XML - A Premier B2B Enabling Technology : Hype or Reality?

1. XML - A Premier B2B Enabling Technology : Hype or Reality? Leslie Beckford DPS Spring 2001

2. Introduction The purpose of my presentation is to discuss the pros and cons of using XML as an enabling technology for B2B(e-business)

3. Outline XML – a brief Historical overview XML Sister Technologies Major uses for XML XML and B2C XML and B2B Why is B2B different from B2C What challenges are unique to B2B Important Characteristics of all B2B sites XML’s impact on Performance

4. XML: an Historical Overview SGML was originally created by IBM in the sixties SGML was very useful but extremely complex HTML was created as an answer to SGML’s complexity HTML was found to be extremely limited in capabilities XML was created as an answer to HTML’s inefficiencies

5. XML: an Historical Overview The following are the original design goals (1998) for XML: “ XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet XML shall support a wide variety of applications XML shall be compatible with SGML It shall be easy to write programs which process XML documents The number of optimal features in XML is to be kept to the absolute minimum The XML design should be prepared quickly The design of XML shall be formal and concise XML documents shall be easy to create Terseness in XML markup is of minimal importance ”

6. XML – Specifications and Associated Technologies Specifications that make-up the XML suite of technologies include: XSL: used to specify the presentation style of an XML document.   XSLT: a language for transforming XML documents XPATH: a language for addressing or selecting specific portions of an XML document. It has been designed to be used by both XSLT and XPointer. XPOINTER: used for providing links between XML documents DTD: used to specify data structure (does not support data-type specification). SCHEMAS:used to specify data structure (supports data-type specification). Other known Schemas: SOX, XDR, DSD

7. XML – Specifications and Associated Technologies Messaging Protocols : XML-RPC, SOAP Application Programming Interfaces(API’s) DOM: used for structure validation ( tree based - multi access memory approach). SAX: used for structure validation ( event based - sequential access approach). Supporting Tools Parsers: Non-Validating and Validating   Processors Publishing frameworks

8. XML Is No Longer What It’s Designers Envisioned! • XML is the root of all those three and four letter acronyms. XML itself defines the core language and provides a meta-data- type framework. • XML by it-self is of limited value; it defines only that framework. However, all the various technologies that supports XML, provide developers and content managers unprecedented flexibility in data management and transmission. • Indeed, XML is no longer a simple lightweight markup language. It has grown in complexity!

9. Major Uses For XML XML for Presentation: The most popular use for XML is to create a separation of content and presentation. XML for Communication: XML-RPC, B2B XML document can be used to transfer information between applications. XML for Configuration XML-RPC is concerned with communication not between applications, but between components within an application, or to a shared set of services functioning across applications.

10. XML’s Role In B2C • B2C (also known as E-Commerce) - is the sale of products and services to customers over the Internet. • B2C is now relatively easy to implement. There are many software products and solutions that enable catalogues to be incorporated into web sites for purchase of products over the Internet by consumers.   • B2C clients run browsers, communicating over HTTP/HTTPS. • Error rates are usually low because orders are often keyed in by actual people who can check for mistakes. • XML is used largely for data presentation in this model

11. XML’s Role In B2B "The human-to-machine interaction paradigm works well in the B2C space," "The payoff of a human sitting in front of a browser, however, is very limited for B2B applications." Companies operating under the B2B model not only sells products online (e Commerce), but also links those sales tightly to its back-end systems and third party vendors for order processing and delivery fulfillment. One of the best-known example of an e-business is that of Amazon.com.

12. XML’s Role In B2B Amazon has succeeded by building a closely linked B2B value chain for acceptance of orders online and delivery to its customers wherever they are located, worldwide. Amazon is very different from most established businesses, Amazon had no legacy systems that first had to be changed for this new Business-to-Consumer (B2C) sales environment.

13. XML’s Role In B2B Most businesses are not like Amazon. They have existing processes and systems for order entry, credit control, invoicing, inventory and delivery. Many of these systems are old but are still functioning well for the sales environment they were designed for. The latest systems may be considered “legacy” if they cannot easily be changed to encompass B2C and B2B business via the Internet. This is where XML can offer great benefits: XML for Communication: XML-RPC, B2B

14. Important Characteristics of B2B Sites Scalability: The capability of a system to adapt readily to a greater or lesser intensity of use, volume, or demand while still meeting its business objectives (acceptable levels of performance, availability, manageability etc ) Fault-Tolerance: They're always up, because their fault-tolerant architecture is redundant in hardware and software. Capacity: How many transactions can a system complete in a specified unit of time. Performance:How long does it take to get a response to a request from the system. Security:Authentication, Integrity, Non- Repudiation, Regulations.

15. XML’s Impact On B2B Site Characteristics Three B2B site characteristics can be seriously affected by XML: Capacity: XML’s textual representation requires more disk / ram than compiled code and data (Binary) When structure is added to the XML representation via DTD or Schema, this problem becomes even worse Performance: Performance is affected mostly due to the requirement to Parse and Process XML documents. Security: Work is only now beginning in this area.

16. XML’s Impact On B2B Site Characteristics Tools for manipulating data within XML documents API’s: SAX: Event based, sequential access, semi-efficient DOM: Tree based, multi access, memory intensive Parsers DTD: Structure Validation Schema: Structure and Content Validation Tools for transforming and presenting XML docs Processors XSL - used to specify presentation style XSLT – transforms one XML document into another

17. Data Specification and Validation Data specification and validation a major Requirement for business Tools for data modeling DTD’s:used to specify data structure (does not support data-type specification). SCHEMAS:used to specify data structure (supports data-type specification).

18. The Standards Problem • The complexity of XML has increased tremendously. • Numerous companies, groups and organizations (belonging to both vertical and horizontal industries) are working independently and sometimes collectively, to define the meaning of their businesses. • As a consequence, many dialects of XML schemas and DTD’s have been created. • Because standards are not stable, performance tuning is difficult.

19. What This Means • Without question, B2B site characteristics can be seriously impacted by XML. • While considerable, this shouldn't be used as an argument to dismiss XML. • By knowing the issues surrounding core XML technologies, it's possible to design, construct, implement and subsequently balance performance and scalability against the flow of transactions into and out of a B2B production environment. • If a system requires flexibility, extensibility, ease of use, and platform independence, then XML is very appropriate.