage>BPM</usage> </header> <conditions> <condition name="Country" value="USA" as:member="USA,CA,MX"/> <condition name="itemType" value="nonperishable" label="Item type:" as:member="nonperishable,perishable,refridgerated,fragile,heavy"/> <condition name="partnerType" value="wholesale" label="Partner type:" as:member="wholesale,retail,distributor,oem,service"/> <condition name="Catalogue" value="A2003-Q1" as:setLength="8" as:setMask="XNNNN-QN" as:UIDreference="SGIR:030451"/> </conditions> </ebContext>

31. External Mapping <ExternalMapping> <ContentAssociation> <Description>Product List</Description> <InputSource/> <OutputStore type=”SQL” location=”product_table”/> <RulesSet> <MapRule output="Products_List" input="@STARTGRP()"/> <MapRule output="type" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product@type"/> <MapRule output="name" input="@trim(Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@name)"/> <MapRule output="manufacturer" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@manufacturer"/> <MapRule output="value" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@value"/> <MapRule output="sold" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@sold"/> <MapRule output="Products_List" input="@ENDGRP()"/> </RulesSet> </ContentAssociation> </ExternalMapping>

32. Examples from the field Martin Roberts, CAM team member, presents examples from BT UK experiences

33. On-line Designer Form • Available at the SWIKI • http://cam.swiki.net/.uploads/livedemo/Activate.htm

34. Next Steps • Work in progress: • Completion of Specification • Implementation of CAM processor • Library of CAM templates • Integration with OASIS Registry assembly

35. Additional Information • OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee • http://oasis-open.org/committees/regrep/ • OASIS CAM (assembly) Technical Committee • http://oasis-open.org/committees/cam/ • ebXML.org • http://www.ebxml.org/ • http:ebxmlbook.com

36. OASIS – Content Assembly Mechanism Technical Committee (CAM TC) http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/cam Thank You • www.oasis-open.org • xml.coverpages.org • www.xml.org • www.ebxml.org

37. OASIS – Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM TC) April 2003http://cam.swiki.net