Introduction to B2B

Simon Steinacker
Patrick Mangesius

SS 2005
Some Definitions
z Endpoint
z Back-end application
z Trading partners
z Divisions within an enterprise
z User interaction

z Close relationship between each other

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Some Definitions
z Hosted Trading Partner
z Company that hosts server
z hosted Trading partner
z Manage communication with other businesses
z Remote / non hosted trading partners

z Variants:
z One Server
z Multiple Server
z Multiple hosted trading partners a server

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Some Definitions
z Data format and events
z Enable communication of applications with
different formats
z B2B integration server acts as translator
z Multiple data formats => server must be able to
understand them all

z Received and sent messages are stored inside

the server
z Representation is called events

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Some Definitions
z Transformation

z Applications that communicate have different data

formats
z Therefore data must be transformed
z Transformation must not change semantics of the
business data content
z Semantic preserving transformation

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Some Definitions
z Domain value map

z Often values have to be exchanged

z E.g. shortcuts for expressions (Austria – AUT)
z => Domain value mapping

z Huge datamaps
z Data may change frequently
z Often realized through a database look up

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Some Definitions
z B2B protocol

z 2 approaches
z Server implements one

z Application implements the protocol as integration interface

z There exist many protocols

z Server must implement all needed for the conversation
z Possibility to find out which protocoll is supported by the
endpoint

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Some Definitions
z Back-end application system adapters (1/3)
z There must be some kind of gateway which
enables communication
z APIs, persistent queues, database tables, file system
directories,…
z Problems with the different functionalities of the
different approaches
z Heterogeneity

z Abstract interface (figure next slide)

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 B2B Integration Architecture

Back-end application system adapters

Interface A Interface B Interface C Interface D

Endpoint A Endpoint B Endpoint C Endpoint D

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Some Definitions
z Back-end application system adapters (3/3)
z Do NOT define behavior
z 2 Types
z Transactional
z Nontransactional

z Transactional: messages are sent once

z Nontransactional: implement semantics like
Protocols with retry limit, duplicate checks,…

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Some Definitions
z Business Process

z Integration is not only transforming/forwarding

data
z Often complex rules have to be designed
z E.g. Shipping example
z Communication is not always one way
z E.g. acknowledgements when purchasing

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Some Definitions
z History / Business Intelligence
z Examples:
z Logfiles
z Which data is sent to which endpoint
z Error detection/recovery
z Auditing
z E.g. Access logs for certain data (Healthcare)
z Analyzing of future trends

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Integration concepts
z Message
z Stages similar to network layers

z B2B wire message

z B2B clear text message
z Application clear text message
z Application wire message

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 Application Area B2B Area Application Area

Endpoint A Server Endpoint B

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Integration concepts
z Transformation between the messages
z Two main differences
z Application supports B2B protocol
z Application uses a different protocol

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Enterprise Network

Application Application B2B B2B

wire clear text clear text wire

message message message message

Application Copy

Message Copy copy operator

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Enterprise Network

Application Application B2B B2B

wire clear text clear text wire
message message message message

Application TF

Message TF Transformation

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Integration concepts
z Event

z Include information
z Data
z Sender
z Receiver, …

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 Applications talking over the network
Enterprise Network

Application B2B integration technology

Clear Clear
Wire text Wire text
event event event event

TF

Application B2B
wire wire
message message

Message TF Transformation Event

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 Applications talking direct
Enterprise

Application B2B integration technology Application

Clear Clear
Wire text Wire text
event event event event

TF

Application Application
wire wire
message message

Message TF Transformation Event

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Integration concepts
z Transformation / Translation
z Transformation
z As mentioned transformation is often not only copying
z E.g. Dataformat YYYY-MM-DD or 2005, March, 23
z Transformation scripts
z Translation
z Eliminating different represenations between incoming
message and event syntax

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*Patrick*Mangesius*
*Term*6*
*0215407*
*csae1493@uibk.ac.at*

Message Syntax Event Syntax

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Enterprise

Application B2B integration technology Application

Clear Clear
Wire text Wire text
event event event event

TF

Application Application
wire TL TL wire
message message

Message TF Transformation Event

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Enterprise

Application B2B integration technology Application

Clear Clear
Wire text Wire text
event event event event

TF

Application Application
wire TL TL wire
message message

Message TF Transformation Event

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Integration concepts
z Business event
z Until now point to point integration
z Problems:
z Transformations increase rapidly with number of
participants

z Example
z 4 companies purchasing
z Each different protocol
ƒ This means: 12 transformations
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Purchase order of Endpoint 1 Purchase order of Endpoint 2
TF

TF

TF

TF

TF TF TF TF

TF

TF

TF

TF 26
Purchase order of Endpoint 4
Purchase order of Endpoint 3
Purchase order of Endpoint 1 Purchase order of Endpoint 2

TF TF TF TF

Business Event
purchase order

TF TF TF TF

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Purchase order of Endpoint 3 Purchase order of Endpoint 4
Integration concepts
z Business event
z Business event can be used to avoid costly
transformations
z Without we had n*(n-1) = 4*3 = 12 Transformations
z With there are only 2*n = 2*4 = 8 Transformations

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Business Process & Endpoint
Behavior

z Usually messages exchange between back-

end app systems and trading partners are
logically related.

z This relation can be expressed by defining

behavior.

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Defining behavior
z One way to define behavior is to define a
business process.

z And through that the complete message and

event behavior is defined.

z The following slides will deal with that…

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Extended example of 2 endpoints
z 2 endpoints exchanging
purchase order
messages,

z Purchase order
messages have to
ack’ed

z Each message received

by the first endpoint
(back-end) has to be
ack’ed.

z See figure on the left

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z This slide shows the
business process in a
more concrete way.

z It relies on the concept

of business events.

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Three Subdivisions …
z The representation on the former slide is
informally divided in three subdivisions:

z The upper third concerns the first endpoint (back-

end application system)
z The middle third is about the business logic
z And the lower third deals with messages and
events concerning the second endpoint (trading
partner)
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Deficiencies
z While it is certainly possible to define the
whole process in one outlet, there arise
several disadvantages of this approach:

z Different layers of functionality

z Cannot be reused

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A better approach…

z These deficiencies justify the search for a

more flexible approach.

Divide and Conquer

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Divide
z First the original all-in-one process is divided
into 3 sub-processes:

z The business logic process (from now on called

‘business process’)

z One processes for each endpoint (called

‘interface process’)

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Business Process

z This process describes

the business logic and
represents the
‘middle part’ of the
previous example

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Interface Processes

These two interface processes

Implement the same behavior as
the ‘upper part’ and the ‘lower part’
In the previous example.
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Conquer
z Now that we have ‘divided’ we need to
‘conquer’.

z Conquer is meant in the sense of tying the

divided components together.
z Since none of the processes from above
contained a transformation, this is done in the
Conquer part.

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Process Binding

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Process Binding (2)

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Interface Processes can also be tied together directly, if no
business logic is necessary in between.
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Endpoint Attributes
z Endpoints need identifying arguments like:
z Names
z Unique identifiers

z Other data like:

z Public / Private keys
z etc.

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Endpoint Attributes (2)
z Additionally, endpoint type-specific
information has to be kept:
z Credit ranking
z Payment history
z Several business addresses

z It must be possible to add data and new

categories at runtime

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Endpoint Capabilities

z This section describes the capabilities of an

endpoint in terms of B2B integration.

z For that data has to be stored:

z Supported B2B protocols
z Modifications to standards

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Endpoint agreements
z For security reasons, not all endpoints should
be enabled to send messages to each other
automatically.

z For that the construct of Agreements has

been introduced.
z If an endpoint wants to communicate with another
endpoint, an Endpoint Agreement is necessary
between those two endpoints.

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 Integration
Technology
Architecture
• 4 different layers
In the architecture

• Strict Top-Down

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Conclusion

z B2B Integration technology offers great and

flexible possibilities to fulfill most industries
dreams of flexibility, adaptability and
compatibility.

Thanks for your attention

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