[January 09, 2001] From an announcement of January, 2001: "SourceTrack, a Tampa-based, e-purchasing service for mid-sized companies and their suppliers, unveiled today Marketplace XML (mpXML), an open XML standard for the exchange of electronic commerce marketplace information. SourceTrack authored mpXML in response to its need for a simple, flexible, standard method to quickly exchange supplier data and import supplier catalogs into the SourceTrack marketplace. mpXML is a combination of SourceTrack authored rules and existing best-of-breed XML standards. The hybrid marketplace standard yields a simple, intuitive e-business solution for real-time ordering and tracking, marketplace-to-marketplace communication, and importing catalogs and updating existing ones into a B2B marketplace. XML standards are structured rules for designing text formats for data in a way that produces files that are easy to generate and read by a computer, are unambiguous and extensible, are supported for internationalization and localization, and are platform independent. [Don Bacon:] 'Although SourceTrack accepts suppliers' information in various forms, we found that XML provides clearer semantics for gathering and understanding the data exchanged. We developed mpXML because we needed a way to get volumes of catalog and contract information from various suppliers integrated into our marketplace very quickly. Our mpXML framework provides greater flexibility for extending its utility. By supporting the inclusion of new attributes, it also addresses performance optimization as well,' said Don Bacon, System Architect for SourceTrack. 'By providing our suppliers with access to mpXML, it improves our overall speed, flexibility, and value in working together on their e-Commerce initiatives.' mpXML uses elements from existing XML standard formats including: (1) Electronic Catalog XML (eCX); (2) Commerce XML (cXML); (3) Custom XML; (4) Open Catalog Format (OCF); (5) [SAP] Open Catalog Interface (OCI); (6) Rosetta Net Product Resource Update Guideline."
References:
[January 03, 2001] Announcement: "SourceTrack Authors Marketplace XML (mpXML). mpXML Is A Simple, Flexible Method Customized For Electronic Commerce Marketplaces And Suppliers To Quickly Exchange Catalog Data." [cache]
[January 09, 2001] mpXML DTD. Provided by Don Bacon (+1 813-349-1060 x126). [cache 2001-01-09]
[January 09, 2001] mpXML examples: catalog1.xml; catalog2.xml; status.xml; product1.xml; product2.xml; supplier.xml. [cache]
