Goals of the BizTalk Framework -- part 3

Third Generation: The BizTalk Framework As seen earlier, being able to cross organizational boundaries is an important business requirement. To achieve this, the BizTalk Initiative, a multibusiness consortium, created the BizTalk Framework. This framework is the third generation solution, as shown in Figure 1.3. The following section examines the nature of the BizTalk Framework as an integration solution. Figure 1.3 The third generation of integration XML and the BizTalk FrameWork Solution By far the most successful integration solution available today is XML-based message passing between different platforms. XML is a platform-independent standard that describes data to be transmitted between computers regardless of the application or operating system. In other words, XML offers a common document representation that everybody can understand. To use the conference analogy again, you don't need interpreters, and you don't need to learn another language (except for some very basic phrases) because XML offers a common metalanguage that you can use to communicate, and in doing so it behaves much like the universal translator that was used in the television series Star Trek. The theory behind XML-based universal representation is that if everyone agrees to share certain basic assumptions about functionality and interface guidelines, everyone can interpret the meaning contained in a document without necessarily understanding the less important details, such as the original structure of the document. Imagine, for example, that Bill and Mary are designing two different applications and want their applications to exchange documents, but the applications each store their data differently. If the application designers agree to mark dates the same way, each doesn't need to know how the data is stored internally in the other's application. If Bill does not know where the date is located in Mary's document, but Mary explains where the date is, Bill knows something useful about Mary's document that he didn't know before. He can now decipher the dates in Mary's documents regardless of where they are placed. If Bill and Mary also agree on the notion of quantity, and Mary tells Bill where the quantity of his order is on the document, Bill knows even more about Mary's document. Now all Mary has to do is mark up the documents she is sending to Bill and describe each agreed-upon element using a tag, and Bill knows exactly what the document contains, even though the form of the document might be something he has never seen before. As long as the tags that are familiar to both users are in the document, and as long as they are used properly, each will have no trouble at all processing the other's documents. The BizTalk Framework supplies the generally agreed-upon set of basic assumptions mentioned previously (functionality and interface guidelines), and it also provides the flexibility of extending them as needed. In terms of the business objectives discussed in the previous section, BizTalk supports the business objectives while attempting to minimize the risk factors by allowing businesses to use the infrastructure they already have. There is no need for costly and error-prone modifications. To use the human language analogy, if you have always used French, you don't have to learn German, but rather you can continue doing business in French just as you always have. And, your German trading partners will happily do business with you-in German, of course. So, if your current applications work, you know that the solution will work as well. The operational requirement is also satisfied, because you can extend your French vocabulary as much as you like, and, as long as your partners understand your tags, they can understand your documents. Also, the cost of implementing this solution is low when compared with the earlier solutions. It is French throughout for you. Similarly, if your partners use German, they don't need to learn French to talk to you. In fact, if you use XML, you don't even need to modify your existing code. All you need to do is rely on the BizTalk Framework to handle the documents for you. Advantages of the BizTalk Framework There are many reasons why the BizTalk Framework promises to be successful. One important factor is that message passing using XML and XML-based schemas meets many requirements for interactions between systems or organizations. These include: A flexible universal language to describe and package information, allowing both rigidly structured and unstructured forms of the information A flexible mechanism for defining transformation rules for converting information from one format to another as needed Platform-independent communication protocols that handle interactions between applications or organizations Platform-independent security mechanisms to protect privacy and integrity of the data exchange Flexibility is an important advantage of using XML for inter-application and inter-business communications. You can easily add applications to your organization without the high cost of integration, and you can upgrade or replace applications without upsetting the overall integration of the organization. In fact, other applications, and even other organizations that do business with yours, need not be aware of the change, as long as the upgraded or replaced application can process XML. NOTE The requirement that applications support XML is a limitation that is already being addressed. More and more applications support XML as a matter of course. The support for Internet-based secure transport protocols makes XML-based business interactions even more attractive. Another important feature of XML-based solutions is that they are relatively easy and inexpensive to implement. This ease of use initially proved to be a bit too much of a good thing, though: it prompted the development of many independent XML-based solutions that extended XML in different, incompatible directions, with an unfortunate but predictable result-they pushed the incompatibility one level up. The developers had to then integrate different, incompatible integration solutions! This is analogous to translating between "universal translators" that claim to be universal only if you commit to never using another translator. So, "universal translators" suddenly turned out to be not that universal at all. It became clear that the time was ripe for a business standard. The BizTalk Framework is such a standard and is an industry-wide answer to the compatibility problem. In other words, it is a true universal translator. It is XML-based and helps you automate business processes and integrate data exchange between applications both within one organization, and between business organizations, using an open set of schemas. Within this framework, you can implement XML schemas and tags targeted specifically for use in messages sent between otherwise incompatible applications. But because you can register and share your schemas, everyone can access them, and there is no danger of incompatibility caused by lack of sufficient implementation information. The success of the first version of the BizTalk Framework was encouraging, but it soon became clear that some revisions were needed. And so, BizTalk Framework 2.0 now includes features that were lacking in version 1.0 of the product. These include transport binding, reliable message delivery, and the use of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) and Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) standards for attachments. BizTalk Server 2000 is Microsoft's implementation of BizTalk Framework 2.0. While the BizTalk Framework addresses many compatibility problems, it is not meant to address all business communication needs. Thus it does not deal with possible legal issues involved with business transactions, nor does it handle recovery from catastrophic failures. It also doesn't specify any business processes, such as purchasing or ordering. It simply allows other applications to address those issues within a common framework.