Electronic exchanges : standards

EDIFACT

This standard is the EDI reference standard in business area at the worldwide level.
It strongly contributed to business data harmonisation throughout the world.
It is composed of a syntax and data, segment and message directories.
Its principal weaknesses are
- data dictionary not enough precise (ambiguities must be solved through implementation guidelines)
- heavy implementations
- not taken into account of scenarios (EDIFACT deals only with messages exchanged between two parties)
EDIFACT is migrating towards XML.

Open-edi posed the guiding principles of the current and future electronic exchanges:
- global scenario management with exchanges of data of various natures (commercial, technical, plans, images, sound, films...) between multiple actors,
- automation of the management of the scenario
- a standardized edi support infrastructure, easier to use, and cheaper in tem of investment and operation.
The ISO/IEC JTC1 14662 international standard is the reference model for open-edi.
The standardisation work on teh definition and recording of scenarios is in progress especially using XML (ebXML work).
Work on a standardised edi support infrastructure is also present in ebXML work.

The programming JAVA allows :
- to write application independent of the operating systems and machine,
- to remove the installation and maintenance of specific software on each user station,
- automatically to make teleprocessing on user stations.

XML is a simplified derivative of SGML. It is a very flexible tool for information exchange. It is the more effective when it is based on standardised semantic repositories.
The standardisation of exchanges using XML is present in ebXML work.