Overview of Sterling Connect Direct Server

What is IBM Sterling Connect:Direct?

IBM® Sterling Connect:Direct® is point-to-point (peer-to-peer) file-based integration middleware meant for 24x365 unattended operation, which provides assured delivery, high-volume, and secure data exchange within and between enterprises. It is optimized for high performance and throughput and moves files containing any type of data (text, EDI, binary, digital content, image) across multiple platforms, disparate file systems, and disparate media. It is used by many industries throughout the world to move large volumes of data and for connecting to remote offices.

Benefits

Sterling Connect:Direct offers the following benefits:

• Predictability—Assures delivery via automated scheduling, checkpoint restart, and automatic recovery/retry. If a data transmission is interrupted, the transmission tries to restart at a predefined interval for a configured amount of time. All activity and statistics are logged so that there are verifiable audit trails of all actions.
• Security—Ensures customer information stays private through a proprietary protocol and offers basic security through authentication and user proxies. Supports a comprehensive cryptographic solution (IBM Sterling Connect:Direct Secure Plus) that provides strong mutual authentication using X.509 certificates, SSL, and TLS data encryption, and data integrity checking. For more information about Sterling Connect:Direct Secure Plus and other products that enhance Sterling Connect:Direct's security model, see Extending the Capabilities of Sterling Connect:Direct.
• Performance—Handles the most demanding loads, from high volumes of small files to terabyte files.

Features

Sterling Connect:Direct offers the following features:

• Provides automation through easy-to-use Process definition and scripting. Multi-step Processes manage data movement as well as pre- and post-processing.
• Provides automation through scripting, scheduling, and watch directories.
• Automatically establishes connection to remote server when data is ready for transfer. Automatic session retry re-establishes an interrupted connection; work resumes at the point of failure.
• Offers flexible security options to control access to data, network, or system resources. Interfaces to operating system and vendor-supplied access control and security software.
• Supports a comprehensive cryptographic solution (Sterling Connect:Direct Secure Plus).
• Supports local and remote administration, configuration, and Process management through a browser user interface.
• Supports non-intrusive integration to existing applications through the Command Line Interface (CLI), which can be used in batch files or scripts. Also supports direct use by applications through APIs.
• Provides a complete audit trail of data movement through extensive statistics logs.
• Supports extensive configuration options for flexibility of deployment, management of network resources and optimization of data transfer performance.
• Provides optional data compression that is configurable for maximum compression or optimal use of system resources.
• Supports all major file types, media, and record formats across multiple platforms. Data exchange is independent of content.

Platforms

Typically, Sterling Connect:Direct is installed on a mainframe, UNIX, or Microsoft Windows server at a central processing site and is used to communicate with other Sterling Connect:Direct sites in the business's network. Sterling Connect:Direct offers multi-platform implementations tailored to each of the following operating systems:

• z/OS®
• UNIX (Sun, HP UX, AIX®, Linux)
• Microsoft Windows
• OpenVMS
• HP NonStop (Tandem)
• VM
• VSE
• i5/OS™ (OS/400®)

Overview of Sterling Secure Proxy

IBM® Sterling Secure Proxy acts as an application proxy between IBM Sterling

Connect:Direct® nodes or between a client application and a Sterling B2B Integrator

server. Sterling Secure Proxy provides a high level of data protection between

external connections and your internal network. Define an inbound node definition

for each trading partner connection from outside the company and an outbound

node definition for every company server to which Sterling Secure Proxy will

connect.

Protect file transfers from the public Internet.The Internet remains risky for file transfer

IBM Sterling Secure Proxy is a demilitarized zone (DMZ)-based application proxy that protects your file transfers from the public Internet.

IBM® Sterling Secure Proxy provides a demilitarized zone (DMZ)-based application proxy that shields file transfers from the public Internet. It uses trading-partner authorization, multifactor authentication, session breaks and other controls for validation before transfers enter your trusted zone.

IBM Sterling Secure Proxy features include:

• Protections against unauthorized access with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) session breaks and multifactor authentication.to help reduce data vulnerability and protect your brand.
• Reduced file transfer costs that can help increase your file transfer community by taking advantage of the Internet.
• Increased perimeter security for your file transfer infrastructure using time-tested firewall navigation practices.
• Simplified authentication with self-service authentication customization for trading partners to help reduce dependency on your IT staff.

Sterling Secure Proxy Architecture

The components of the Sterling Secure Proxy architecture are:

• Sterling Secure Proxy Engine—the engine resides in the DMZ and contains the minimum components necessary to manage communications sessions. The engine configuration (Sterling Secure Proxy engine properties) is created at Configuration Manager and pushed to the engine. It is stored in active memory and is never stored on disk in the DMZ. No web services or UI ports are open in the DMZ.
• Configuration Manager (Sterling Secure Proxy CM)—Configuration Manager is installed in the trusted zone. Use this tool to configure your environment. When you save a configuration definition (Sterling Secure Proxy configuration store) at CM, it is pushed to an engine, using an SSL session. Configuration files are encrypted and stored on the computer where CM is installed.
  Note: Only one Configuration Manager should update an engine definition.
• Sterling Secure Proxy configuration store—This file is encrypted on disk and contains the following information:
  • The user store with information on user credentials
  • The system certificate store with the certificates used for SSL/TLS sessions
  • The key store with the SSH keys
  • The engine configuration store with all configuration information for the engine
• Sterling Secure Proxy engine properties file—These files are encrypted and contain the following information:
  • The IP and port number to listen on for connections from Configuration Manager
  • SSL key certificate, trusted certificate, and encryption cipher used for the connection from Configuration Manager
• Web server—Configuration Manager is installed with a web server. You open a browser and access CM through a web page to configure Sterling Secure Proxy and monitor the engine activity. The web server is installed when you install Configuration Manager.
• Adapter—an adapter identifies the protocol allowed for connections from trading partners. You can accept connections from clients that use different protocols; however, you must define a different adapter for each protocol. A single engine can run multiple adapters. In an adapter definition, you identify the port on which to listen for connections, the netmap to use with the adapter, the security policy, and the routing method to use. If you are using Sterling External Authentication Server, you identify the Sterling External Authentication Server to use in the adapter definition. If you are using a remote perimeter server, you identify the perimeter server to use in the adapter definition.
• Netmap—define a netmap to identify the trading partners authorized to communicate through Sterling Secure Proxy and the company servers where connections are made.
  • For a Sterling Connect:Direct® netmap, create a node definition for all Sterling Connect:Direct nodes that will communicate through Sterling Secure Proxy. The node definition identifies the IP address and port to be used by the node and the policy to associate with the node. If SSL or TLS security is required for the connection, configure the protocol options in the node definition. You can also enable node-level logging in the node definition.
  • For HTTP and FTP netmaps, define an inbound node definition for trading partner connections from outside the company. The inbound node definition identifies the IP address or address pattern to allow for the connection and the policy to associate with the node. If SSL or TLS security is required, configure the protocol options in the node definition. You can also enable node-level logging in the inbound node definition.
  • For HTTP and FTP netmaps, define an outbound node for every company server to which Sterling Secure Proxy will connect. An outbound node definition identifies the address and port used to connect to the company server and enables SSL or TLS if this is required. You can also enable node-level logging and failover support in the outbound node definition.
  • For SFTP netmaps, define an inbound node definition for trading partner connections from outside the company. The inbound node definition identifies the IP address or address pattern to allow for the connection and the policy to associate with the node.You can also enable node-level logging in the inbound node definition.
  • For SFTP netmaps, define an outbound node for every company server to which Sterling Secure Proxy will connect. An outbound node definition identifies the address and port used to connect to the company server, the known host key that is used to authenticate the company server toSterling Secure Proxy, and the cipher suites and MACs used to secure the connection. You can also enable node-level logging and failover support in the outbound node definition.
• Policy—define a policy to identify the security features to implement for an inbound node definition or a Sterling Connect:Direct node definition.
  • In all protocol policies, you can enable the capability to authenticate the inbound connection and identify what user ID and password to use to connect to the secure company server.
  • For FTP, HTTP, and Sterling Connect:Direct policies, you can enable the capability to authenticate certificate information using Sterling External Authentication Server,
  • In an HTTP policy, you can enable the capability to block commonly occurring HTTP exploits.
  • In a Sterling Connect:Direct policy, you can enable the capability to send a warning message or stop a session if a protocol error occurs, as well as prevent a Sterling Connect:Direct node from performing a runtask, runjob, copystep, or submit step function.
  • In an SFTP policy, you identify the method required to authenticate the inbound connection. Authentication methods supported are key, password, password or key, and password and key.
• Sterling External Authentication Server—a separately installed feature of Sterling Secure Proxy, Sterling External Authentication Server allows you to validate digital certificates passed by the client or trading partner during SSL/TLS session requests. You can also validate certificates against one or more certificate revocation lists (CRLs), and validate certificates based on a valid date range. See the Sterling Secure Proxy documentation library for more information.
  Sterling External Authentication Server can be configured to validate certificates and authenticate users. The functions performed by Sterling External Authentication Server are defined in an Sterling External Authentication Server definition. Sterling External Authentication Server performs one or more of the following functions:

  • Certificate Validation
  • Certificate Revocation List (CRL)—certificate revocation checking using a certificate revocation list (CRL)
  • Multi-factor Authentication
  • Certificate Policy Enforcement
  • LDAP Authentication
  • User ID mapping—remote trading partners can be given IDs and passwords that do not provide access to internal systems. The ID and password presented by the trading partner is mapped to an ID and password that can then access the internal system
  • Tivoli Access Manager Authentication
  • Generic Authentication
  Before you can use Sterling External Authentication Server with Sterling Secure Proxy, you must configure Sterling External Authentication Serverdefinitions in Sterling Secure Proxy. Then, when configuring policies and protocol adapters, you select these server definitions. You can also select security features available in Sterling External Authentication Server such as certificate authentication, user authentication, and user mapping. Refer to the Sterling External Authentication Server documentation library for more information.

Overview on Sterling File Gateway application

About IBM Sterling File Gateway

Sterling File Gateway is an application for transferring files between partners by using different protocols, conventions for naming files, and file formats.

Sterling File Gateway uses the Sterling B2B foundation, which includes IBM® Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling Standards, and the Sterling platform. The capabilities that are delivered are similar to the features found in Advanced File Transfer and IBM Sterling Connect:Enterprise® for UNIX, plus new functionality.

Use Sterling File Gateway for movement of large and high-volume file transfers, with end-to-end visibility of file movement in a process-oriented and highly-scalable framework. This framework alleviates file transfer challenges, such as protocol and file brokering, automation, and data security.

Sterling File Gateway supports integration with:

• Sterling B2B Integrator Mailbox
• IBM Sterling Control Center
• IBM Sterling Secure Proxy
• IBM Sterling Connect:Direct® for UNIX server products
• Sterling Connect:Direct

Sterling File Gateway, which is delivered on the Sterling B2B Integrator platform with a unique application URL, provides single sign-on access to the Sterling B2B Integrator administrative console through menu selection.

Features

Sterling File Gateway provides many features:

• File/File name Transformations – Mapping of input to output file names; system-wide, group, and partner-specific policies; common file processing tasks such as compression/decompression, PGP encryption/decryption, and signing.
• File Transfer Visibility – Events are recorded for monitoring and reporting; detailed tracking for input-output file structure processing and dynamic route determination; ability to view and filter Sterling File Gateway data flows for all users.
• Replay/Redeliver – One click replay/redeliver capability that allows users to reprocess a transmission from the beginning or to resend just the processed file to a specific delivery destination.
• Notifications – Partners and operators can subscribe to be notified about events by email.
• Predefined business processes – Define common behaviors in file-transfer scenarios, reducing the need for customization.
• Extensibility – Custom event codes, protocols, facts, and consumer identification policies can be added to support unique scenarios.
• Broad Communications Protocol Support – FTP, FTP/S, SSH/SFTP, SSH/SCP, and Sterling Connect:Direct® are supported upon installation, and additional protocols (such as AS2, AS3, or Odette FTP) may be configured through use of the extensibility feature.
• Partner Interface (myFileGateway) – Web browser-based interface that enables partners to upload/download files, subscribe to notifications of events, manage passwords, search and view file transfer activity, and generate reports about file transfer activity.
• Flexible Mailbox Structures – Ability to specify mailbox structures that leverage pattern matching policies and specify attributes that must be true of all partners or a subset of partners
• Dynamic Routing – Consumer derived at run-time, either through mailbox structure, file name, business process-derived consumer name, or map-derived consumer name.
• Partner Onboarding – Easy-to-use graphical user interface to onboard partners and configure the various combinations of communication protocols to enable Sterling File Gateway operations.

How Sterling B2B Integrator and Sterling File Gateway work together

Sterling File Gateway utilizes the Sterling B2B foundation, which includes Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling Standards, and the Sterling platform, to deliver capabilities similar to those found in Sterling Advanced File Transfer and Sterling Connect:Enterprise® for UNIX, while adding new features and functionality.

Within Sterling File Gateway, Sterling B2B Integrator is known as the B2B Console, and is accessed from the Tools menu. Administrative functions such as creating and managing user accounts, permission groups, and security keys for Sterling File Gateway are handled in Sterling B2B Integrator.

Sterling File Gateway utilizes the communication adapters of Sterling B2B Integrator, which include the following:

• FTP Server adapter
• FTP Client adapter
• SFTP Server adapter
• SFTP Client adapter
• HTTP Server adapter
• HTTP Client adapter
• Connect:Direct Server adapter
• Command Line adapter 2 (for PGP)

To install Sterling File Gateway, you must first install Sterling B2B Integrator. After you install Sterling File Gateway on an instance of Sterling B2B Integrator, when you install upgrades or new builds of Sterling B2B Integrator, Sterling File Gateway upgrades and builds are automatically installed as part of the installation script.

How Sterling Secure Proxy and Sterling File Gateway work together

Sterling Secure Proxy can be used as a proxy with Sterling File Gateway and other HTTP applications and supports a single sign-on connection. Single sign-on (SSO) provides access control that allows a user to log in once to Sterling Secure Proxy, using the HTTP protocol, and then gain access to Sterling File Gateway without logging in again. SSO bypasses normal user authentication in Sterling File Gateway and trusts that Sterling Secure Proxy has authenticated the user.

After you set up the basic single sign-on configuration, trading partners can communicate in a secure environment that provides authentication. The trading partner first connects to Sterling Secure Proxy which then connects to Sterling File Gateway on behalf of the trading partner.

Following is an illustration of the flow of data:

New B2B Integration Tools

Simply put B2B Integration means the integration, automation and optimization of key business processes that extend outside the four walls of a companies organisation.

For example receiving purchase orders from your customers electronically, you can process order information faster and more accurately. Processing these orders in real time allows companies to be more responsive to their customers, improve customer service and increase sales. Similarly, by connecting to external suppliers electronically, companies can achieve real time views into the visibility of global shipments, automating the warehouse or distribution centres and optimising inventory or stock control – ultimately increasing working capital and lowering costs

B2B Integration began with large companies mandating methods of receiving business information technology. It evolved through the widespread adoption of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and in recent years has benefited from technology innovations e.g. the advent of the Internet, XML, web services and SOA, Business Process Management and SaaS. These innovations have led to increased benefits being made available to companies of every size. As we explore in this Microsite there are a number of ways to implement B2B Integration solutions.

In this area, I found new B2B tool called Adeptia EDI Accelerator 

ABOUT EDI ACCELERATOR 

If two business entities need to exchange EDI data, they can seamlessly do it using the EDI Accelerator. These 

entities are referred to as Trading Partners of each other. 

The EDI Accelerator enables you to configure new trading partners quickly via an easy-to-use interface. By using 

this interface, you can setup inbound and outbound relationships with each trading partner to quickly respond to 

different EDI messages. For each trading partner, you can setup number of translation rules to process different 

incoming EDI messages along with the ability to create outbound EDI messages. 

When EDI Accelerator receives data from one trading partner, you need to create an inbound relationship, 

wherein, it receives data from that trading partner and then processes it. In order to send data to the other trading 

partner, you need to create an outbound relationship, wherein, it receives data stored in the file system, processes 

it into a format compatible to the other trading partner and then sends it to that trading partner. 

ARCHITECTURE OF EDI ACCELERATOR 

The architecture of EDI Accelerator is as follows see Figure 1. 

Figure 1: EDI Accelerator Architecture

The EDI Accelerator supports direct exchange of data using File and FTP protocols. In a case, where the trading partner is using a protocol other than File or FTP, third-party software, namely VL Trader Host is used. This host will receive the data from the partner’s protocol and send it to EDI Accelerator on a local file system or FTP location. For inbound processing, VLTrader receives the data from any trading partner and download it into its configured mailbox. 

The EDI Accelerator picks the data file from the inbox folder of VL Trader mailbox and starts its inbound processing. It splits the file into transaction sets and inserts them into the EDI database. It now processes each transaction set one by one. Once this EDI translation is done, the translated data is placed in the File System. This data can now be sent to the back-end application using a process flow. Refer to inbound flow in Figure 1. 

For outbound processing, EDI Accelerator picks the data from the File System (sent by the backend application using a process flow) and starts its outbound processing. It translates the data and splits it into different records, based on the Application ID (used to identify the Trading Partner for the specific data). Once it translates the outbound data, it puts it in the Outbound Queue. Transactions in this queue are processed when a batch schedule is run. Then, the EDI Accelerator picks these transactions, creates GS and ISA Envelopes for them, and sends them to Partner using File or FTP protocol of Adeptia Suite. If VLTrader Host is being used, then they are sent to the outbox folder in VLTrader mailbox, from where they are sent to Partner. 

Web Service - Sterling Integrator POC

In French (not in English) Youtube video presentation


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms0VltPCbgA

Gentran Server vs. Gentran Integration Suite (GIS)

An interesting take on (Sterling Commerce’s, now IBM’s) Gentran Server vs. Gentran Integration Suite from a posting to the public “EDI Professionals” group by “Jeff” on LinkedIn.

“Gentran Server and Gentran Integration Suite are radically different animals. Gentran Server does simple translation and storage of data, that’s it. If you understand mapping and basic coding: “IF” statements, functions and such, the learning curve is pretty quick. Trading partner setup is in a basic tree format with copy function to set up new vendors from existing. If you copy the ISA level, all GS and ST come across with it. pretty slick.

“GIS is another story. The learning curve is steep. It does the same functions as Gentran Server but not as cleanly. It can accomplish almost anything you want it to using business processes linking file system adapters FTPs, maps, custom Java programs and other functions together any way you need them. It is very object based with each envelope business process etc being it’s own little component that you link to others. This makes the Trading partner setup very cumbersome since you cannot see what each is linked to unless you open each component. Unless you are careful about your naming conventions your searches may not bring up all the components you are looking for in one search and or may present them in an illogical order. The system shows the names alphabetically or numerical order rather than ISA, GS , ST order. This also goes for BPs, adapters etc.

“In describing the system I tell people that sometimes searching for data is like finding one particular string in the middle of a giant yarn ball. Other users have laughed saying that is pretty accurate. All data search correlations (PO number, invoice number) are set up custom in the maps, they are not canned. If you don’t set it up, you can’t search on it. On the other hand Gentran Server does not have this capability. A well set up series of correlations makes the system quite efficient. The EDI correlations: IDs and control numbers are factory set though.

“However once you understand it, it can do anything. From basic EDI processing, running accounting programs, reports, etc. If you are familiar with robotics and can control them with Java you can have the system wash your car if you want. Just link the control program into your BP and your good to go.

“One big difference between Gentran Server and GIS is that GIS has built in AS2. Server needs an external package.”

difference between sterling integrator and gentran Integration suite

Security

    Identity management, including authorization and authentication
    Perimeter security at DMZ traversal
    Role-based data access and system operation
    Secured mailboxing repository
    Data transport security (SSL, SFTP/SSH) and data encryption (S/MIME and PGP) support
    Non-repudiation using the AS2 or AS3 protocol
    Digital signature support
    Message- and transport-level security based on WS-Security 1.0 compliance, including WS-I Basic Profile 1.1 and Basic Security Profile 1.0

Communication
    B2B communication protocols: Web services (SOAP), S/FTP/S client and server, HTTP and HTTP/S, SMTP, AS1, AS2, AS3 and RosettaNet, WebDAV, Zengin TCP/IP, IBM® Sterling Connect:Direct®
    Policy-based file transfer
    Multi-gigabyte file handling
    IPv6 compatible

Business process management

    Graphical process modeling tool
    Business process execution engine
    Process abstraction (layered modeling and component reuse)

Integration and transformation

    Multi-purpose data transformation engine
        Traditional EDI: X12, EDIFACT, CII, TRADACOMS, and Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA)
        XML standards: OAGi, CIDX, PIDX, and RosettaNet
        Internet standards for B2B data exchange: RosettaNet RNIF, ebXML, 1SYNC, and EBICS
        XSLT service to transform XML documents
    Supports WTX translations
    Graphic data mapping tool
    Virtually unlimited file size (up to 50 gigabytes)
    Validation of inbound and outbound data based on HIPAA rules defined for Level 1 – Level 6
    Intelligent (content-based) routing
    Interoperable with .Net 1.1/2.0, Axis 1.x/2.0, Xfire 1.2.6 and Java EES

Community management

    Manage and grow trading partner communities
    Centralized visibility into trading partner communities
    Reduce error rates
    Digital certificates deployment
    Customizable partner configuration
    Intelligent onboarding with partner self-provisioning

Application extension and customization

    Web services: Support for SOAP, WDSL
    Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Tool to speed custom app/dev work
    Software Development Kit (SDK): Toolkit to create your own adapters to systems

Back-end connectivity adapters

    Enterprise applications
        SAP (BAPI, IDOC, and Netweaver), Oracle, PeopleSoft, Vantive, IBM® Sterling Connect:Direct®, IBM® Sterling Connect:Enterprise®
    EAI messaging platforms
        IBM WebSphere MQ, Oracle AQ, BEA Tuxedo, TIBCO Rendezvous, Microsoft MSMQ, JMS Queue and Topic
    Technology
        JDBC, CORBA, LDAP, command line, file system, EJB, RMI, SNMP trap, JCA, IM (Instant Messaging)

Mobility

IBM® Sterling B2B Integrator Mobile provides monitoring and management of Sterling Integrator processes and status from a mobile digital device, including system status, database growth, and average business process wait time.

    Monitoring with alerts for Sterling Integrator resources including system status, database growth and average business wait time
    Run or restart any failed or halted business process
    Initiate key functions such as manage lock resolution for users and resources, initiate thread/ heap dumps and turn logging on and off

XML faqs and answers for EDI

Question 1: What is XML ?

Answer : XML stands for Extensible Markup language which means you can extend XML based upon your needs. You can define custom tags like <books>, <orders> etc in XML easily as opposed to other mark-up language like HTML where you need to work with predefined tags e.g. <p> and you can not use user defined tag. Though structure of XML can be standardize by making use of DTD and XML Schema. XML is mostly used to transfer data from one system to another e.g. between client and server in enterprise applications.

Question 2: Difference between DTD and XML Schema?

Answer : There are couple of differences between DTD and XML Schema e.g. DTD is not written using XML while XML schema are xml documents in itself, which means existing XML tools like XML parsers can be used to work with XML schema. Also XML schema is designed after DTD and it offer more types to map different types of data in XML documents. On the other hand DTD stands for Document Type definition and was a legacy way to define structure of XML documents.

Question 3: What is XPath ?

Answer : XPath is an XML technology which is used to retrieve element from XML documents. Since XML documents are structured, XPath expression can be used to locate and retrieve elements, attributes or value from XML files. XPath is similar to SQL in terms of retrieving data from XML but it has it's own syntax and rules. See here to know more about How to use XPath to retrieve data from XML documents.

Question 4: What is XSLT?

Answer : XSLT is another popular XML technology to transform one XML file to other XML, HTML or any other format. XSLT is like a language which specifies its own syntax, functions and operator to transform XML documents. Usually transformation is done by XSLT Engine which reads instruction written using XSLT syntax in XML style sheets or XSL files. XSLT also makes extensive use of recursion to perform transformation. One of the popular example of using XSLT is for displaying data present in XML files as HTML pages. XSLT is also very handy to transforming one XML file into another XML document.

Question 5: What is element and attribute in XML?

Answer : This can be best explained by an example. let's see a simple XML snippet

<Orders>
  <Order id="123">
     <Symbol> 6758.T</Symbol>
     <Price> 2300</Price>
  <Order>
<Orders>

In this sample XML id is an attribute of <Order> element. Here <Symbol>, <Price> and <Orders> are also other elements but they don't have any attribute.

Question 6: What is meaning of well formed XML ?

Answer : Another interesting XML interview question which most appeared in telephonic interviews. A well formed XML means an XML document which is syntactically correct e.g. it has a root element, all open tags are closed properly, attributes are in quotes etc.  If an XML is not well formed, it may not be processed and parsed correctly by various XML parsers.

Question 7: What is XML namespace? Why it's important?

Answer : XML namespace are similar to package in Java and used to provide a way to avoid conflict between two xml tags of same name but different sources. XML namespace is defined using xmlns attribute at top of the XML document and has following syntax  xmlns:prefix="URI". later that prefix is used along with actual tag in XML documents. Here is an example of using XML namespace :

8. What is XML/EDI?

This is the present attempt to combine the best features of traditional EDI (which has a broad industry support) with the improvements in technology offered by XML. It is EDI with XML, or XML with EDI - depending on the perspective.

In an XML/EDI message the EDI information is explicitly labelled using tag names. Reference may be made via Internet to a Document Type Definition (DTD) - which contains structure declaration and relevant sets of code values.

Web browsers are expected to support XML, therefore XML/EDI messages. Like EDI messages, XML/EDI messages could be transmitted in any way: e-mail, VAN, Internet etc.

9. What is XSL?

This is the Extensible Style Sheets Language developed by W3C primarily to control the way information is presented on screen. XSL is used to display the information structured in XML; presentation aspects are dissociated from data structure (unlike HTML which tries to perform both functions). XSL involves the creation of Graphical User Interface (GUI) form objects out of an XML document.

XSL also provides some key document-handling facilities beyond styling. For instance, transformations, re-arrangement of elements, extract of a table of contents from a document.

10. How does XML/EDI relate to forms?

It is expected that for SMEs, web-based forms will be an important mechanism to create and read XML/EDI messages. These forms may be linked to local database systems.

11. Does XML/EDI replace EDIFACT?

The answer is yes and no. Yes, in the long term XML/EDI may replace EDIFACT, at least for some category of partners such as SMEs. However, XML/EDI builds on the EDIFACT foundations in terms of semantic contents (message types, segments and data elements) and related UN code lists. In that sense, it opens new opportunities for EDIFACT. For more information on EDIFACT see <www.unece.org/trade/untdid>.