CS155b E Commerce Lecture 10 Feb 13 2003 XML and its relationship to B2B commerce Acknowledgements R Glushko A Gregory and V Ramachandran Let s Discuss Integration I am a computer manufacturer I want to create a website through which people can custom build and purchase computers What supplies are needed How do I coordinate the production of parts How do I know that I have enough parts to fulfill website orders Can I track order progress How can I analyze the requests to order the materials I need Can I automate this process Can I use the Internet to improve efficiency Another Example I run a financial services company that provides an online brokerage where customers can place orders and evaluate their portfolios What information will my customers want to access through my website What are the sources of this information How and when does this information change Can I automate information updates Remove the Human We can use computers to analyze incoming orders and requests for information We can use computers to order supplies online and search for vendors We can use computers to search through databases of information and automatically format results for display All of the above can be done through the standard WWW interface but separately Can computers automatically connect these operations HTML s Limitations for Integration The Web was created as a publishing medium not as an e commerce platform HTML the Web s language for encoding information is format oriented and meant to be understood by eye Simple structures headings lists links Browsers are hard wired to render HTML as web pages No content based encoding means that HTML can t be effectively searched or processed by business applications Connecting with HTML by eye Company 1 Web Browser Problem Company 1 has no integration with order management manual and error prone data entry Internet Company 2 eCommerce Server ERP Accounting Systems The XML Revolution The Web was created to publish information for people Eyes only was dominant design perspective Hard to search Hard to automate processing The Web is using XML to become a platform for information exchange between computers and people Overcomes HTML s inherent limitations Enables the new business models of the network economy Extensible Markup Language Instead of a fixed set of format oriented tags like HTML XML allows you to create whatever set of tags are needed for your type of information This makes any XML instance selfdescribing and easily understood by computers and people XML encoded information is smart enough to support new classes of Web and e commerce applications Why XML Sample Catalog Entry in HTML TITLE Laptop Computer TITLE BODY UL LI IBM Thinkpad 600E LI 400 MHz LI 64 Mb LI 8 Gb LI 4 1 pounds LI 3200 UL BODY XML s Big Idea Document Types Customer Profiles Vendor Profiles Catalogs Datasheets Price Lists Purchase Orders Invoices Inventory Reports Bill of Materials Payments Deposits Credit Reports Schedules Directories whatever you need In XML the formal definition of permitted elements attributes and the rules by which they combine is called a Document Type Definition or DTD or Catalog Entry in XML COMPUTER TYPE Laptop MANUFACTURER IBM MANUFACTURER LINE ThinkPad LINE MODEL 600E MODEL SPECIFICAIONS SPEED UNIT MHz 400 SPEED MEMORY UNIT MB 64 MEMORY DISK UNIT GB 8 DISK WEIGHT UNIT POUND 4 1 WEIGHT PRICE CURRENCY USD 3200 PRICE SPECIFICATIONS COMPUTER Smart Processing with XML and SPECIFICATIONS provide logical containers for extracting and manipulating product information as a unit COMPUTER Sort by MANUFACTURER SPEED WEIGHT PRICE etc Explicit identification of each part enables its automated processing Convert PRICE from USD to Euro Yen etc DTDs Parsers and Validation From any DTD document type definition an XML parser can be generated that reads a document instance the XML data stream identifies the markup in it and creates a processable form of some kind that is used by an application The parser can also test the XML document for conformance with the rules of the DTD A document instance that follows the rules of the DTD is valid DTDs And Validation XML Purchase Order Instance Purchase Order DTD XML Parser Some Processable Form Connecting using XML Company 1 Company 2 eCommerce Server eCommerce Server Internet ERP Accounting Systems Benefit XML can be processed automatically with huge cost savings ERP Accounting Systems Problem Company 1 and Company 2 have to agree on document format Business Processes are XML Document Exchanges If you send me a request for a catalog I will send you a catalog If you send me a purchase order and I can fill it I will send you a purchase order response Significance of XML Document Exchange Architecture Document exchange is a natural way to think about doing business Easy to provide open marketplace with 3rd party buying and selling apps Easy to add and maintain services Document exchange between marketplaces is fundamentally the same as within a marketplace Services can be reused across marketplaces XML is Part of the Solution XML has the potential to enable a standards conforming open and extensible architecture for electronic commerce XML standards could enable ubiquitous connectivity and interoperability and create the network effects of describe once sell buy anywhere and reusable marketplace services Homework for Feb 18 2003 Reminder Second written homework assignment must be submitted online by 5pm Tuesday Use Yale Classes server Instructions are on course web page and on the first page of the homework Prepare for Garfinkel s invited lecture on Tuesday read Chapters 1 and 2 of Database Nation print form only
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