[ebxml-dev] CGNU and ebXML MS

[Fraser Goffin <goffinf@hotmail.com>]

Hello everybody.

This is my first foray into the ebXML arena so I just wanted to say hi
and ask a few [hopefully] simple questions.

An introduction :-

CGNU (formerly Norwich Union) are taking tentative steps towards the
definition of an XML based messaging infrastructure (we already use EDI) and 
amongst the many things to consider is the message packaging and, longer 
term (perhaps), the use of industry or ,market sector definitions for 
standard entities, expressed as XML schema types. For the present I am 
interested in ebXML for a few reasons. First, our objectives are in 
alignment (not all that surprising since probably every other serious 
proposed 'standard' out there makes similar claims), and secondly, there are 
proposals from one of the important Insurance industry bodies that 
specifically include ebXML (MS). A third reason is probably that in the past 
we have come up with our own internal transport, routing and packaging 
schema (not quite as advanced as ebXML) but ultimately CGNU have no desire 
whatsoever to be the custodian of a standard, preferring of course for 
broader industry acceptance of an independant standard but retaining some 
influence over its development. Finally there is a real need for us to get 
on a do something rather than continue to pontificate further. To that end 
we are engaged in a small proof of concept (POC) exercise which is looking
to demonstrate what can be (relatively) easily acheived now and to raise the 
visibility and increase our own understanding of the important issues ahead.

O.k, now that I'm introduced a few questions :-

1. We have recently completed an implementation of the Message Service
Specification (1.0) for use in the POC mentioned above. Whilst engaed in 
this work we noticed a number of disparities between the schema contained 
within the specification document and the specification itself. I was 
wondering whether the schema is maintained separately from the specification 
at ebxml.org ? (I noted in some of the recent committee minutes that 
responsibility for update of the schema was specifically assigned to one of 
the members)

2. We now note that a new release of the MS specification is imminent
(?). I think I have seen mention of a version 1.09 spec thus far. Is the 
intended timescale for this still Jan 2002 ?, and will this be version 2.0 
or 1.1 ?

3. The id attribute that appears on each of the headers and manifest - is 
this intended to be namespace qualified (ie. eb:id) to the ebXML
MessageHeader namespace or unqualified as it appears in some of the
examples and as the schema refers to it as 'form=unqualified'.

4.  For the present we are carrying the payload within the Body of the
message (albeit still referenced from the ebXML Manifest as for MIME
attachments). We intend to move across to attachments when our preferred 
toolkit (Microsoft) supports them (should be soon). I note that the spec 
doesn't disallow this (although neither is it recommended); I wonder whether 
other ebXML users who are basically 'Microsoft shops' are doing likewise or 
have 'rolled their own' implementation ?

Cheers

Fraser

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