Third week on the new job and though I would have denied the
possibility, I find myself missing webMethods.
Specifically, in
EDI in webMethods, we used an approach involving so-
called canonical documents (also known as Common Business Document or
Universal
Data Model).
For example, and inbound
X12 4010 850 was first translated into a
Purchase Order Canonical, and then that Purchase Order Canonical was
translated into an SAP 31i IDOC.
Why? A number of reasons. From the Purchase Order Canonical, we could
easily translate into any back end system. For example, Kroger sent
us POs for our core business, but also for an acquisition that had
not been integrated into SAP. So the X12 850, for either destination,
was translated into the PO Canonical, and from there the core stuff
was translated into IDOCs, and the other stuff translated into XML
and from there, via an XLST,
into a PDF to be emailed to the
acquisition folks. Now, once the acquisition is integrated into SAP,
our only change will be to use the same path to the IDOC that we do
for the core stuff--literally, a five minute change.
Another example. We initially implemented Wal-Mart at 4030, but
they've recently mandated upgrading in 5010. In any X12-to-IDOC
translation, this would require recreating all of their maps in the
new version--several weeks' work. In wM using this approach, however,
it was simply a matter of changing the schema in the existing map
from 4030 to 5010 and repointing the mappings--a single afternoon's
work.
I'm probably preaching to the choir, if anyone reading this is
familiar with webMethods and their GEAR documentation. There's a
White Paper called "Canonical Strategy" that you're probably familiar
with.
At any rate, what I'm looking for is some blessed person who has gone
from webMethods TO GIS, and who can point me in the direction of how
the heck I replicate this
functionality in GIS.
Anyone?
Regards,
Ron Paquin
Tenneco Inc.
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