Re: [ubl-dev] UBL and a functional SQL schema

[Tim McGrath <tmcgrath@portcomm.com.au>]

i agree that tools such as you describe are useful - if you do not have 
a logical model already provided.  it seems rather inelegant to go from 
a logical model  to XML schemas then from XML schemas to SQL schemas.

what i was suggesting is that if your business requirement is to 
understand the information in a UBL document (and not just store it as 
BLOBs) and you want to create a relational database to do so you don't 
need to re-engineer the XML schemas.  there are relational UML models 
and hierarchical assembly models in spreadsheet and UML form that 
describe the logical model behind the schemas.  

of course, in whatever expression we give them, these are not simple 
models.  the reason they are complex is that the procurement business 
process is complex and therefore there are complex business rules about 
the information used. not much we can do about that.


Duane Nickull wrote:

> UBLers:
>
> A company named Xenos already makes an excellent tool that allows you 
> to visually map XML formats like UBL to a RDBMS, CSV etc..  You drag 
> and drop the XML components across the screen to a logical map of the 
> database scheme.  This creates a transformation map that you can 
> deploy to runtime.  The tool (called GoXML Transform) is very easy to 
> use.
>
> Screenshot:
> http://www.xenos.com/solutions/prod_goxml_transform_features.asp
>
> I am sure they would be interested o do a demonstration of this for 
> the UBL crowd.
>
> Duane Nickull
>

-- 
regards
tim mcgrath
phone: +618 93352228  
postal: po box 1289   fremantle    western australia 6160

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