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Core Components

As with the need for a definition of a standard way to define Business Processes a Standard way to define and create Common Business Semantics is also required. Again the needs are based on interoperability between organisations. ebXML has therefore attempted to describe and specify a new approach to the well-understood problem of the lack of information interoperability between applications in the e-business arena. Traditionally, standards for the exchange of business data have been focused on static message definitions that have not enabled a sufficient degree of interoperability or flexibility. A more flexible and interoperable way of standardizing business semantics is required.

The Core Components Specification
The UN/CEFACT– ebXML Core Component Specification, presents a methodology for developing a common set of semantic building blocks that represent the general types of business data in use today and provides for the creation of new business vocabularies and restructuring of existing business vocabularies.

The specification provides a way to identify, capture and maximize the reuse of business information to support and enhance information interoperability across multiple business situations. The specification focuses both on human-readable and machine-processable representations of this information.

The approach taken within the ebXML Core Components Specification is more flexible than current standards in this area because the semantic standardization is done in a syntax-neutral fashion. Using Core Components as part of the ebXML framework will help to ensure that two trading partners using different syntaxes [e.g. Extensible Markup Language (XML) and United Nations/EDI for Administration, Commerce, and Transport (UN/EDIFACT)] are using business semantics in the same way on condition that both syntaxes have been based on the same Core Components. This enables clean mapping between disparate message definitions across syntaxes, industry and regional boundaries. UN/CEFACT Business Process and Core Component solutions capture a wealth of information about the business reasons for variation in message semantics and structure. In the past, such variations have introduced incompatibilities. The Core Components mechanism uses this rich information to allow identification of exact similarities and differences between semantic models. Incompatibility becomes incremental rather than wholesale, i.e. the detailed points of difference are noted, rather than a whole model being dismissed as incompatible.

Similar Standards Efforts
Unlike many of the other specifications within ebXML there are no other similar initiatives to Core Components that attempt to achieve the same scope and goals. The initiatives that are seen support the ebXML Core Components Specification (i.e.: they use the specification as a basis for generating XML Schemas) or the initiatives attempt to define XML documents, for example, an order or an invoice that relate to a particular sector or industry which have no relation to a standard and are often proprietary in format.

Current efforts that are supporting and using the core components specification are:

Universal Business Language (UBL).
RosettaNet (www.rosettanet.org)
SWIFT (www.swift.com)
EAN, both National and International bodies (http://www.ean-ucc.org)

This page last modified on 2003-10-21