B2B Integration Research Articles

XML-Based Advanced UDDI Search Mechanism for B2B Integration

Exploring appropriate business applications published as Web Services in UDDI registries is a critical issue. Search for such applications should be effective in terms of time and uniformed in terms of interfaces. In this paper, an XML-based advanced UDDI exploring engine, Business Explorer for Web Services (BE4WS), that provides developers with standard interfaces for efficiently searching business and service information in single or multiple UDDI registries is presented. The engine processes the proposed UDDI Search Markup Language (USML) that specifies a search request comprising multiple queries, UDDI sources, search criteria, and aggregation operator. The core component of BE4WS, Advanced UDDI Search Engine (AUSE), aggregates search results from different UDDI registries based on the USML request and built-in intelligent search facilities with the ability to cross-reference multiple categories. An aggregation example using BE4WS is demonstrated to enable easy B2B integration.

The role of B2B engines in B2B integration architectures

Semantic B2B Integration architectures must enable enterprises to communicate standards-based B2B events like purchase orders with any potential trading partner. This requires not only back end application integration capabilities to integrate with e.g. enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as the company-internal source and destination of B2B events, but also a capability to implement every necessary B2B protocol like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), RosettaNet as well as more generic capabilities like web services (WS). This paper shows the placement and functionality of B2B engines in semantic B2B integration architectures that implement a generic framework for modeling and executing any B2B protocol. A detailed discussion shows how a B2B engine can provide the necessary abstractions to implement any standard-based B2B protocol or any trading partner specific specialization.

The Application of Workflow Technology in Semantic B2B Integration

Workflow Management Systems (WFMSs) are often used in context of B2B integration as a base technology to implement business-to-business (B2B) integration processes across enterprises. In this conte...

B2B integration

As they grasp the opportunities provided by the Internet for value chain integration, companies are also looking to preserve their existing investment in EDI. The author explains how they can combine the best of the old and the new by automating the translation of EDI documents into XML.

Semantic B2B integration

The tutorial “Semantic B2B Integration” will give an introduction to the field of business-to-business (B2B) integration from a technical viewpoint with the focus on semantic integration aspects. The set of B2B integration concepts is introduced as well as their implementation in form of a technical semantic B2B integration architecture. A mix of examples is taken illustrating the problems that need to be solved in semantic B2B integration projects. The tutorial enables the audience to identify semantic B2B integration problems as well as to determine the benefits and deficiencies of various technical integration architecture approaches or B2B integration technologies.

Ontologies and electronic commerce

Ontologies are the first step toward realizing the full power of online e-commerce. Ontologies enable machine-understandable semantics of data, and building this data infrastructure will enable completely new kinds of automated services. Software agents can search for products, form buyer and seller coalitions, negotiate about products, or help automatically configure products and services according to specified user requirements. The combination of machine-processable semantics of data based on ontologies and the development of many specialized reasoning services will bring the Web to its full power. The authors discuss: taxonomies; information sources; future issues; business viewpoints; the e-marketplace; and B2B e-commerce standardisation and integration.

Model of Service-Oriented B2B Integration in the Traffic Safety Area

One class of methods for black spots identification is based on the analysis of: traffic accidents (TA), road parameters, and traffic intensity. The data used in the analysis can be grouped into the information about: roads, persons participating in TA, vehicles participating in TA, traffic accidents and their consequences, and traffic. These categories of data are usually under the jurisdiction of different traffic and non-traffic subjects. Therefore, it is necessary to exchange traffic safety data among the following sources: traffic police, road manager, and health and judicial sector. This paper proposes a model for the exchange and integration of traffic safety data into a single database, which allows the calculation of risks for road sections, as well as the classification and ranking of the sections. The model is based on B2B integration of service-oriented applications. This paper describes a practical example that demonstrates the proposed integration model.