XML for Advantage Plex the Patterns a Customer

XML for Advantage™ Plex – the Patterns & a Customer Example Christian Ernstsen Soft Design A/S Session Code: 8 E

Biography w Christian Ernstsen, Software Developer Soft Design A/S w Software Developer in the Websydian Development Team since January 2001 w Presentations at Edge EMEA 2001, CAWorld 2002, Edge US 2002 w M. Sc. Planning and Technology Management

Agenda w Where does XML fit into the Advantage Plex problem domain ? w XML in General w Modelling the structure of XML documents w A customer example – price and quote system in the B 2 C insurance market

XML and Advantage Plex Where does XML fit into the Advantage Plex problem domain ?

XML and Advantage Plex w Advantage Plex is build for transaction based systems on relational databases w This is the focuspoint for Transac. XML w Advantage Plex and Transac. XML n n Where structured relational information must be interchanged with business partners Web Services w Transac. XML is used where business logic: n n Produces and sends an XML document Receives and processes an XML document

XML and Advantage Plex w XML solves a number of interchange problems n n Structure by Schema’s or DTD’s Parsers using DOM interfaces w However… XML development requires n n A number of new technologies to learn Much code has to be written => risk w Whereas Advantage Plex and Transac. XML n n Isolates the underlying technologies By skills integration reduces risk and enables faster time to market

XML in General

XML in General XML = e. Xtensible Markup Language SGML (early 80’s) HTML (1990) XML (1996) SOAP c. XML

The XML Parser Instance(s) of XML Text Document XML Parser Abstract Description DTD / Schema DOM Interface w XML parsers are build for all major SW implementations w XML parsers have a well defined interface – DOM (Document Object Model)

Websydian and XML Instance(s) of XML Text Document XML Parser Abstract Description DTD / Schema DOM Interface Transac. XML Wsy. Dom Wsy. XML Wsy. Soap My. Model Wsy. HTTP

Websydian and XML w Websydian now supports both MSXML (Windows) and Xerces (Java)!

The Transac. XML Approach Modelling the Structure of XML Documents

XML Example Belgian Waffles, $5. 95, two of our famous Belgian Waffles with plenty of real maple syrup, 650 Strawberry Belgian Waffles, $7. 95, light Belgian waffles covered with strawberries and whipped cream, 900

XML Example

Tree of ”breakfast-menu”

Set xml. Doc = Create. Object("microsoft. xmldom") xml. Doc. load("c: breakfast-menu. xml") Set root = xml. Doc. document. Element Set node. List = root. child. Nodes Set food = node. List(0) Set name = food. first. Child Set text. Node = name. first. Child Set name. Text = text. Node. node. Value Set price = name. next. Sibling Set text. Node = price. first. Child Set price. Text = text. Node. node. Value Set description = price. next. Sibling Set text. Node = description. first. Child Set description. Text = text. Node. node. Value Set calories = description. next. Sibling Set text. Node = calories. first. Child Set calories. Text = text. Node. node. Value This code is without any errorhandling – it is just to show the basic steps of traversing a tree using DOM.

DTD Example <!ELEMENT breakfast-menu "food+"> <!ELEMENT food "name, price, description, calories? ”> <!ELEMENT name "#PCDATA"> <!ELEMENT price "#PCDATA"> <!ELEMENT description "#PCDATA"> <!ELEMENT calories "#PCDATA">

Model of the Structure in Advantage Plex <!ELEMENT breakfast-menu "food+"> <!ELEMENT food "name, price, description, calories? ”> <!ELEMENT name "#PCDATA"> <!ELEMENT price "#PCDATA"> <!ELEMENT description "#PCDATA"> <!ELEMENT calories "#PCDATA">

The Transac. XML Patterns w Read services: n n n Single. Fetch Process. Group Flat. View w Update/Insert services: n n Insert. Row Update. Row Delete. Row Insert. Row. Dangling Set xml. Doc = Create. Object("microsoft. xmldom") xml. Doc. load("c: breakfast-menu. xml") Set root = xml. Doc. document. Element Set node. List = root. child. Nodes Set food = node. List(0) Set name = food. first. Child Set text. Node = name. first. Child Set name. Text = text. Node. node. Value Set price = name. next. Sibling Set text. Node = price. first. Child Set price. Text = text. Node. node. Value Set description = price. next. Sibling Set text. Node = description. first. Child Set description. Text = text. Node. node. Value Set calories = description. next. Sibling Set text. Node = calories. first. Child Set calories. Text = text. Node. node. Value Skills integration through reuse of Advantage Plex concepts

Business Data Interchange w w w Conventional EDI Data Connection ü VAN Operator Data Comm. Protocol ü VAN Operator Dependent Data Definition ü ASC/X 12, UN/EDIFACT Data Representation ü ASN. 1 Data Recognition ü Implementation Dependent Data Processing ü Business Logic Dependent A lot of good and proven solutions, however these technologies are ”store and forward” technologies and relatively costly.

Business Data Interchange Transactional XML w w w Data Connection Data Comm. Protocol Data Definition Data Representation Data Recognition Data Processing ü The Internet. ENTERPRISE - TCP/IP WEBSYDIAN TRANSACXML – Web Services ü HTTP ü XML Schema / DTD ü XML Document WEBSYDIAN ENTERPRISE TRANSAC XML ü XML Parser ü Business Logic Dependent

Customer Example A customer example – price and quote system in the B 2 C insurance market

Customer Example w LB (Lærerstandens Brandforsikring) n n n Insurance company Users of Advantage Plex for 4 years Business processes as components written in Advantage Plex w Insurance broker – ”Forsikringsluppen” n n Visibility into the insurance market-place Portal with insurance quotes for all participating insurance companies Portal implemented using XML LB first company ready to participate

LB’s XML applications Insurance Portal Customer (Browsers) Internet XML application reusing Websydian applications Advantage Plex application made as component Firewall Websydian applications Web server Customer (Browsers) Corporate Database

Transac. XML Document generator Transac. XML Document handler Transac. XML Dispatcher XML Response document Portal HTML XML Request document End-user Web-browser

References - Links w www. lb. dk w www. forsikringsluppen. dk w www. websydian. com

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