The Universal Business Language: An Excursus Eve Maler Sun Microsystems.

The UniversalBusiness Language:

An Excursus

Eve Maler

Sun Microsystems

A little about me

• My specialties are:– XML information modeling– Standards development and facilitation

• I’m on the OASIS UBL Technical Committee and I chair one of its major subcommittees

• I fill several key roles on the SAML standard effort• In previous lives I helped develop DocBook, XML

itself, XLink, Pipeline, and more– And wrote a book on SGML DTD design methodology

Overview

• Promises, promises• EDI and ebXML• The UBL problem space• Making UBL happen• ebXML Core Components• The UBL modeling methodology• Designing the UBL schemas• Contextualizing UBL• UBL status• Resources• Summary

Promises, promises

The promise of XML fore-business?

• Plug ‘n’ play electronic commerce• Spontaneous trade• No custom programming• Ubiquity on the Internet• Dirt-cheap tools• Complete platform independence

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple

• It’s very difficult, and maybe not even desirable, to take the humans out of business– Building trust relationships– Exception handling

• XML is just a metalanguage– Tag soup doesn’t give you interoperability– Seamless communication requires shared meaning– Shared meaning requires semantic standardization across

whole industries– This is where UBL comes in

The Universal Business Language

• An XML-based business language standard-in-progress

• Leverages existing EDI and XML B2B• Applicable across all industry sectors and domains of

electronic trade• Actually modular, reusable, and extensible• Non-proprietary and committed to freedom from

royalties• Intended to become a legal standard for international

trade

UBL offers some realistice-business promises

• Genuine advantages over EDI and proprietary/vertical XML B2B:– Lower cost of integration, both among and within enterprises– Lower cost of commercial software– Easier learning curve– Lower cost of entry– Quicker adoption by small and medium-size enterprises

(SMEs)– Standardized training– Universally available pool of skilled workers

EDI and ebXML

The EDI stack

VANPackaging/transport

CASE toolBusiness processes

Ad hoc TPABusiness agreements

EDIFACT,X12

Standard messages

MIGsMessage

contextualization

Infra-structure

Payload

Some EDI pressure points

• It’s hard to get in the game• Private networks are expensive• You need to do extensive point-to-point

negotiation• The interchange pipe is large, with infinite

possible subsets• You use a “soft” mechanism for adapting to

special business contexts

The ebXML initiative

• A joint 18-month effort, concluding in May 2001, of:– OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured

Information Standards)– UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation

and Electronic Business)

• Over 1000 international participants• The vision: a global electronic marketplace• Enterprises of any size, anywhere, can:

– Find each other electronically– Conduct business by exchanging XML messages

• ebXML work continues in several venues

The ebXML stack

Packaging/transport

Business processes

Business agreements

Standard messages

Messagecontextualization

MessageService

BPSS

CPP/CPA

CoreComponents

Contextmethodology

Reg/Rep

Discovery/retrieval

ebXML status

• The infrastructure specifications are all maturing; most are past V2.0– The Reg/Rep spec has been approved as an OASIS

Standard

• The payload specs are in active development• Conformance tests are being developed• Industry groups are endorsing ebXML

– OTA, AIAG, RosettaNet, and more

• Products, open source implementations, interop events, and pilots are happening

• Both “sanction” and “traction” are well on their way

The UBL problem space

Some basic requirements

• Semantic clarity through a binding from Core Components to a syntax

• Choosing XML as that syntax!• Royalty-free IPR• Usable “on the cheap”• No ties to particular back-end

implementations• Urgency

The requirement for context

• “Standard” business components need to be different in different business contexts– Addresses differ in Japan vs. the U.S.– Addresses in the auto industry differ from those for

other industries– Invoice items for shoes need size information; for

coffee, grind information

• These differences need to be accommodated without sacrificing interoperability

UBL proposes to meet all these requirements

Packaging/transport

Business processes

Business agreements

Standard messages

Messagecontextualization

MessageService

BPSS

CPP/CPA

Core Components

Context methodology

Reg/Rep

Discovery/retrieval

UBL Library

UBL context meth

Where UBL can fit into existing XML B2B

ChemicalMfr C

C’s industrypartners

CIDX

Hospital B

B’s industrypartners

HL7

ElectronicsMfr A

A’s industrypartners

RosettaNet

Making UBL happen

The standards venue

• UBL is being developed in an OASIS Technical Committee– Like most of the follow-on ebXML infrastructure projects– The follow-on Core Components and Business Process

projects are in UN/CEFACT

• OASIS offers:– An objective process– Openness of its work to public view in real time– Easy and inexpensive opportunities to join

• Jon Bosak is the chair and main founder

Some UBL participants

APACSBoeingCommerce OneDanish Bankers AssociationFrance TelecomGeneral ElectricGovernment of HongkongGovernment of KoreaHPIntuitKPMGLMI

Northrup GrummanOraclePricewaterhouseCoopersSAPSeeBeyondSterling CommerceSun MicrosystemsUK Cabinet OfficeUnited Parcel ServiceU.S. GSAU.S. NavyVisa International

UBL’s relationship with ebXML

• UBL is not actually an “ebXML deliverable”• UBL mandates no particular messaging

framework• But we hope the combination will enable the

“B2B web”– HTTP + HTML = web publishing– ebXML + UBL = web commerce

Development strategies

• Start with the low-hanging fruit– The 20% of documents and business objects actually used

by 80% of electronic business partners

• Defer the rocket science to later phases– Produce useful, concrete outputs ASAP

• Don’t start with a blank slate– We are working from xCBL 3.0– But with no expectations of backwards compatibility

• Take advantage of domain expertise– Get XML experts and business experts together and form

liaisons

Formal liaisons so far

– ACORD (insurance)– ARTS (retail sales)– e.centre (UK EAN.UCC)– EIDX (electronics)– HL7 (healthcare)– NACS (convenience stores)

– RosettaNet (IT)– SWIFT (banking)– VCA (optical supplies)– XBRL (accounting)– ASC X12 (EDI)– UN/CEFACT (EDI)

UBL subcommittee organization

• Modeling and content– Library Content SC– Context Drivers SC– (future domain-specific)

• XML representation and mechanisms– Naming and Design

Rules SC– Context Methodology SC– Tools and Techniques

SC

• Administrative functions– Marketing SC– Liaison SC– Subcommittee chairs SC

Planned deliverables

Phase 1: 2002• The UBL Library

– Reusable building blocks and standard document types

• Schema design rules– How to represent UBL in

XML/XSD

– How external modules can best work with UBL

• Simple context methodology– How to add context-based

extensions to UBL

Phase 2: 2003• Full-blown context

methodology– How to describe your

extensions in “recombinant” fashion

Basic UBL Documents

• Order

• Order Response (simple)

• Order Response (complex)

• Order Change

• Despatch Advice (shipping notice)

• Receipt Advice

• Invoice

More about the UBL Library deliverables

• The normative W3C XML Schema (XSD) modules• Documentation• Potentially several non-normative forms:

– UML– ASN.1– Other schema representations– Modified XSD

• Potentially stylesheets for:– Viewing and printing UBL documents– Generating EDI-compliant instances

• A secondary deliverable will be Core Components feedback

Design principles

• Straightforward Internet use• “Various and sundry” tools• Legibility• Simplicity• 80/20 rule• Component reuse• Provide one way to encode

information• Customization and

maintenance• Context sensitivity

• Prescriptiveness, tempered• Content orientation• XML technology• Namespace dependency

caution• Legacy format non-goal• xCBL subset non-goal• (Schema generation)• …• …

ebXML Core Components

Core Components status

• The Core Components Technical Specification, Part 1, is at V1.8– Known as CCTS

• Some features are still a matter of hot debate• Additional Core Components Supplementary

Documents work is ongoing– Known as CCSD

• Today’s tutorial reflects the current CCTS specification and not the newer or more controversial areas

A primer

is definedin context

as

is definedin context

as

Core ComponentType (CCT)

Aggregate CoreComponent (BCC)

Basic CoreComponent (BCC)

Aggregate BusinessInformation Entity

(ABIE)

Basic BusinessInformation Entity

(BBIE)is of type

Core Business

Message/Document

More on Core Component Types

• CCTs are conceptually similar to the notion of built-in datatypes in XML– The spec offers a closed set of them– But this comparison says nothing about their schema

representation, such as simple vs. complex types

• Current CCTs:– Amount – Measure– Code – Numeric– DateTime – Picture– Graphic – Quantity– Identifier – Text– Indicator

Mapping to data elements

• CCTS constructs follow ISO 11179– Semantic clarity of data elements (CCs and BIEs) is

achieved through careful naming and definition in a dictionary

• A CC or BIE gets a tripartite dictionary name– The object class to which the data element belongs– A term reflecting its function as a property or distinguishing

characteristic of the object class– A representation term (RT) defining the data element’s

valid values

• RTs are closely related to CCTs• Example dictionary name: Car.Colour.Code

More on the notion of business context

• An example of an ACC might be “address”– It’s aggregate because it’s a collection of other

CCs– As a CC, it strives to be semantically unique and

useful

• An example of an ABIE might be “buyer address”– As a BIE, it strives to identify the business

circumstance in which the CC is used– The dictionary name would be Buyer.Address.Details

Mapping the CC world to XML and XSD (1 of 2)

• XSD has an indirect cascade of types and elements– With attributes working pretty much the way

elements do

Element declaration

Type definition

Type definition

references

is bound to

Mapping the CC world to XML and XSD (2 of 2)

• XSD’s OO-like approach can neatly be mapped to ISO 11179 object classes and properties

Property(element decl)

Object class(type defn)

Object class(type defn)

has

is defined in terms of

The UBL modeling methodology

The approachConceptual View (BOV)

logical models

Technology View (FSV)physical models

The Real Worldmessages/documents

UNSM

Forms XML

DBs

Directories

Schemas

Core ComponentCore ComponentCore Component

anal

yze

BIEsBIEsBIEContextContextContextdesign

UNSMDirectories

Schemas

enco

de

imp

lemen

t

form

at

Forms XML

DBs

The inputs

• Documents/expertise from:– The members of the Library Content SC– Organizations with a liaison to the UBL TC– Feedback from the general public

• xCBL 3.0– A working XML business vocabulary for several years– Has lots of EDI knowledge baked into it

• ebXML CCs– Ultimately, as many UBL constructs as possible will be

mapped to the final form of CCs– Where there’s no match, this will be fed back to the CC

project

The modeling steps

1. Working from an xCBL document type, analyze its constituent constructs to identify BBIEs and ABIEs

2. Establish each BIE’s dictionary name, UBL name, definition, and business context

3. Establish its cardinality/optionality within its object class

4. Identify missing BIEs

5. Identify which BIEs are reusable

6. Assemble an appropriate UBL document type from the BIEs

The formalism

• A spreadsheet with carefully designed columns

The back end

Spreadsheet Schema modulefor CCTs

Schema module forreusable BIEs

Schema modules forfunctional areas

(e.g. Order)

automated process

modeling handcrafting

Samples

• Schema

Designing the UBL schemas

How the design rules fit into schema creation

Spreadsheet Schema modulefor CCTs

Schema module forreusable BIEs

Schema modules forfunctional areas

(e.g. Order)

automated process

modeling handcrafting

Rules

RulesGuidelines

Some major design rules developed so far

• The choice of normative schema language• Naming and construction of elements,

attributes, and types (mostly done)• Modularity, namespaces, and versioning

(partial)• Embedded schema documentation (draft)• Handling code lists

The choice of schema language

• We chose W3C XML Schema (XSD)– The other seriously considered choices were RELAX NG

and Schematron

• Main positives:– Traction in the industry– Tools availability

• Main concerns:– Interoperability– Lack of support for Boolean operations

• We have not foreclosed on generating other schema versions– But they would be non-normative

A taste of the naming rules

• Dictionary entry names are fully qualified with object class names

• But using these full names would result in hundreds of extra elements

• We get reusability by allowing properties (elements) to “inherit” parent object classes (types), XPath-style– Delivery schedule IDs and order IDs could both be called

<ID>– Each would be identifiable by means of //Order/ID and

//DeliverySchedule/ID respectively

Schema modularity

Order

= RootSchema

= namespace

urn:oasis:names:tc:ubl:<version?>:

CommonAggregateTypes

CommonAggregate

Types

urn:oasis:names:tc:

ubl:<version?>:Payment

Invoiceetc.

urn:oasis:names:tc:

ubl:<version?>:Procurement

POetc.

urn:oasis:names:tc:ubl:<version?>:CommonLeaf

Types

Common LeafTypes

urn:

= InternalModule

= import

= include

. . .

Embedded documentation

• Datatypes are annotated with UBL-related metadata

• XHTML Basic is used in a conventional way to indicate the fields <xsd:documentation>

<xhtml:div class=“Object_Class"> <xhtml:p>Delivery</xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> <xhtml:div class=“Property_Term"> <xhtml:p>Schedule</xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> . . .<xsd:documentation>

Encoding code lists

• UBL will seek to import external datatype definitions in a conventional XSD form– Helping external

organizations to create rigorous schemas

– Defining a unique UBL element for each kind of code

• We hope to promote a global code list marketplace with this idea

<CountryIdentificationCode>

<ISO3166CountryCode

xsi:type=“iso3166:CodeType”>

BE

</ISO3166CountryCode>

</CountryIdentificationCode>

UBL country code element

UBL ISO 3166 element(bound to iso3166:CodeType)

Contextualizing UBL

Context drivers

• The ebXML work identified eight top context drivers:– Business process– Industry– Product classification– Geopolitical region– Primary and supporting business roles– System capabilities– Official constraints

• For example, “selling nuclear cereal to Finland” will have specific values along these axes

• This set probably needs to be extensible

The “eight-space”

• UBL defines BIEs, not CCs – they have a bit of real context in them– Typically just the

business process– Everything else should

ideally be “zeroed out”

• A set of eight values identifies a unique business context– A trading community can

associate their schema customizations with it

A

BC

Phase 1 – context disclosure

• Customizers will be expected to:– Handcraft an XSD

derivation, adhering to XSD extension and restriction rules

– Provide context driver metadata, adhering to UBL context derivation rules

• A context hierarchy will mirror the XSD type hierarchy

UBL purchase orderline item

U.S. purchase orderline item

Japan purchaseorder line item

U.S. purchase orderline item for shoes

geo="US"

(geo="US")prodclass="shoe"

geo="Japan"

Phase 2 – machine application of context

• Customizers will be able to describe the desired schema changes in an abstract, “recombinant” way

• These context rules will be applied by an engine to input schemas to get contextualized schemas

• A subtle and difficult problem!

UBL status

Completed work

• The procurement document types are well along

• The payment document types will be next• The common aggregate types (reusable

BIEs) grow with analysis of every document• The common leaf types (CCTs) are

perfunctory right now• The NDR SC intends to put itself out of work

by the end of 2002

Meeting schedule

• The UBL TC meets only F2F– Email ballots are allowed by our rules

• The larger SCs meet frequently by phone and do some work by email– Library Content (LC) and Naming and Design

Rules (NDR) are the hot areas right now

• If you’re interested in joining, let me know– You must be an organizational or individual OASIS

member– Individual membership is US$250/year

Resources

Where to find more information

• OASIS UBL TC– www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/– www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/lcsc/– www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/ndrsc/– www.oasis-open.org/committees/ubl/cmsc/– White papers, presentations, and specifications are available– All mailing list archives are open to public view

• ebXML– www.ebxml.org

• Core Components– www.ebtwg.org

How to comment

• The UBL comment list is open to all– Archive:

lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-comment– Signup:

lists.oasis-open.org/ob/adm.pl

• The Library Content and NDR SCs have spreadsheet forms for providing feedback

Summary

I hope you feel UBL has what it takes to be successful

• User-driven, with deep partnership resources to call on

• Focused on global requirements, with a commitment to true horizontal trade

• A transparent standards process• Reuse of existing standards• A modularized structure based on a crucial B2B data

dictionary• Dedicated to interoperability, even in customized

form

Thanks!Questions?

[email protected]