[dev] Re: XML/EDI questions

Vizion vizion at vizion.occoxmail.com
Wed May 25 13:51:48 PDT 2005


!I wonder if contributors to this thread would please NOT top post - it gets 
very confusing -- I have  shifted the last contribution to the bottom so 
everyone can follow the thread:!
On Wednesday 25 May 2005 12:30,  the author fbsd_user contributed to the 
dialogue on RE: [dev] Re: XML/EDI questions:
&
& On Wednesday 25 May 2005 09:11,  the author Ian G contributed to the
& dialogue
& on Re: [dev] Re: XML/EDI questions:
& & On Wednesday 25 May 2005 17:00, Vizion wrote:
& & &
& & > Oh there are now over 300 schemas for EDI's used extensively by
& large
& & > corporations for interchange. For example a major disk drive
& manufacturer
& & > used it for exchange between both supopliers and distributoes.
& It used by
& & > governement and hundreds if not thousands of large corporations.
& The
& & > oproblem is you have to pay thousands of dollars to get the
& information
& & > and/or off shelve software to benefit from this technology.
& &
& & Ah!  That explains why I've never come across it.  I
& & stand corrected!  Thanks :)
& &
& Yep and the thing that really ****** me off is that there is a
& standard for
& these things and the only way you can get a copy is by paying $
& (namny) for
& it. My idea is there should be an open standard for these things
& which could
& be accessible by anyone and be used as a basis for exchange between
& individuals and small businesses. Perhaps OpenSchemas.org!!
&
& david
&
& EDI  stands for  electric data interchange.  It been in use by
& mainframe systems for over 30 years now. Basically its an
& international standard record format for exchanging purchase orders
& and shipping information and the like between the suppliers and
& manufactures in house proprietary applications. Wallmart/Sams stores
& runs their complete business using it. Other big users is the rubber
& tire industry and the automobile manufactures Ford, GM, for
& just-in-time delivery of raw material, as well as the after market
& auto suppliers. The EDI records format is available to any one who
& wants to purchase the book from the non-profit organization who
& maintains the standard. Like $35.00.  There are EDI software
& providers like GE and Gentran who market mainframe applications that
& convert the user's proprietary in-house record format to EDI format.
& In the last 10 years these vendors have rewritten their mainframe
& EDI application to run on ms/windows PCs. But you are correct in
& that as far as I know there is no Unix flavored EDI applications out
& there. EDI is not an server based type of application or for that
& matter an internet transport user either. EDI utilizes dedicated
& leased lines for maximum security. Cloning the functionality of one
& of the ms/windows EDI desktop variety for an FreeBSD desktop version
& should not be an big task. EDI is a specialized nitch market that
& demands 24/7 technical support from the vendor as EDI in most cases
& is mission critical to the company using it. This in its self makes
& the case for an open source Unix flavored verson a hard sell to the
& community who may want to use it.
&
& Just my 2 cents
&
&
You are right to mention the history of EDI. However this acronym has now 
taken a more generic meaning and includes , for example, UBL which has open 
source java tools and, I have now found out, open source schemas (over 90 of 
them) available. The other thing is that it is no more mission critical in 
the current environment than a web server and indeed is now built into web 
server technology and uses (amongst other things Tomcat, jelly , ocbra and 
other open source products. What is extremely interesting is it appears that 
the  largest take up of this technology appears to be in Hong Kong and china 
and is focused on using open source server systems.

David
&

-- 
40 yrs navigating and computing in blue waters.
English Owner & Captain of British Registered 60' bluewater Ketch S/V Taurus.
 Currently in San Diego, CA. Sailing May bound for Europe via Panama Canal.


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