RE: [plcs-dex] Business concepts

I confess – I was a bit hasty in sending out the diagram.

I meant to explain that we previously talked about “Data exchange contracts” but never really defined them beyond:

Identify the DEX and its version

Identify the relevant conformance class (documented in the DEX)

Identify business concepts (which again refer to business specific sets of reference data)

Reference data library / ref data sources

Bounding scope of reference data

Data representation rules and constraints (for data validation)

Explanation of how that information is represented is defined in the capabilities

Once I looked into this I felt that it was really a dex defined using business concepts. Hence the suggestion that it should be referred to as a “Business DEX”. What else would go into an exchange contract (apart from the legal / service / availability / liability aspects) and do we want to provide that in DEXlib?

I agree with you Tim, that a Business DEX should use the same XML as a PLCS DEX.

However, a PLCS DEX refers to the PLCS activity model. A Business DEX, might not.

I need to look into the impact of using the DEX XML to represent Business DEXs.

In the meantime, here is an updated diagram reflecting the comments so far.

BTW – so far nobody has said they preferred the original diagram, so I will make the change in the help files (we can modify this as a result of any further discussion)

Regards
Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Turner [mailto:tjt@lsc.co.uk]
Sent: 31 August 2005 16:41
To: 'rob.bodington@eurostep.com'; plcs-dex@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: 'Martin Gibson'; 'Phil Rutland'
Subject: RE: [plcs-dex] Business concepts

I had not heard of business dex before. However, in our context I can see it might be useful.

However, I don't know that a Dex is defined by business concepts (fig2). I'd suggest that they use business concepts. Also, I'd presume that they may be based upon a PLCS Dex. In fact, both should be based upon the PLCS Dex template.

How will Dexlib differentiate between these two types of Dexs though?

regards,

Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Bodington [mailto:rob.bodington@eurostep.com]
Sent: 31 August 2005 08:46
To: plcs-dex@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: 'Martin Gibson'; 'Phil Rutland'
Subject: RE: [plcs-dex] Business concepts

Hi

In the proposed diagram, I should probably include Templates in a capability.

Also, The Business DEXs that are arguably the same as a Data exchange agreement- though a data exchange agreement may well have additional legal information.

There perhaps should also be a relationship between a "Business DEX" to a "PLCS DEX" indicating that the Business DEX conforms to the PLCS DEX.

Regards
Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Bodington [mailto:rob.bodington@eurostep.com]
Sent: 31 August 2005 13:21
To: plcs-dex@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: 'Martin Gibson'; 'Phil Rutland'
Subject: RE: [plcs-dex] Business concepts

Hi

I have also attempted to refine the diagram that shows the relationship between the DEXS, business concept, ref data etc.

If everyone agrees, I would like to replace the following figure in Introduction with the diagram below

Regards
Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Bodington [mailto:rob.bodington@eurostep.com]
Sent: 31 August 2005 12:01
To: plcs-dex@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: Martin Gibson; Phil Rutland
Subject: [plcs-dex] Business concepts

Hi

I have now completed the changes to the business concepts.

Basically, a business concept must be defined within a context.

This has meant a fair amount of change to DEXlib XSL. If you find that anything does not work, please tell me.

Details on how to create a business concept are provided in the "Developing a Business concept" help pages. This also explains the new business concept directory structure. If this does not make sense, then let me know, or propose some changes.

I have also provided a section in the "Introduction" help pages that describes business concepts. Whilst I was at it, I "improved" the section describing reference data. See what you think.

If anyone has been developing business concepts, please contact me about migrating the old business concepts to the new.

I have deleted the existing business concept directories:

dexlib/data/busconcept/allowance_parts_list

dexlib/data/busconcept/bc_template

dexlib/data/busconcept/identify_a_part_and_its_constituent_parts

dexlib/data/busconcept/manufacturers_item

Let me know if these should e retained.

I have created one example context TLSS and defined a single business concept within it: "manufacturers_item"

Regards
Rob

-------------------------------------------
Rob Bodington
Eurostep Limited
Web Page: http://www.eurostep.com http://www.share-a-space.com
Email: Rob.Bodington@eurostep.com
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