Re: [ubl-dev] Getting started with UBL-2.0

[stephen.green@systml.co.uk]

My responses inline - not necessarily any more than my own opinion in most
cases:

Quoting David Pratt <fairwinds@eastlink.ca>:

> Hi list. I am just beginning with UBL and getting up to speed with the
> schemas. I cannot seem to find a schema for items in the package I
> downloaded.

Which package? Not all * derivative * packages have schemas - some merely
rely on folk using the standard schemas. There are tools available for
creating derivative schemas. Personally I just use an XML Editor to edit
the standard UBL schemas. You should be wary of changing namespaces as
UBL is increasingly geared toward a conformance requirement which asks
the instances are valid against the standard schemas which are found at

http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0/xsd/ (with name documentation)
and
http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0/xsdrt/

You might be looking for the customisation documentation though - to which
maybe someone closer to things can point you.

>
> I am interested in an implementation that can work with a products or
> services as items.

Please clarify. Do you mean as items to be ordered and paid for?

I think the weakest link with the standards using the CEFACT codelists
seems to be the use of the 'units of measure' codelist. There seem to
be a lot of useless codes, and here and there a useful one. Services might
need the codes like 'IE' for 'person'

       <Row>
          <Value ColumnRef="code">
             <SimpleValue>IE</SimpleValue>
          </Value>
          <Value ColumnRef="name">
             <SimpleValue>person</SimpleValue>
          </Value>
       </Row>

and 'DAY' for 'day'

       <Row>
          <Value ColumnRef="code">
             <SimpleValue>DAY</SimpleValue>
          </Value>
          <Value ColumnRef="name">
             <SimpleValue>day</SimpleValue>
          </Value>
       </Row>

I've no idea what relevance codes like those for light-years might have
to trade though :-) Obviously trade isn't the sole, primary purpose of  
the list.

http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0/cl/gc/cefact/UnitOfMeasureCode-2.0.gc

> Overall I am getting from reviewing the schemas that
> the language and schemas ought to work as messages being sent between a
> customer and a seller for the most part, not just documents.

You can make subsets of documents to use for specific message types or
create your own message types from the common library (with your own
namespaces for the latter but hopefully the UBL namespaces for the former).

It is debatable when, if ever, a document ceases to be a message or if  
a message
is at some point no longer a document. For example, a simple email-like
'message' can be created with UBL, with what would be a custom 'document'

http://www.systml.co.uk/xml/systml2/maindoc/SystML-SimpleDocument-2.0.xsd


> So is this
> ideally to be set up along the lines of a web service?

UBL is officially agnostic about that. UBL implementers are some using the
WS-* web services stack (such as Denmark's famous implementation,
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/200705/msg00051.html) and
and others ebXML (I could do with more info on ebXML use with UBL but
I think Turkey's health systems may use these - I developed some ebXML
artefacts for UBL though some for UBL's SBS and others for SystML)

>
> I wish to set something up where at least the core documents are being
> stored in this format - which I am hoping to be more future proof and
> flexible to import and export or use in other systems.

The official recommendation seems to be to use UBL 2.0 for now and later
upgrade to the CEFACT documents when they are available as standards too.
This should be as future-proof as one can presume to be, not really knowing
what technologies are yet to be developed :-) One can hopefully develope
transformations to and from other standards too of course, perhaps with
UBL as the 'hub' standard.

>
> I'd also like any advice on utilizing the schemas with detailed product
> or service schemas.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Regard,
> David
>
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-- 
Stephen Green

Partner
SystML, http://www.systml.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 117 9541606

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+22:37 .. and voice