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Get familiar with ebXML Registry

Learn the basics about the ebXML Registry standard

By Ash Parikh, JavaWorld.com, 04/25/05

Much like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), electronic business XML (ebXML) was developed to enable business to be conducted electronically over the Internet. Custom protocols and proprietary messaging formats between trading partners created a deterrent to the widespread adoption of EDI. ebXML, on the other hand, provides an open and flexible alternative, allowing enterprises anywhere, anyplace, and anytime to engage in meaningful collaborations.

ebXML supports the following tenets of a typical B2B infrastructure:

• XML-based messaging
• Trading partner agreements
• Registry

ebXML is a joint sponsorship effort by the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), with additional support from a multitude of industry leaders.

In this column, I briefly explore the ebXML Registry standard, its architecture, maturity, industry adoption, and how an ebXML registry can use a service-oriented architecture (SOA) repository.

What is ebXML Registry?

Like its predecessor, Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI), ebXML Registry also facilitates seamless and automatic inter-enterprise collaborations. This feature lends itself well to enabling true integration between trading partners and supports the overall goal and vision of an SOA in which applications communicate and share functionality without human interaction. Specifically, both these standards enable enterprises to discover each other, exchange XML-based messages, and engage in meaningful collaborations based on their individual trading-partner agreements and public business processes.

As depicted in the figure below, an ebXML registry can have a persistence mechanism for enterprises to share and store information as registered content. Per the ebXML Registry Services Specification, there are "a set of services that enable sharing of information between interested parties for the purpose of enabling business process integration between such parties based on the ebXML specifications."

ebXML Registry's Registry Information Model (RIM) describes entities that store information in an ebXML registry, such as the RegistryEntry entity, which contains an ebXML object, and the ClassificationNode entity, which is used to create classifications or ontologies for these objects.

As one would guess, to be of any use, this registered content needs interaction. Hence, ebXML Registry also provides two interfaces, ObjectManager and ObjectQueryManager, that enable interaction with the registry.

To get a comprehensive understanding of inter-registry cooperation, security, and content management with respect to ebXML Registry, I encourage readers to reference information available in the ebXML Registry Technical Committee's subcommittees (SC) such as:

• ebXML Registry CC (Core Components) Review SC
• ebXML Registry Cooperating Registries SC
• ebXML Registry Security Services SC
• ebXML Registry Semantic Content Management SC

What is an SOA repository?

An SOA repository is a persistence mechanism that stores information published to an SOA registry. An SOA registry is a resource that enterprises share to publish, discover, and consume Web services, thus enabling dynamic and loosely-coupled B2B collaboration. Content such as XML Schemas, Document Type Definitions (DTDs), and Web Services Description Language (WSDL) documents, can be persisted in an SOA repository, which is then used in an SOA registry to enable a subscribe/publish model for persisted services. Per the Registry Information Model specification, the RIM or SOA repository may be implemented within an ebXML registry in the form of a relational database schema, object database schema, or some other physical schema. It may also be implemented as interfaces and classes within a registry implementation. I recommend the use of an XML database as the persistence mechanism since the artifacts to be stored are primarily XML-based.