[July 24, 2001] The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) XML Workgroup sponsors a 'Steel Industry XML Project' focused upon the design of XML-based specifications for business transactions in the steel industry. The workgroup has released draft versions of the AISI guidelines "with the intent of gathering input from interested parties." Phase One project activities include: (1) a data requirements review and element mapping for the Shipping Notice, Material Release, Inventory Advice, Material Receipt, Test Report, Customer Purchase Order, Service Order, and Vendor Order transactions; (2) construction of an XML steel industry glossary of terms for document usage; (3) Construction of DTDs for reviewed transactions."

"The primary objective of the AISI XML Workgroup is to develop standardized XML terminology to be used throughout steel related transactions documents. The task to be completed involves the translation of existing x.12 based transaction documents to XML. This process will simultaneously create a Steel XML Glossary, which can then be used throughout the industry and by developers of internet based applications for the industry. The glossary will be posted to the website as it is developed. The Workgroup is comprised of IT professionals from AISI's member steel companies."

From the initial announcment: "The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) today announced that its member companies have formed an XML Workgroup to develop guidelines and standardized terminology and documents for internet based steel transactions. 'The development of an increasing number of internet marketplaces for steel and the continuing growth of e-commerce make it imperative that transaction processing be as uniform and seamless as possible among platforms and entities,' Dick Smith, Chairman of AISI's XML Workgroup and Electronic Commerce Manager, U.S. Steel Group, said. 'The steel industry uses a variety of transactions documents and formats in transmitting information among customers, outside processors, and internal steel company functions. Rather than have these documents recreated on an ad hoc basis by a variety of internet based ventures, the AISI XML Workgroup will develop XML guidelines, standards, and terminology that can be applied universally throughout the industry.' The Workgroup's initial project will be the translation of existing EDI documents based on X.12 into an XML format. As this work is completed, draft XML documents will be posted to the Workgroup's website for public comment. Final versions and a glossary of XML based industry terms will be posted and maintained on the website for use by the public. The Workgroup has a targeted six month timeframe for completion of this project."

References:

• AISI XML Workgroup
• isXML Common DTD [from the PDF document]
• isXML Overview. An Industry Document Guideline for Metal Transactions. Steel Industry XML Project. Release 0.1. (Draft). May 03, 2001. 81 pages. Overview of Steel AISI isXML messages. The 'isXML DTD' portion of the guideline contains the message DTD. Includes a Data Dictionary and XML DTD. [cache]
• AISI XML Workgroup Review Drafts "The focus of the workgroup activity has been on the payload section of the guidelines. The 'Overview' document provides a discussion of methodology, document organization, and the data dictionary. The remaining documents are transaction based and provide the structure and content requirements of each transaction's payload section."
• "AISI Forms XML Workgroup to Develop Guidelines for Internet-Based Steel Transactions." Announcement September 18, 2000.
• Contact: David Bell
• See also: Metal XML. "The Metal XML is a set of documents for the exchange of electronic business information. Included in the documents are: Inquiries, Offers, Purchase Orders, Order Acknowledgement, Stock information, Order status, Product Specification and Certificates." Overview: "Introducing Metal XML", [cache]
• See also: "Enabling Global Steel Trading with XML." By John Chelsom (CSW) and Richard Edmonds (Stemcor). Presented at XML Europe 2001 (21-25 May 2001 Internationales Congress Centrum, Berlin, Germany). Abstract: "Stemcor, one of the world's largest independent steel traders, has developed a new trading system using XML and web technology to allow rapid development, deployment and adoption by users in any trading location. This presentation will focus on the business drivers that led Stemcor to introduce a web-based trading system, the key role that XML plays in that system and some of the technical background of the implementation and role out to Stemcor traders worldwide. The system is implemented as a multi-tier application, using a relational database in the data tier and a high performance, pure Java application server to manage processes and sessions in the middle tiers." Also available in PDF format. [ cache]