E-COMMERCEE-COMMERCE

By Pablo Galiana

using

Databases & the Internet - 2000

The Big Business

• B2B e-commerce transactions will explode to $3 trillion by 2004.

• The lion's share will be in essential goods, services, and merchandise.

• Cross-industry transactions -- sometimes called e-procurement -- for things like office supplies, computers, and travel services will increase dramatically.

Capabilities Overview

• cXML allows buyers, suppliers, aggregators, and intermediaries to communicate using a single, standard, open language.

• cXML provides access to products and services, because it is a well-defined, robust language designed specifically for B2B e-commerce.

• cXML transactions consist of documents, which are simple text files with well defined format and contents.

• Main cXML concepts:– Catalogs– Punchout– Purchase orders

Catalogs• Catalogs are files that convey product and service content to buying organizations.

Catalog Supplier

• Suppliers create catalogs so that organizations that use procurement applications can see their product and service offerings and buy from them.

• Procurement applications read the catalogs and store them internally in their databases.

• Catalogs describe:• products, services and their prices

Procurement Application

Buying Organization

Users

Punchout

Supplier

Punchout Session

Procurement Application

Buying Organization

Users

• Punchout sites are live, interactive catalogs running on the supplier Website.

Items Descriptions

See PunchOutIndexCatalog.xml

• Procurement applications display a button instead of product or pricing details. • When users click this button, their Web browsers display pages from the local Website.

• Procurement applications communicate with the supplier over the Internet by using cXML.• The supplier sends the item descriptions and the fully configured products and their prices appear within users’ purchase requisitions.

• When users are done selecting items, they click a button that returns the order information to the procurement application.

Purchase Orders

Order

Procurement Application

Buying Organization

Users

Supplier

Buying organizations send purchase orders to suppliers to request fulfillment of a contract.

Types of Applications that Use cXML

• Procurement Applications– Enterprise applications that are hosted by large organizations for use by

their employees over an intranet.– They use cXML for external transactions.– These applications allow communities of users to buy products and

services from vendors. – Requested purchases are first approved by managers in the

communities, and approved purchase orders are transmitted to suppliers.

• Commerce Network Platforms– Web-based services for connecting buyers and suppliers.– These Web services provide features such as catalog validation and file

management, catalog publishing and subscription, automated purchase order routing, and purchase order history.

– Communication between these Web services, buyer applications, and supplier applications can occur entirely through cXML over the Internet.

Types of Applications that Use cXML (contd.)

• Punchout Catalogs– Interactive catalogs, available at supplier Websites.– Punchout catalogs are Web server applications, written in a

programming language such as ASP (Active Server Pages), JavaScript, or CGI, that manage buyers’ punchout sessions.

– They accept punchout requests from procurement applications, identify the buying organization, and display the appropriate information in HTML format.

– At the end of the punchout session, the punchout site sends descriptions of the users’ selections, in cXML format, to the procurement applications.

• Order-Receiving Systems– Applications at supplier sites that accept and process purchase orders

sent by buying organizations.

Validation Against DTDs

• Because cXML is an XML language, a set of Document Type Definitions (DTDs) thoroughly defines it.

• These DTDs are text files that describe the precise syntax and order of cXML elements.

• DTDs enable applications to validate the cXML they read or write.• cXML applications are not required to validate cXML documents,

although it is recommended.

• Performing Validation– Applications can use DTDs to validate all incoming and outgoing cXML

documents.– XML validation applications are available on the Web. – If errors are detected, appropriate error code could be sent to the

sender.– For best performance, cXML clients should look at the cXML version in

the document headers and retrieve DTDs that have not already been stored locally.

See PunchOutIndexCatalogFail.xml

Punchout Event Sequence

5. The procurement application opens a new browser window, which displays a session logged into an account on supplier’s Website. This account can be specific to a region, a company, a department, or a user.

1. User log in to a procurement application and open new purchase requisitions. They find desired items by searching their local catalogs by commodity, supplier, or product description. When they select a punchout item, the procurement application sends a cXML PunchOutSetupRequest document to a network e-commerce hub.

2. Acting as the trusted third party, the hub accepts the request, verifies the buying organization, and

4. After the supplier’s Website receives a request, it sends back a PunchOutSetupResponse containing a URL that tells the procurement application where to go to initiate a browsing session on your Website.

3. The hub passes the request to the supplier’s Website.

Punchout Event Sequence

Procurement Application

Supplier

1. PunchOutSetupRequest

“create” operation

Steps 1 & 2: Punchout Request

2. Authentication

3. PunchOutSetupRequest

4. PunchOutSetupResponse

5. Open browser sessionUser

Structure of a cXML Request document

<cXML><Header>

<From>From information here...

</From><To>

To information here...</To><Sender>

Sender information here...</Sender>

</Header><Request>

Request information here…</Request>

</cXML>

Supplier WebSite

1. The supplier Website receives the cXML document and knows that it is authenticated because it contains the shared secret.

2. The Website uses information in the From element to identify the requester at the company level (for example, falafel.com).

3. The Website sends a PunchOutSetupResponse.

The PunchOutSetupResponse document serves two functions:• It indicates whether the PunchOutSetupRequest was

successful.• It provides the procurement application with a redirect URL

to the Start Page.

See PunchOutSetupResponse.xml

Structure of a cXML Response document

<cXML><Response>

Response information here…</Response>

</cXML>

Punchout Event Sequence (contd.)

• Users select items from the inventory using all the features and services provided by the supplier’s Website:

Step 3: Product Selection

• Features might include:– Configurator tools for building customized products– Search engines for finding products from large catalogs.– Views of normalized data for comparing products based

on price, features, or availability.– Real-time pricing, inventory, and availability checking.– Automatic tax and shipping calculations.

Punchout Event Sequence (contd.)

1. The supplier’s Website calculates the total cost of the user’s selections, including tax, shipping, and customer-specific discounts. When user click “Check Out” button the supplier sends the cXML PunchOutOrderMessage (with the contents of the shopping cart) to the Procurement Application.

2. If users need to edit any of the items in a purchase requisition, you can “re-punchout” to the supplier’s Website. The procurement application sends back the contents of the original shopping cart to the supplier Website and users make any changes there.

3. Upon check out, the Website returns the items to the purchase requisition.

Punchout Event Sequence (contd.)

Procurement Application

Supplier

Step 4: Check Out

1. PunchOutOrderMessage

2. PunchOutSetupRequest with“edit” as its operation.

See PunchOutOrderMessage.xml and EditRequest.xml

3. PunchOutOrderMessage

Punchout Event Sequence (contd.)

Procurement Application

Supplier

Step 5: Transmittal of Purchase Order

2. OrderResponse

1. OrderRequest

See OrderRequest.xml

1. When request is fully approved, an OrderRequest document is sent to supplier through e-commerce network hub.

2. The Supplier WebSite respond with an OrderResponse document, that acknowledges the reception of the purchase order and that it parses correctly.

and OrderResponse.xml

Structure of a cXML OrderRequest element

<OrderRequest>< OrderRequestHeader>

<Total> Total of the order… </Total><ShipTo> Ship to information… </ShipTo><BillTo> Bill to information… </BillTo><Shipping> Shipping information… </Shipping><Tax> Tax information… </Tax><Payment> Payment information… </Payment><Contact> Contact information… </Contact><Comments> Comments… </Comments><Followup> … </Followup>

</OrderRequestHeader><ItemOut>

<ItemId> … </ItemId><ItemDetail> … </ItemDetail>Other Item information...

</ItemOut></OrderRequest >

Structure of a cXML OrderResponse document

<cXMLversion="1.1.007"payloadID="9949494"xml:lang="en-US"timestamp="1999-03-12T18:39:09-08:00">

<Response><Status code="200" text="OK"/>

</Response></cXML>

Useful Links

www.cxml.org

Ariba Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

cXML Home Page

www.microsoft.com

www.ariba.com

International Organization for Standardization

www.iso.ch

WorldWide Web Consortium

www.w3.org

The End

Thank you!