Http://cam.swiki.net Parsing Solutions & OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM) XMLWG 2004, Wash DC,...

http://cam.swiki.net

Parsing Solutions &

OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM)

XMLWG 2004, Wash DC, Jan 21st.

David RR Webber

Chair OASIS CAM TC

http://drrw.net

[email protected]

OASIS – All rights reserved, Copyright ©, 2003

eBusiness XML parsing needs today

• Interoperability

• Opening up business integration rules

• Handling local context drivers

• Validating content

• How does W3C XSD schema help?

• What does OASIS CAM provide?


W3C Schema in a nutshell

• XML formatted syntax that describes the structure

layout of a given XML instance

• Is a 90% solution – cannot describe every well formed

XML instance perfectly (e.g. interleaved process and content – xhtml + SMIL)

• Designed for use by programmers

• Has mechanisms for datatyping and content checking

• Has a model for creating objects of content and using

object techniques


OASIS CAM in a nutshell

• CAM syntax - tool for business users to express the information exchange semantics and context of their business process steps as XML-based templates.

• library of CAM templates – provides discovery and re-use of common transaction details and sharing of domain context along with consistent referencing to shared nouns and verbs.

• CAM processing engine – component to provide consistent information exchanges at three levels – pre-checking content, runtime content assembly, post-receipt integration.


Agenda

• Problem Understanding• What are we trying to solve and for whom?

• What does XSD schema offer?• How does CAM augment schema?

• Using CAM• Approach

• Building templates• Leveraging schema

• Next Steps• Roadmap for 2004


What are we trying to solve and for whom?

Understanding the Problem


• Define business ideas and needs• Capture steps and workflow

• Then describe the business processing• Top layer – rules and context• Middle layer – industry/application integration• Implementation layer – physical application systems and

content delivery / exchange• Consistent information integration mechanisms for use in

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Building e-Business Orchestration


• Reduce complexity of managing large numbers of

transaction formats - document the differences

• Want to speed adoption by formalizing business rules

• Want context-driven transaction generation

• Empowers business users to build interchange details

• Need to define in a neutral format: works with variety of

structures, not just XML

• Augment current standards and industry specifications

• Provide multi-step process support

Business Layers - Objectives


Business Challenges for XML

• Totally static transaction formats do not work – need configurable structures

• How to apply business context assertions to a information structure?

• How to derive a consistent way of specifying the interchange parameters to a partner?

• How to enable business domain users to implement the exchanges?

Key: Context is Everywhere

The ability to create re-usable information components is driven by the ability to enable context


• XML, by itself, does not solve interoperability

problems yet it is an important tool for doing so.

• XML does not provide instant semantics.

• XML by itself is not the magic bullet.

• What we need are clear policies and vision of how

electronic information enables interoperability

XML by itself is not enough


XML Schema?

• Why not just use XML Schema?• OAGI did this for BODs V8.0 – but required

supplementing schema with XSLT and XPath to capture business rules• Had to make all elements optional• No ability to enable business context of

combinations of use – i.e. use patterns { if (condition) required | optional | optional }

• Limited constructs of structure – example no “interleave” of child elements


Lessons learned: Which XML Method(s)?

• We need business collaboration on elements syntax:

• Global complexType definition? • Global element definition?• Create industry dictionaries?

• Reuse

• Reference global element in external namespace?• Define local element as substitutionGroup of global

element (bring into local namespace)?• Define local element using external Namespace

complexType (bring into local namespace)?• Derive by extension, local element can have

additional sub-elements added to it?


XML Schema - SWOT

Strengths Weaknesses

Widely implemented in major XML parsers

Defines structural layouts for XML content

Graphical editors available

Small footprint works well for embedded applications (web browser)

Basic set of data types work well

Tools can inspect schema and generate rendering for given XML content

Integration with XSLT

Schema instance self-contained

Supports familiar “bottom-up” implementation

Cannot define all possible structural combinations (e.g. scripts - SMIL)

Syntax about syntax (legal Latin v legal English)

Editing tools / parsers not necessarily compatible

Complex syntax, difficult to hand-code

Business context mechanism support

Only works for XML structures

Versioning of elements and attributes

Including structural components

External type library support

Metadata registry referencing

Validation to external code-lists

Compliance level and specification support

Opportunities Threats

Replace column mechanisms in DBMS tables

Support simple validation in data entry systems

Work well with programmer IDE environments

Initial momentum in marketplace stagnates as e-business requirements expose weaknesses

Reduced to role in embedded local point systems


Leveraging XSD and CAM

• Can build default

CAM components

from XSD

• Can build XML

examples from XSD

• Can use CAM

functionality to fill in

the gaps in XSD


How does CAM augment schema?

• Can have multiple structure instances selected by context• Can include structure from sub-assembly of components• Enhanced element semantics beyond simply datatyping• Full code lists functionality beyond NMTOKEN• Ability to leverage semantics at attribute level consistently

with elements• Ability to version content model components• Link to industry dictionaries• Link to web service components for external checks • Ability to assemble transaction instances• Can handle non-XML formats


Technology Positioning

• We can use W3C Schema to show basic typing and structural permutations for XML transaction content models.

• To provide automation of the business logic at-point-of-use requires OASIS CAM to supplement the Schema.

• Use models – • simple one-off structures – XSD schema is adequate• significant information exchange for e-Business –

CAM required• available open source CAM processor

• Need - leverage today’s in-place XML technology; provide enhanced functionality for next generation.


Using CAM

Anatomy and Approach


Basic Components of CAM

XMLinstance

structure(s)

+Business context rules

+Content Reference rules

+Data Validation rules

+External Mapping rules

can have more than one structure layout

can add inline rules directly into structure

makeOptional()excludeTree()

item type="noun" name="Agency/@AgencyID" UIDReference="ukt000910"

<conditional expression="'//SupplierID' and lookup(value,'SGIRWSDL:supplierID_check')"<MapRule output="type" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product@type"/>

Simple Declarative Statements

Combined with


Results forgiven context andaction

Context Statements

How Context is applied

CAM Template

+

CAM gets passed context frombusiness use

Generates actual XML

instancedefinition to be used

XML transaction

contentprocess

and compare

1

23

4

5


Integrating CAM into eBusiness stack

Business agreement

Drives documentexchanges


Business Context Mechanism

• Link between messaging layer, business process layer and assembly layer.<ebContext UIDref='SDIR03400' interchangeID='123456789' BPMref='ABC123456:01‘ CPAref='ABC012345‘ xmlns:as="http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/cam"> <header> <description>An example context instance</description> <version>1.0</version> <language refcode='eng' codelist='ISO639-2' name='English'/> <usage>CAM</usage> <usage>BPM</usage> </header>

<conditions> <condition name="Country" value="USA" as:member="USA,CA,MX"/> <condition name="Catalogue" value="A2003-Q1" as:setLength="8" as:setMask="XNNNN-QN" as:UIDreference="SGIR:030451"/> <condition name="itemType" value="nonperishable" label="Item type:“ as:member="nonperishable,perishable,refridgerated,fragile"/> </conditions></ebContext>


CAM template XML structure

• A,B,C,D,E!• Assembly Structure• Business Context Rules• Content Referencing• Data Validations• External Application Mapping

• Many examples available from http://cam.swiki.net

<CAM><Header><ContextStatements>

<AssemblyStructure/> <BusinessUseContext/> <ContentReference/> <DataValidations/> <ExternalMapping/></CAM> Example


Technology Foundation

• Simple XML V1.0• XPath• Neutral approach to

structure content• Assertion predicates

excludeAttribute()excludeElement()excludeTree()makeOptional()makeMandatory()makeRepeatable()setRequired()setChoice()setId()setLength()setLimit()setMask()setValue()restrictValues()restrictValuesByUID()useAttribute()useChoice()useElement()useTree()useAttributeByID()useChoiceByID()useElementByID()useTreeByID()lookup()startBlock(), endBlock()


StructureChoices

StructureChoices

ContextValues

ContextValues

RequiredContent

Structure

RequiredContent

Structure

ProcessEngine

ProcessEngine Content

ReferencesContent

References

1

Payload / RenderingPayload / Rendering

2

CAM AssemblyStructure

CAM AssemblyStructure

Payload AssemblyPayload

Assembly

3

ApplicationDatabase

ApplicationDatabase

RegistryComponents

RegistryComponents Conceptual

Logical

Physical

Integration with Registry Dictionary

Vocabulary nouns,and

Industry Dictionaries

Vocabulary nouns,and

Industry Dictionaries

Re-usable Business Information

components

Re-usable Business Information

components


External Mapping and Merge Feature

<ExternalMapping> <ContentAssociation> <Description>Product List</Description> <InputSource/> <OutputStore type=”SQL” location=”product_table”/> <RulesSet> <MapRule output="Products_List" input="@STARTGRP()"/> <MapRule output="type" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product@type"/> <MapRule output="name" input="@trim(Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@name)"/> <MapRule output="manufacturer" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@manufacturer"/> <MapRule output="value" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@value"/> <MapRule output="sold" input="Sales/Company/Year/Qtr/Product/Item@sold"/> <MapRule output="Products_List" input="@ENDGRP()"/> </RulesSet> </ContentAssociation></ExternalMapping>


Available Components

• Specifications and examples from the SWIKI• http://cam.swiki.net

• jCAM component• http://jcam.org.uk

• VisualScript editor for CAM templates• http://www.visualscript.com

• OASIS CAM TC• http://www.oasis-open.org


Next Steps

• Work in progress: • Completion of Specification• Enhancement of CAM processor• Library of CAM templates by industry• Integration with OASIS Registry assembly


Summary: The Holy Grail of e-Business

• Automatic information integration has been the Holy Grail of e-Business systems since before XML was conceived.

• Lesson learned - three needs are paramount: • the ability to design transactions consistently, • the ability to document their usage in a clear way and then

• the ability to drive software that can apply rules and test

information content to ensure correct compliance. • CAM approach provides these three critical abilities:

• documentation of business interchange transactions, • design-time assembly support with verification,

• and runtime checking of information content.


Additional Information

• OASIS CAM (assembly) Technical Committee• http://oasis-open.org/committees/cam/

• OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee• http://oasis-open.org/committees/regrep/

• ebXML.org• http://www.ebxml.org/• http:ebxmlbook.com


OASIS – Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM TC)

January 2004http://cam.swiki.net

Thank YouThank You

www.oasis-open.org

xml.coverpages.org

www.xml.org

www.ebxml.org

Http://cam.swiki.net Parsing Solutions & OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM) XMLWG 2004, Wash DC,...

Documents

Transcript of Http://cam.swiki.net Parsing Solutions & OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM) XMLWG 2004, Wash DC,...