The Open Applications Group, Inc. "is a nonprofit consortium of enterprise application software developers, formed in February 1995 to create common standards for the integration of enterprise business applications. Member companies are building specifications to standardize integration between enterprise business applications. Open Applications Group specifications are complementary to interoperability work currently underway by other standards organizations such as Object Management Group (OMG), the Open Group, and ebXML. The OAGIS Business Object Document (BODs) are used widely for business-to-business and application-to-application integration in e-commerce, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, human resource management, and financal services."
[November 2001] OAGIS version 7.2.1 was released in November, 2001. It "provides (1) 60 Collaboration Definitions; (2) Support for SOAP, ebXML, RNIF, BizTalk; (3) 201 XML Message Definitions; (4) XSD and DTD Support. This is actually the 16th release, some seven (7) years in maturing. Ongoing content projects include supply chain execution; product development collaboration; invoice settlement; shopping cart; party ID enhancements; warranty; PO contracts; financial services."
The OAGIS Business Object Document (BOD) as described in the version 7.2.1 specification (excerpted): " The Business Object Document is the architecture used to communicate messages or business documents between software applications or components. Each Business Object Document includes supporting details to enable the destination business application to accomplish the action. Architecturally, the Business Object Document consists of two areas: (1) Control Area, and (2) Business Data Area. The CONTROL AREA segment is best explained by discussing each of the three major components: Business Service Request, Sender, [and] Date Time. The Control Area part of the BOD has two roles: The first role is that of the Control Area for the BOD. The second role of the Control Area is to enable the building and use of a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). The combination of: Business Service Request, Sender, and Date Time, provides for construction of a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) that will make each Business Object Document distinguishable. This is a critical success factor to enable software developers to use the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) to build the following services or capabilities: (1) Transaction logging, (2) Exception handling, (3) Re-sending, (4) Reporting, (5) Confirmations, (6) Security... The Business Service Request consists of three items: the Verb, the Noun, and the Revision. The Verb is the actual service to be performed. The Verb can be thought of as the action verb of the Business Service Request. The Verb can be up to a ten-character field. The Noun indicates the object the service is to be performed on, such as G/L Journal Entry. The Noun can be thought of as the action item of the Business Service Request. The Noun can be up to a ten-character field. Revision is used to identify the version of the Business Service Request. The version is a three-digit field, beginning with 001 and incremented each time the Business Object Document specification is changed. The Business Data Area (BDA) of the Business Object Document contains all the codes, parameters and values needed to support the Business Service Request. For example, to send a Purchase Order or Orders to a business partner, the Business Data Area will contain all the header and line information for all of the lines representing items to be purchased. One BOD may contain one or many occurrences of a noun for the verb and noun combination in the Business Service Request. For example, a Business Service Request to a business partner may have several Purchase Orders in a single transmission and this can be supported, each transferred in one Business Data Area of the same BOD. The Business Data Area architecture is flexible enough to send only the data needed for the specific business application's needs. This reduces the unnecessary transmission of empty fields that could result by establishing a structure based or fixed format for the Business Data Area..."
OAGIS 8.0 overview. The specification was completed 2002-03 and was scheduled to be published 2002-04. OAGIS 8.0 presentation by Michael Rowell (Chief Architect). 32 slides. Published with the presentations from the OAG Technical Meeting January 29 - 31, 2002, Palo Alto, California. Highlights of the OAGIS 8.0 release: "Long Tag Names; Resolved Non-Deterministic; Advanced extension capabilities (Context); Improved component assembly capability; Party instead of Partner; ISO Date Time; Digital Signature support. OAGIS 8+ BOD has an application area and a data area. Application area: sender, creationDateTime, BOD-id, signature, userArea. The data area has verbs and nouns. Nouns have components composed of fields and compounds. By taking advantage of XML Schema, 'we are able to separate the Verb and Noun concepts in order to capture a consistent common Noun while providing a consistent representation of the Verb action being performed across the BODs.' The Verb can be thought of as the action that is to be applied to the the Noun. The Nouns can be thought of as the document that is being acted upon. Nouns are extensible. Components are the large-grained building blocks of a Noun. Components are also extensible. Compounds are basic utility fields that are used across all BODs. Fields are the lowest level used in OAGIS Components and Compounds..." Principals on the OAGIS 8 technical team: Mike Rowell Andy Warren, Mark Feblowitz, and Kurt Kanaskie. Advisors include Tim Thomasma Dave Hollander, Chris Kurt, and Henry Thompson.
[May 06, 1999] 'The Open Applications Group has developed and published DTDs to support interactions between enterprise business applications. Supported by almost every application vendor in the enterprise space, including SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and others, OAG is the only open organization developing relevant content and solutions in this area. Additionally, OAG represents the remainder of the integration stakeholders including major integrators, EAI vendors, and customers. OAG believes that its solution is the only one in the industry that is focused on providing value to its customers, while avoiding technology dependencies or academic pursuits; the group has foused on providing implementable solutions that are independent of technology or related religions.' [from Christopher Kurt, 27-April-1999]
[January 19, 1999] From a press release of January 18, 1998: "The Open Applications Group Releases XML Application. The Open Applications Group Publishes XML Document Type (DTDs) on Their Web Site." "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), a non-profit industry consortium comprised of many of the most prominent stakeholders in the business software component interoperability arena in the world, today announced publication of a full set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD) files that define interoperability APIs for Financials, Human Resources, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Supply Chain components. ion component interoperability over the last three years. The model is described in their Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS). OAGIS describes the major components, their integration dialogs, and the content of those dialogs for many key enterprise business applications, including financials, manufacturing, human resources, supply chain, and logistics. Now, the content of the OAGIS specification has been expressed in a machine readable format in the form of XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for all of the currently defined Open Applications Group Business Object Documents. The machine-readable Document Type Definitions (DTDs) necessary to define this integration content in XML have been published on the OAGI website and are available for public access."
[July 19, 1999] A communiqué from Chris Kurt of the Open Applications Group reported on the avalability of a new release of the OAG XML DTDs and sample distribution files. The DTDs define interoperability APIs for Financials, Human Resources, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Supply Chain components." The DTD updates include: (1) new or expanded content domains [including: Routing, Production Order, Engineering Change, (2) Cascading resource DTDs [version 6.2 preview], and (3) Miscellaneous bug fixes. The revised DTD docuents may be downloaded from the OAG Web site. There is also a summary spreadsheet (revisions.xls) containing the currect revision of each of the XML DTDs and sample files. Comments, questions, bug reports, or requests for additional information may be directed to the The Open Applications Group XML Team.
[August 1998] According to a press release of August 30, 1998 (The Open Applications Group Supports Supply Chain and XML), "Release 6 of the Open Applications Group Integration Specifications accelerates component integration and electronic commerce by adding capabilities for Supply Chain Integration and Extensible Markup Language (XML). The Open Applications Group is also pleased to announce full support for the industry-standard meta-data language, XML (Extensible Markup Language). The World Wide Web Consortium approved XML as a standard in February 1998. The Open Applications Group has been working for several months with emerging software-tools and associated vendors to ensure high quality in the implementation of OAGIS in XML. The machine-readable Document Type Definitions (DTDs) necessary to define integration content to XML have been published on the OAGI website and are available for public access."
References:
OAG Member list - 80 members as of 2001-03.
EIDX clickable business models. References to OAGI, RosettaNet, X12-EIDX, EDIFACT/EDIFICE. Includes: "How To Locate OAGI BOD Documentation."
- OAGIS: A 'Canonical' Business Language Providing both Vertical and Horizontal Requirements." By Michael Rowell (Chief Architect, Open Applications Group). Version 1.0. White Paper. Document Number: 20020429. 11 pages. [source .ZIP]
Plug and Play Business Software Integration. The Compelling Value of the Open Applications Group." OAGIS white paper. 2000. 15 pages.
OAGIS Extensions. OAGIS white paper. Release 1.1. Document Number 20010301. 34 pages. Appendix A supplies a "Complete XML Instance with Extensions" (shows how an instance of an OAGI BOD with the extensions would appear). Appendix B provides a complete version of oagis_extensions.dtd and the additional dtd files that allow this instance of the SyncItem BOD to be validated.
[April 06, 2002] Communiqué from Michael Rowell 2002-04-06: "OAGIS 8.0 is Now Available"
[June 30, 2003] "The Open Applications Group Integration Specification. OAGIS is a Practical Use of XML to Enable Integration." By Michael Rowell (Chief Architect, Open Applications Group). From IBM developerWorks, XML zone. June 30, 2003. ['The Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) is an effort to provide a canonical business language for information integration. It uses XML as the common alphabet for defining business messages, and for identifying business processes (scenarios) that allow businesses and business applications to communicate. Not only is OAGIS the most complete set of XML business messages currently available, but it also accommodates the additional requirements of specific industries by partnering with various vertical industry groups.'] "OAGIS provides the definition of business messages in the form of Business Object Documents (BODs) and example business scenarios that provide example usages of the BODs. The business scenarios identify the business applications and components being integrated and the BODs that are used. The current release, OAGIS 8.0, includes 200 business messages and 61 business scenarios that can be used to integrate business applications... First and foremost, everything in OAGIS begins with the business process. OAGIS currently includes 61 business processes, which provide examples that show what is possible using the standard. Likewise, when you need to integrate businesses or applications using OAGIS the first place to start is with the business scenarios which can help you find the solution that most closely matches your needs. These business scenarios provided by OAGIS were used to define OAGIS and are provided as examples to help the user understand how to work with OAGIS. They identify the business applications and components that are being integrated along with the BODs used to pass information. The business scenarios also capture the sequence in which the messages are intended to occur, the dependencies, the scope, and the error handling that has been addressed. OAGi provides these example scenarios as a starting point for any new implementation... OAGIS 8.1 will be released this summer [2003], and will include: 70 business scenarios for integration, More than 400 BODs, 70 nouns, support for ebXML's CoreComponent Type 1.90, and OAGIS's submission to the UN/CEFACT CoreComponent Harmonization committee. In addition, OAGi will provide direction on how to enable OAGIS through Web services by providing guidelines and WSDL that can be used to develop your own Web services. OAGi has already publicly announced that it will support harmonized components that result from the UN/CEFACT CoreComponent Harmonization work group. OAGi has been enabling integration for a long time. OAGIS currently includes 61 integration scenarios and more are coming. OAGIS provides a standard canonical business language that enables streamlined communication between businesses and/or business applications..."
[January 16, 2003] "The Open Applications Group Joins International Standards Alliance. OAGI Collaborates With IEC, ISO, ITU, and UN/ECE in Effort to Harmonize Worldwide eBusiness Standards." - "OAGI, the most experienced and widely implemented XML business language standards group in the world, recently joined the four International de jure Standards Organizations in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Electronic Business. Founding members of the MoU include the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). As the newest member of the MoU, OAGI adds its resources to the efforts of these international standards-setting bodies to coordinate the development of global standards for electronic business. 'We welcome OAGI to the MoU on Electronic Business,' noted Cynthia L. Fuller, Chair of the MoU Management Group. 'The consortium's work with XML and their cooperation with UN/CEFACT on ebXML, the specifications that provide an infrastructure for e-business information exchange, are just a couple of examples of the many contributions OAGI continues to make towards interoperability. OAGI members span the globe in a united effort to promote convergence and collaboration, and we look forward to their involvement as active members of the MoU.' 'OAGI is pleased to participate in this MoU,' said David Connelly, President and CEO of OAGI. 'Our members look forward to working together with the worldwide standards community driving for increased harmonization and the resultant improved opportunities for all in the global community.' The Electronic Business MoU establishes a coordination mechanism under a unique cooperative model to produce mutually supportive standards required in business transactions (data interchange and interoperability), as well as product design and manufacturing to meet the urgent needs of both industry and end-users... The Open Applications Group Inc. is organized to promote interoperability among Business Software Applications and to create and/or endorse one or more standards for achieving dramatically easier interoperability of Business Software Applications..."
[October 08, 2002] "OAGIS 8: Practical Integration Meets XML Schema." By Mark Feblowitz (Frictionless Commerce). Originally published in XML Journal Volume 3, Issue 9 (September 2002), pages 22-28. ['Frictionless Commerce's XML Architect Mark Feblowitz played a lead role in architecting OAGIS 8, a milestone in XML-enabled integration. In this XML Journal article, he authors a comprehensive overview of OAGIS 8, which infuses an established, technology-neutral integration standard with the enhanced capabilities of XML Schema.'] "This article describes the Open Applications Group Integration Specification, discusses the enhancements made possible by rearchitecting to Schema, and explores the challenging aspects of applying current Schema technology. Despite those challenges, OAGI architects were able to work with Schema to craft a new OAGIS that sustains proven strengths and adds desirable and innovative features, most notably, Overlay Extensibility. ... Like all XML interchange, a BOD is generated by the sending application, which serializes content from database tables or business objects, conformant to the BOD's respective schema. The BOD is consumed by the receiving application; it's typically validated against its schema and checked for adherence to BOD constraints (more on this later) and then mapped into tables or business objects. The application continues its processing, likely following up with subsequent BOD interchange. BOD processing architectures vary, based on transaction loads, performance needs, application architectures, and the like. BODs can be validated and constraint-checked using either DOM- or SAX-based architectures. Validation can be disabled for performance purposes among stable, trusted interchange partners. Much of what's needed for typical business transactions is captured in core OAGIS. But needs differ; industries, organizations, companies conduct business according to their specialized vocabularies. OAGIS was designed with this in mind. OAGIS 8 supports two forms of extensibility: UserArea Extensibility and Overlay Extensibility. When core OAGIS carries most of what's needed, an OAGIS user can add content to any BOD by populating one of the optional UserArea elements. When BOD extensions are numerous, or when additional BODs and/or components are needed, the OAGIS user can build Overlay Extensions, creating new vocabularies by building on core OAGIS components and BODs. With Overlay Extensibility new layers are defined in their respective namespaces. Specialized BODs and components are defined by extending BODs from lower layers and/or by composing new BODs from a combination of existing, extended, and new components. To support this, OAGIS BODs -- and most constituent parts -- are overlay extensible. To achieve Overlay Extensibility, OAGIS relies on three Schema mechanisms: (1) Schema's incorporation of XML Namespaces; (2) complexType derivation by extension; (3) Substitution groups... The OAGIS 8 project addresses an extremely complex XML model, certainly pushing the boundaries of Schema. Complex, creative solutions -- especially those that appear simple to users of the model while hiding significant complexity faced by the developers of the model -- were often called for. To ensure Schema's future success, the Schema Working Group must continue to attend to the practical necessities of Schema use..."
[September 23, 2002] "OAGIS 8: Practical Integration Meets XML Schema." By Mark Feblowitz. In XML Journal Volume 3, Issue 9 (September 2002), pages 22-28. "When asked to join the OAGIS modernization project (OAGIS 8), I leapt at the chance. Here were two renowned specifications just waiting to get acquainted: (1) Open Applications Group's OAGIS, the solid, proven Integration Specification, an early XML application (1998) with a lot of miles on it, and (2) W3C's XML Schema Recommendation, a sophisticated new metamodeling chassis, ready to be road tested The outcome exceeded expectations: OAGIS's established and widely used family of horizontally focused, DTD-encoded interchange messages was updated, eliminating major usability issues inherent in a DTD-based implementation of this scale..." [see preceding entry]
[August 21, 2002] "Fujitsu Interstage Demonstrates Business Process Interoperability for the Automotive Retail Industry. Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI) Project Shows Fujitsu Interstage Providing Business Process Integration across Vendors Utilizing ebXML, OAGIS and Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) Specifications." - "Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced that Fujitsu has successfully shown Business Process interoperability utilizing B2B specifications that are being developed to meet the needs of the North American automotive industry. The demonstration executed a business process scenario developed by the STAR consortium based on the OAGI's Business Object Document (BOD) specification for interoperable Extensible Markup Language (XML) messages and the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) framework. The OAGI is the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world. The demonstration was conducted at the OAGI technical meeting in Detroit, August 13-15, 2002 attended by automobile companies, manufacturers from other industries, industry organizations and IT vendors. Fujitsu and Sybase, Inc exchanged messages, implementing STAR's Parts Order scenario using Open Application Group Interoperability Specification (OAGIS) BODs and ebXML specifications. This interoperability test proved that Fujitsu's Interstage CollaborationRing can communicate with other ebXML products, using STAR's BODs and business scenarios implemented using ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (BPSS), the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement (CPPA), and ebXML Message Service (ebMS)... The OAGI specification has been adopted by the Auto Industry Action Group (AIAG), STAR and Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) consortiums for next generation business language and data messaging architecture. These organizations have formed collaborative initiatives with OAGI to design XML-based messages conforming to and extending the OAGI BOD library for eBusiness and Application Integration and the ebXML framework for B2B. The organizations' B2B infrastructure is Internet-based and utilizes elements of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business' (UN/CEFACT) ebXML specification -- a B2B protocol being deployed worldwide. The results of these initiatives will enable auto industry companies to conduct business in real time by communicating data in common terms using standardized business processes. The interoperability demonstration was a project of the OAGI/NIST B2B Test Bed -- a joint initiative of the OAGI and NIST, which strives to advance the state of the art in B2B. The B2B Test Bed is available to users and vendors for testing and validating business level data exchanges among business partners utilizing open, standards based approaches..." See "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)" and "Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR)."
[August 20, 2002] "Contivo and Open Applications Group Team to Ease Application Integration. OAG to Use Contivo Modeling Solution to Manage XML Dialects to Solve the 'Data Babble' Problem." - Contivo, Inc. has "announced a collaborative agreement with Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), a nonprofit consortium focused on best practices and processes for e-business and application integration based on XML content. The combined Contivo-OAGI solution dramatically shortens the implementation time for companies using OAGIS as part of their integration efforts through the semantic modeling of XML data. As part of the agreement, OAGI will use Contivo's enterprise integration modeling (EIM) technology and products to create and maintain its XML content, known as the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS). Together, Contivo and OAGI will work towards reconciling the semantics of XML languages, an issue that has hindered the interoperability of various XML dialects... 'Contivo's contribution to the development of OAGI is pivotal,' said David Connelly, president and CEO of the Open Applications Group, Inc. 'Through the ability to create semantic models of OAGI BODs, Contivo gives customers an out-of-the-box solution for transforming data from their applications to OAGI and also vastly simplifies the task of upgrading from one version of OAGIS to another.' 'OAGIS significantly reduces operating costs for companies seeking to manage their e-business and application integration projects,' said Bill French, vice president of industry standards at Contivo. 'By incorporating Contivo's modeling technology, the combined Contivo-OAGI solution dramatically shortens the implementation time for companies using OAGIS as part of their integration efforts.' Contivo's EIM Solution, comprised of the Contivo Analyst and the Contivo EIM Server, analyzes and models the relationships between enterprise applications, automatically configuring integration run-time code. The Contivo Analyst provides an intuitive graphical interface to visually create and customize data maps and interface models including customized and legacy interfaces. The Contivo EIM Server provides a centrally managed repository that introduces model reuse and collaboration to a previous one-off and manual process..."
[November 2001] Open Applications Group Integration Specification [OAGIS]. Version 7.2.1. Documentation files in PDF format. From OAGI (Open Applications Group, Incorporated). Document Number 20011031. See especially the Table of Contents, BOD Architecture, and XML Architecture. Appendices: Appendix A: Time Zones; Appendix B: OAGIS Noun Definitions; Appendix C: Field Identifier Definitions; Appendix D: Segment Definitions; Appendix E: Verb Definitions; Appendix F: Description on how to properly use the TAX and DISTRIBUTN Data Types in a Business Object Document. "Release 7.2.1 of OAGIS is not the sum total of all of the interoperability points between business applications but it adds some important and exciting new enhancement to existing capabilities including enhanced e-Manufacturing, Invoicing, Customer, and Supplier Management. In addition, new integration scenarios were added as well as descriptions and explanations enhanced to make the specification easier to read and understand... The DTD and XSD versions of these messages are intended to be compatible on the wire, just two different methods of describing the same data... The Open Applications Group is releasing an XML Schema version of OAGIS that utilizes a minimum number of the ambiguous areas of the XML Schema specification. As these ambiguities are resolved and tools are available that implement XML Schema consistently OAGI will release a version of OAGIS that takes full advantage of the features of XML Schema. In the meantime, we have received several requests to make an XSD version available..." See sources for OAGIS version 7.2.1 XML DTDs (cache) and OAGIS version 7.2.1 XML Schemas [XSD] (cache)
[September 25, 2001] OAGIS Release 7.2. The package containing XML DTDs has some 410 files, including 207+ XML DTDs; see the listing. XML Schema versions are under development. Documentation for the BODs (Business Object Documents) is available in PDF and Word .DOC formats. See the PDF filelist and the .DOC filelist. [cache, DTDs]
[April 20, 2001] OAGIS OAGIS XML Architecture, DTDs, and [XDR] Schemas. Version 7.1. April 15, 2001. See OAGIS XML DTDs version 7.1, [cache] and OAGIS version 7.1 XDR, [cache]
[October 01, 2001] "OAGIS Implementation Using the ebXML CPP, CPA and BPSS Specifications v1.0." OAGI White Paper. By Jean-Jacques Dubray (Eigner US, Inc.). 9/27/2001. Version 1.03. 64 pages. The OAGI (Open Applications Group, Inc.) has developed the largest set of business messages and integration scenarios for enterprise application integration and business-to-business (B2B) integration. However, OAGI does not specify an implementation architecture (also called an implementation framework). Three major B2B implementation architectures have been developed to this day: RosettaNet, BizTalk, and ebXML. They provide the basis for interoperability between different vendor and home-grown solutions alike. The OAGI policy is to be technology sensitive but not specific, and to use existing open standards when possible. This white paper provides a detailed recommendation for how to transport OAGI BODs (Business Object Documents) using ebXML v1.0 dated 5/14/2001. The reader is expected to have a thorough understanding of the OAGI BOD structure and the ebXML v1.0 specifications. The reader is encouraged to read the OAGI BOD Architecture documents and the ebXML specifications. These documents can be freely obtained from the OAGI and ebXML Web sites... This document provides a general recommendation for the usage and configuration of the ebXML implementation architecture in carrying out electronic transactions with OAGI BODs. In particular, it specifies how to define Collaboration Definitions for scenario diagrams. It also specifies how to declare CPPs and corresponding CPAs based on these Collaborations. The CPPs can be published to an ebXML Registry just like any other CPP. The Messaging Service can be used as is since it is content agnostic. This document also describes the relationship between the infrastructure level messages (Signal Messages) used by ebXML and OAGI (Confirm BOD) to identify message receipt or exceptions. This white paper does not deal with the aspects of ebXML that are not yet part of the specification (such as Core Components). In addition, this paper recommends the use of Business Collaborations outside the context of ebXML. A Collaboration Definition can be used outside the scope of an ebXML solution and consequently could be used to formalized all OAGI scenario diagrams even the one that do not involve B2B communication. This approach may be desirable in order to provide a commercial OAGI solution with out-of-the-box capabilities while retaining the ability to customize the use of scenario diagrams for internal applications. The OAGI Integration Specification (OAGIS) includes a broad set of BODs and integration scenarios that can be used in different business environments, such as A2A and B2B. BODs are message definitions that can be used broadly across many different industries (for example, telecommunications and automotive) and aspects of Supply Chain Automation (for example, Ordering, Catalog Exchange, Quotes, etc.). OAGI also defines the OAMAS (Open Application Middleware API Specification), which is an application programming interface (API) for application integration that provides an abstraction from specific vendor solutions..." See the overview/download page for other eBusiness Framework White Papers. [cache]
[August 01, 2001] "The Open Applications Group Announces Support for ebXML. OAGI to incorporate electronic business messaging specification from United Nations trade and technology body and OASIS into over 182 mature Business Object Documents (BODs) or XML-based business messages." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world, today announced plans to integrate the ebXML specification into the 182 business transaction standards currently published by the organization. EbXML was developed in an open process jointly sponsored by the UN/CEFACT and OASIS (Organization for Structured Information Standards) to standardize XML-based messaging and information interchange in Internet transactions between companies. UN/CEFACT is the United Nations body that develops policy and technology to facilitate trade and electronic business worldwide. The OAGI Integration Specification (OAGIS) defines over 182 XML-based business objects (BODs) for business-to-business and application-to-application integration in e-Commerce, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, human resource management and finance. It is expected that OAGI support for ebXML will significantly accelerate broad-based adoption of this specification. OAGI is currently believed to have the largest installed based of any XML-based set of business messages. 'We expect that ebXML and OAGIS will work hand in glove,' said David Connelly, president and CEO of OAGI. 'ebXML provides a technical framework for transactions that is international in scope. We offer a large, international installed base supporting a mature set of XML-based business object documents that facilitate hands-free interoperability within and between companies. Both standards are horizontal in nature and can be used in almost any industry sector.' According to Connelly, the latest release (v. 7.1) of the business process based Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) contains the largest and richest set of XML Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world. 'It goes the farthest towards defining the 'digital dial tone' that organizations require to do business in the emerging World of e-Commerce and e-Business,' he said. The OAGI is a non-profit consortium of technology providers and end-user organizations. The organization develops best practices and process based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. It is the world's largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability and the only XML development organization supporting 'end to end' integration. That includes technology for business-to-business, application to application and application to execution systems transactions. Member company teams have built a consensus-based framework for business software application interoperability and a repeatable process for quickly developing high quality business content and XML representations of that content." See "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."
OAGIS XML Architecture and DTD Download - Version 7.0.2. "We have made the work of the Open Applications Group available for free to you in DTD format with example XML also included. The DTD and XDR versions of these messages are intended to be compatible on the wire, just two different methods of describing the same data. The Open Applications Group is striving to get to XML Schema as soon as possible after the W3C finishes their project. In the meantime, we have received several requests to make an XDR version available until XML Schema becomes available. At that time the Open Applications Group intends to ship XML Schema as soon as possible." Note: there are 170 sample XML documents. [cache DTDs]
[December 28, 2001] "Covisint Crafts XML Schema." By Renee Boucher Ferguson. In eWEEK (December 24, 2001). ['The auto industry e-marketplace will adopt OASIS' ebXML framework standard and align with the OAG to create an XML schema for the auto industry.'] "Covisint LLC, the auto industry e-marketplace backed by such heavyweights as DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., is making decisive standards moves to improve efficiencies for its members. The Southfield, Mich., company will announce during the first week of January that it has aligned with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards and will adopt that group's ebXML (Electronic Business XML) messaging standard. In addition, Covisint plans to announce in the first quarter that it has aligned with the Open Applications Group Inc. standards body to create an XML schema for the auto industry. Sponsored by two standards bodies, OASIS and the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, ebXML is a modular suite of specifications that provides a messaging and enveloping standard for companies to exchange electronic business messages, communicate data in common terms, and define and register business processes. Covisint currently receives XML purchase orders from DaimlerChrysler, Ford and GM, but they are received in three different flavors. Covisint also receives electronic data interchange documents from other members that are also enveloped in a variety of flavors. What Covisint is attempting to do with ebXML is define a standard envelope as well as a standard payload, according to Jeffrey Cripps, the company's director of industry relations. An XML schema is a data structure for documents that not only defines the syntax of a document -- what a field is called -- but also defines semantics, or what a specific field means. Cripps said the exchange seeks to create for the auto industry a schema for a global dictionary that can be used for interoperability among vertical markets--a huge gap in business-to-business. While aligning with ebXML is a significant move for the exchange, Covisint's work with the OAG could prove even more worthwhile by enabling it to develop proprietary standards for the automotive industry under the umbrella of an open-standards group, officials said. Cripps is in talks with the action groups of the North American and European automotive industries -- Automotive Industry Action Group and Odette, respectively -- to see if they will join Covisint and the OAG in developing the schema for the industry..."
[November 02, 2000] "More than 20 B2B vendors show support for open XML standards." By [Staff]. In eCOMMERCE BUSINESS (November 02, 2000). ['More than 20 B2B vendors show support for open XML standards. In a largely cooperative demonstration, but mixed with some bias chest-pounding, more than 20 technology providers today showed how their best real-time business-to-business technologies can work together. The joint effort was in response to a challenge by Ford Motor Co., Lucent and Lockheed Martin.'] "In a largely cooperative demonstration, but mixed with some bias chest-pounding, more than 20 technology providers today showed how their best real-time business-to-business technologies can work together. The joint effort was in response to a challenge by Ford Motor Co., Lucent and Lockheed Martin. The Cambridge, Mass. event -- sponsored by Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI) and hosted by Canopy International Inc. -- involved three e-business scenarios demonstrating how new, non-proprietary, XML-based standards can facilitate complex, extensive, multi-party e-business relationships. The scenarios focused primarily on e-procurement, but also involved interfaces with legacy systems and functions, including ERP and PDM systems, supply-chain monitoring and control systems, and warehouse management systems. All used OAGI's open standards-based XML Business Object Documents (BODs) for all communication throughout each process, making them virtually 'hands free.' OAGI is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process based XML content for e-business and application integration. It is believed to be the largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability in the world. In the first scenario, a Ford engine plant was able to manage routine and emergency, alternative non-production MRO purchasing in a highly automated environment that involves a warehouse management system deployed in a facility operated by a third-party logistics provider. In the second scenario, a customer order triggered fulfillment activity within Lucent's manufactured stock system and automatically creates a new purchase order to suppliers further up in the supply chain as a direct response to the original customer order. The third scenario, presented by Lockheed Martin, illustrated conceptually how a manufacturer might use BOD-enabled communication to support PDM and ERP interoperability and institute flexible pricing on the fly. The demonstrations were built around 12 Business Object Documents and a set of standardized XML schema, both issued by OAGI. A BOD defines a given business process, which may include multiple transactions between various companies. Issuing a purchase order is an example of such a process."
[March 01, 2001] "Industri-Matematik Announces Support for Open Applications Group Standard. Industri-Matematik Supply Chain and Customer Service Software Leverages XML Standards to Connect with Web and Legacy Business Applications." - "Industri-Matematik International Corp. today announced that it has joined the Open Applications Group, Inc. and that its Vivaldi software supports the Open Applications Group Interface Specification (OAGIS). By incorporating OAGIS, Industri-Matematik applications provide integration of supply chain and customer service capabilities to web-based trading communities, digital marketplaces and legacy applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP). The business process-based OAGIS specification contains the largest set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world and simplifies the connection of disparate e-business, supply chain, customer relationship management (CRM), ERP and financials applications. Leveraging an Internet-based, object-oriented design, Industri-Matematik applications can be integrated easily with legacy applications, web sales systems, and private and public trading communities. Industri-Matematik VIVALDI software provides CRM, fulfillment, replenishment and supply chain event management capabilities for retail, wholesale/distribution, logistics service providers and manufacturing companies. VIVALDI offers total visibility of e-business transactions across a trading community to manage high-volume fulfillment with increased reliability and velocity. It integrates contact center and logistics operations to provide customers and suppliers with real-time web access to all aspects of orders across the supply chain."
[April 29, 2000] OAGIS XML Architecture - XDR versions of schemas. The Open Applications Group XML development team recently announced the availability of 'XDR' versions of XML schemas for business messages, together with corresponding sample XML documents. "In preparation for W3C XML schema support, the Open Applications Group has added XDR (XML-Data Reduced) schemas to the set of available XML resources available for download. The full set of schemas and sample documents for OAGIS version 6.2 is available from the Open Applications Group web site. These 'XDR' XML schemas are in interim step toward full adoption of the upcoming W3C recommendations. In prototype format, they provide additional information for data types and incorporate namespaces directly referencing online schema libraries... The DTD and XDR versions of these messages are intended to be compatible on the wire, just two different methods of describing them. The Open Applications Group is striving to get to XML Schema as soon as possible after the W3C finishes its project. In the meantime, we have received several requests to make an XDR version available until XML Schema becomes available. At that time the Open Applications Group intends to ship XML Schema as soon as possible." The schemas are for business messages defined in the Open Applications Group Interface Specification; each XML based message is fully documented from a business design standpoint in our OAGIS Specification in Section Three. Sources: XDR [XML Data Reduced] format; also DTD format; cache, XDR; and cache, DTD
[January 28, 2000] "The Open Applications Group Announces the Release of 122 XML Based Business Messages, the Largest Set Of XML Messages For eBusiness and Application Integration In the World. The Open Applications Group publishes 122 business transaction DTDs on their web site, also announces 26+ live sites running OAGIS based messages." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), the largest publisher of XML-based business messages in the world, today announced the publication of their latest specifications for eBusiness and Application Integration. Release 6.2 of the business process based Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) contains the largest and richest set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world and goes the farthest towards defining the 'digital dial tone' that organizations require to do business in the emerging eWorld. These specifications may be downloaded for free. There are currently at least 26 live sites running OAGIS based integration and it is expected that by the end of First Quarter 2000, there will be at least 25 more live sites, bringing the total number of users to over 50. These sites include many kinds of integration, including eBusiness, Supply Chain, Financials, and Banking. The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. It is the largest publisher of XML based content for business software interoperability in the world." [local archive copy]
[August 23, 2000] "eXcelon Announces Support of Open Application Group's B2B Integration Specification. Provides First and Only Solution to Enable B2B Standard Interoperability. Enables organizations to build B2B trading networks based on multiple XML dialects." - "eXcelon Corporation, a leading provider of XML-based business-to-business (B2B) infrastructure solutions today announced full support for OAGIS, the Open Applications Group's standard for integration. By combining support for OAGIS with its unparalleled XML translation capabilities, eXcelon becomes the first vendor to enable organizations to build and deploy sophisticated B2B trading networks regardless of the type and number of different XML dialects used. With support for multiple XML dialects, eXcelon will speed the adoption of B2B commerce by enabling organizations to deploy B2B trading networks without forcing partners, suppliers and customers to adopt a specific XML standard. eXcelon has developed B2B infrastructure solutions that enable organizations and digital marketplaces to connect to and dynamically interact with thousands of their partners, suppliers and customers over the Internet. eXcelon technology is 100 percent standards based, featuring complete support for any XML-based B2B standard, including OAGIS, RosettaNet, cXML, xCBL and ACORD. The eXcelon B2B Integration Server features the industry's first business process interaction engine, which enables organizations to define and execute shared business processes of all types and complexities across multiple organizations. Business processes can be shared with any partner in the extranet community, regardless of their technical infrastructure or which B2B standards they support. By sharing automated business processes over the Internet, eXcelon removes a company's reliance on inefficient phone, fax and mail transactions, creating a more responsive, more efficient and more profitable company. The Open Applications Group (www.openapplications.org) is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and application interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world with over 120 published transaction XML-schemas for end-to-end (E2E) electronic commerce, covering all aspects of enterprise application integration and partner communications from catalog information exchange, supply chain execution (SCE), to collaborative planning forecasting and replenishment (CPFR). The Open Applications Group also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors."
[June 16, 2000] "SoftQuad Joins Open Applications Group Leading XML firm committed to enabling Net Markets." - "SoftQuad Software, Ltd., an internationally-recognized developer of XML enabling technologies and commerce solutions for e-business, today announced its plans to join the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI). Membership in the OAGI will ensure that SoftQuad's MarketAgility, will be at the forefront of best practices for XML content processing and interchange. MarketAgility is SoftQuad's XML-based content solution that gives businesses more power and control over the creation, management and real-time delivery of product information to e-marketplaces and e-procurement systems. "SoftQuad is thrilled to join an organization which shares our vision of the importance of XML content and how it is significantly impacting the future of B2B e-commerce," says Roberto Drassinower, president and CEO of SoftQuad. "We expect our membership to benefit both SoftQuad, our customers and the other progressive members of OAGI by unifying our complementary strengths. Our membership in OAGI, combined with our active participation in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and XML.org will mean SoftQuad is at the front and center of XML industry standards and the development of high quality XML content for e-business." Through an active membership in the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), SoftQuad will join the growing number of forward-thinking e-business members using XML technology, including Lucent, the Ford Motor Company, Microsoft and IBM. All member organizations strive to ensure best practices prevail for the easy integration of their Business to Business (B2B) and Application to Application (A2A) software. OAGI is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process-based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. It is the largest publisher of XML based messages for business software interoperability in the world. OAGI members have over five years of extensive experience in building an industry consensus-based framework for business software application interoperability and have developed a reputable process for quickly developing high quality business messages and XML representations of that content. The mission of OAGI is to promote fast, easy, and cost-effective e-business and application integration of software components for enterprise and supply-chain functions. Through its membership in the OAGI, SoftQuad will leverage XML best practices by integrating XML technology and architecture, and by providing an impartial forum for all stakeholders to work together to accomplish their common goals."
[August 29, 2000] "irista Showcases XML Technology for Information Exchange At Ford Motor Company's E2K Event." - "irista is proud to announce its participation in Ford Motor Company's E2K event, an event designed to showcase the latest advances in technology, integration and collaboration products. irista, a board member of the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), develops and markets industry leading Supply Chain Execution and Event Management products, which enable its clients to gain competitive advantage through improvements across their supply chain. Ford Motor Company's E2K Process Leadership Exposition, held in Detroit, featured the latest OAGI vendor challenge involving eight of the leading business-to-business (B2B) technology companies demonstrating a multi-vendor, multi-platform automotive maintenance repair operations (MRO) supply chain scenario. The solution demonstrated how complex and dynamic supply chains can be implemented using the XML standards being defined by the OAGI. At Ford's E2K event, irista demonstrated how its Warehouse Management System (WMS), iristaFulfull, which has been designed based upon the open standards of the OAGI, can be used to efficiently receive and transmit product information through the use of OAGI based Business Object Documents (BOD). In irista's demonstration its WMS acted as a Third Party Logistics (3PL) provider Efficient Logistics to receive and transmit purchase order information via the internet through its use of its advanced eXtensible mark-up language (XML) and BOD technology. This demonstration allowed Ford to visualize how irista's product line can be used in the sharing of information with other technology systems through the use of the BOD standards provided by the OAGI. . . The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and application interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world. OAGI also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors."
[March 22, 2000] "Netfish to Offer Built-in Interoperability Using Open Standard XML Messages for OAGI Challenge. Netfish Supports OAGI With Its Industry-Leading XDI Server, Easily Handling Translation to Any New Protocol. - Netfish Technologies, Inc., a leader in XML-based business-to-business e-commerce solutions, today announced that it will join with 19 other software vendors to meet the e-commerce interoperability challenge, issued by end users of the Open Applications Group Inc. (OAGI). The Interoperability Customer Council of the Open Applications Group challenged the vendor members of the OAGI to implement out-of-the-box plug-and-play capability to communicate and interoperate with each other's products in business-to-business e-commerce scenarios using the OAGI's standard XML-based messages. Netfish will meet the OAGI challenge through its industry-leading XDI Server product, which enables companies to use any protocol (RosettaNet PIPs, OAGI BODs, etc.) on a per-transaction basis within the same trading partner. 'Netfish is in full support of the OAGI Vendor Challenge, and XDI Server's ability to easily support this new protocol is an example of XDI Server's 'any-to-any' translation ability,' said Patrick Gannon, vice president of marketing and strategic programs for Netfish. 'Our customers will benefit by being able to communicate more efficiently between applications when sending and receiving OAGI business standard messages.' The business process-based Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) Release 6.2 contains the largest set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world and goes the farthest towards defining the 'digital dial tone' that organizations require to do business in the emerging eWorld. There are currently at least 50 live sites running OAGIS-based XML messages. These sites include many kinds of integration, including eBusiness, Logistics, Financials, and Banking. These OAGI vendor members responded to the OAGI Vendor Challenge that several end-user companies issued, including both OAGI members and non-members; AT&T Wireless, Boeing, DHL, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Ingersoll-Rand, Kraft Foods, Lockheed Martin and Lucent Technologies."
[March 16, 2000] "Ford, Lucent and Lockheed Martin Lead the OAGI Vendor Challenge Driving Delivery of XML Standard-based eCommerce Solutions. Interoperability to be Demonstrated at Canopy International's Boston eBusiness Integration Laboratory." - "Member companies of The Open Applications Group (OAGI) announced today their participation in the OAGI Vendor Challenge aimed at delivering B2B interoperability between leading business applications using OAGI standards. The OAGI Customer Council has issued this challenge in an effort to encourage vendors to deliver e-commerce solutions that are interoperable, standards-based, and can be implemented in the near term. The end user companies that issued the challenge are including products that implement OAGI standards in their plans to implement B2B e-commerce in their enterprises. Twenty vendors have signed onto the Challenge. They are Bluestone (BLSW), eXcelon Corp., Extricity Software, GloTech Solutions, HK Systems, Inc. (HKS), J. D. Edwards (JDEC), Mercator (MCTR), Netfish Technologies, OnDisplay, Inc., Oracle (ORCL), PeopleSoft (PSFT), PricewaterhouseCoopers, PSDI (PSDI), Requisite Technology, Robocom Systems International (RIMS), SAGA Software (AGS), SupplierMarket.com, Teklogix, Inc., webMethods (WEBM) and Wonderware. Several more vendors are poised to sign up very soon. Daniel Hale from HK Systems, Inc. will act as project manager for the Vendor Challenge. Vendors who complete the challenge will showcase their products at Canopy International's eBusiness integration laboratory in Boston. Members of the press, industry analysts, and other interested parties will be invited to view the live demonstrations. The products will also be shown at exhibitions and conferences to be announced later. The Open Applications Group (www.openapplications.org) is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and application interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world. The Open Applications Group also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors."
[March 16, 2000] "webMethods Joins Industry Leaders in OAGI Vendor Challenge. Company to Demonstrate Interoperability of webMethods B2B with the OAGI Standard." - webMethods, a leading provider of business-to-business integration (B2Bi) solutions, today announced the company will participate in The Open Applications Group Interoperability Customer Council (OAGI) Vendor Challenge. Through participation in the OAGI Vendor Challenge, webMethods will demonstrate the interoperability of webMethods B2B to exchange business documents between leading business applications using OAGI standards. The OAGI Customer Council has issued this challenge in an effort to encourage vendors to deliver e-commerce solutions that are interoperable, standards-based, and can be implemented in the near term. The participating customers intend to implement B2B e-commerce in their enterprises with products that support OAGI standards. The OAGI Customer Council, which includes AT&T Wireless, Boeing, DHL, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Ingersoll-Rand, Kraft Foods, Lockheed Martin and Lucent Technologies, is issuing the challenge. Vendors who complete the challenge will showcase their products at Canopy International's eBusiness integration laboratory in Boston. Members of the press, industry analysts, and other interested parties will be invited to view the live demonstrations. The products will also be shown at exhibitions and conferences to be announced later. The business process based Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) Release 6.2 contains the largest set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) Document Type Definition (DTD) files in the world and goes the farthest towards defining the 'digital dial tone' that organizations require to do business in the emerging eWorld. These specifications may be downloaded for free at www.openapplications.org. There are currently at least 50 live sites running OAGIS based XML messages. These sites include many kinds of integration, including eBusiness, Logistics, Financials, and Banking."
[March 16, 2000] "Canopy International to Host OAGI Vendor Challenge Delivering B2B Interoperability. Complete Products To Be Demonstrated At Canopy's Boston E-Business Integration Laboratory." - "Canopy International, an international professional services company specializing in business-to-business integration services, today announced that it will host and participate in the OAGI Vendor Challenge aimed at delivering B2B interoperability between leading business applications using OAGI standards. The OAGI Vendor Challenge was issued by the OAGI Customer Council, including companies such as AT&T Wireless, Boeing, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Lockheed Martin and Lucent Technologies, in an effort to drive software vendors to deliver fully-integrated products that can be implemented to deliver value right away. Vendors who complete the challenge, and are able to produce a working product by June 30, 2000, will showcase their products at Canopy's eBusiness integration laboratory in Boston. Canopy's eBusiness integration laboratory contains the latest versions and features of various leading software applications, including enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain management, asset management, middleware, and business-to business, as well as a library of reusable integration solutions. The lab offers Canopy clients the ability to dramatically accelerate the development of B2B solutions. While the laboratories are available via the web, Canopy maintains integration laboratories in five locations around the world. The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and application interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world. The Open Applications Group also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors."
[December 15, 1999] "Open Applications Group, Inc. to Deliver Standardized Request for Quote in XML. SupplierMarket.com Joins OAGI and Presents Plan to Lead OAGI's Effort to Increase Efficiencies Through Standardized RFQs." - "The emergence of online trading communities, and the need to integrate them into back-end legacy systems, has increased the need for standards. Request for quotes (RFQs), the most common method for businesses to share information about needed goods and services are company-specific and lack industry standardization. In an effort to ease integration and communications along the supply chain, Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI) will standardize RFQs in XML. SupplierMarket.com, a leading Internet marketplace for the buying and selling of built-to-order, industrial manufactured products, will lead the effort for OAGI to standardize RFQs in XML. The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on dramatically easier business software interoperability for eBusiness and Application Interoperability. It is the largest publisher of XML content for business software interoperability in the world. The Open Applications Group also builds and publishes the detail specifications necessary to use the XML content as well as publishing a common middleware API specification that has been endorsed by several major middleware vendors. The OAGI membership is composed of many of the most prominent business software vendors, EAI vendors, Systems Integrators, and end-user associated organizations in the world, including: Agile Software, American Software, AT&T Wireless, Bluestone, Candle, Compaq, Component Software, Computer Associates, CrossWorlds Software, DATEV, Extricity Software, Ford Motor Company, Fortress Technologies, GloTech Solutions, Great Plains, HK Systems, Inc., I2, IBM, Indus, Integrated Systems & Services Group, J.D. Edwards, Lockheed Martin, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, NEC, Netfish Technologies, ObTech, OnDisplay, Oracle, PCS Inc., PeopleSoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PSDI, QAD, Requisite Technology, Robocom Systems, SAP, Teklogix, Trilogy, TSI, USData, Vitria, Wonderware, and webMethods."
[September 21, 1999] "XML.org Publishes OAGIS XML DTDs for Business Object Documents OASIS Forms Relationship with Open Applications Group, Inc." - "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, today announced that it has formed a strategic relationship with the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI). As part of the agreement, OASIS will make the OAGI XML Business Object Documents available on XML.org, the open, vendor-neutral industry portal hosted by OASIS. Further, the two organizations have agreed to exchange sponsor-level memberships, enabling each to contribute to the other's technical work. The Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) is a model for business software application component interoperability. OAGIS defines a set of components, processes and interfaces for integrating many key enterprise business applications, including financials, manufacturing, human resources, supply chain and logistics both inside and outside the enterprise. The content of OAGIS has been made machine readable in the form of XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for all currently defined OAGI Business Object Documents. It is one of the largest collections of standardized XML DTDs in support of ERP applications in existence."
Press release of January 18, 1998: "The Open Applications Group Releases XML Application. The Open Applications Group Publishes XML Document Type (DTDs) on Their Web Site." [local archive copy]
OAG XML DTDs and sample distribution files, updated 1999-07-18.
[July 21, 1999] "Open Applications Group and Microsoft Announce First Pilot Project to Migrate Industry Standard to BizTalk Framework Specifications." An announcement from Microsoft and the Open Applications Group describes an endeavor to migrate the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS) XML Definitions to the BizTalk Framework specifications. "The XML working group within the OAGI, which includes Candle Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., HK Systems Inc., IBM Manufacturing Systems, Microsoft, NEC Corp., PeopleSoft Inc. and PricewaterhouseCoopers, plans to update the current OAGI XML documents, which were developed under the W3C XML 1.0 specification, by prototyping them under XML-schema and BizTalk Framework specifications. The goal is to produce a compatible set of XML-schema documents and publish them in the BizTalk.Org library. The OAGI, which has a track record of fast delivery, plans to be in a position to have the prototyping and architecture issues completed as soon as possible after the W3C finalizes the XML-schema recommendation currently in review before that group. Once the XML-schema specification, which the BizTalk Framework will support, is completed and formally recommended by the W3C, the OAGI plans to very quickly publish its work under the XML-schema format and, subsequently, the BizTalk Framework. . . By the fourth quarter of 1999, the OAGI working group plans to migrate its existing OAGIS XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) to be compatible with XML-schema and the BizTalk Framework specifications recently published in draft form. The BizTalk Framework fits nicely with the current OAGI design guidelines for XML development. This effort seeks to ensure convergence and will accelerate the adoption of the OAGIS standard by providing easy integration with BizTalk Framework-compatible schemas across multiple industries. The OAGI plans to publish its BizTalk Framework-compatible schemas in the BizTalk.Org schema library so they can be downloaded and used by any individual or organization free of charge."
[July 19, 1999] "The Open Applications Group Forms Customer Interoperability Council to Foster Adoption of XML Based Application Integration Technology." - "The Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI), a non-profit industry consortium comprised of many of the most prominent stakeholders in the business software component interoperability arena in the world, today announced the formation of a Customer Interoperability Council, made up of leading end users, that will work with the OAGI's existing software vendor membership to promote adoption of standards based application integration technology. The OAGI Interoperability Council will focus on development of industry specific Business Object Documents that define inter-application message formats and the deployment of enterprise integration frameworks based on the Open Applications Group Integration Specification (OAGIS), the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and transactions sent over middleware conforming to the newly released Open Applications Middleware API Specification (OAMAS). This approach will simplify integration of Financial, Human Resources, Manufacturing, Logistics, and Supply Chain application components both within the enterprise and among trading partners."
"Appendix I - Translation to XML." March 24, 1999. "The Open Applications Group is developing approaches for implementation within an XML framework. This document describes the process for development, translation, and implementation of OAGIS compliant Business Object Documents within the first XML standard release. Implementation projects may be based on the original message structure, or the XML format described in this document. The decision to use one format or another is left to the integrators, vendors, and ultimately, our customers. It is expected that the need for support of both specifications will decrease over time, as migration to XML occurs. As migration and adoption progresses, the proprietary format may be phased out. While this document reviews each component of the Interface Specification as implemented in XML, it is not intended to be a primer or training guide. A strong working knowledge of both XML and the OAGIS is assumed. Knowledge of the contents of the EBOD specification is also required." [local archive copy]
[March 24, 1999] OAGIS XML Architecture and DTD Downloads. March 1999 or later. "This document is a supplement to the Open Applications Group Interface Specification. The development team has spent hundreds of person hours developing the components of the specification. Our goal is to make the results of these ongoing efforts easily available to the integration community. The XML architecture appendix is a big step toward providing the entirety of the OAGIS content in a consistent electronic format." [local archive copy]
[January 20, 1999] OAGIS XML Architecture and DTD Downloads - Open Applications Group Interface Specification DTDs and Sample XML Files. "Copyright (c) Open Applications Group. All Rights Reserved." [local archive copy]
Open Applications Group White Paper. [Edited by] By David Connelly. February 22, 1999. "This white paper will explain the vision of the Open Applications Group to dramatically improve software integration thereby reducing costs and increasing the agility of the IT organization to react to changing business needs. It will also describe the architectural approach used by the members and the compelling business value of working together to achieve "Plug and Play" integration of business software components. XML is actually a language for creating markup languages that describe data and rules about the data. It requires applications to be defined to it before it can become truly useful. The process of defining applications is done through the use of the Document Type Definition, which defines the tags and rules within XML for a well-formed XML document. The Open Applications Group, Inc. has defined the tags and rules for business software component interoperability in this application. . . Since XML is data base-neutral, operating system-neutral, and device-neutral, it is an effective tool for defining heterogeneous interoperability. This is also in complete alignment with the Open Applications Group stated technology strategy, which is to be technology aware, but not technology specific. Using XML as the method to express the Business Object Document enables the Open Applications Group to clearly and concisely define the OAGI model in a machine readable format to enable software developers to quickly adopt and implement this model. It is an exciting capability that the IT industry is quickly adopting and now tools vendors are building generally available tools that enable this approach to be based on standard tools and technologies and prevents the need for building custom or proprietary tools to adopt this approach." [local archive copy, 1999-03-24]
Introductory Topics: Business Object Document Model "The Business Object Document is the model used to communicate a request from the originating business application to the destination business application. Each Business Object Document includes supporting details to enable the destination business application to accomplish the action. To direct the Business Object Document to its destination, one or more receiver addresses are included as parameters passed to the transport mechanism used. This Chapter describes the Open Applications Group meta data architecture for building BOD's. The OAGIS Specification supports this architecture for building BODs as well as XML mapping for building BODs. This basic architecture is the same for either the OAGIS meta data or for XML meta data based character streams. Please see appendix B for the OAGIS mapping example and Appendix I for the XML mapping example."
[August 30, 1998] Press release: "The Open Applications Group Supports Supply Chain and XML." Also from the OAG site.
[September 28, 1998] "XML Eases Linking ERP Apps. Open Applications Group Pushes XML for Application Integration. [XML Gets the Nod.]" By Ted Smalley Bowen. In InfoWorld Volume 20, Issue 39 (September 28, 1998). "The adoption of XML as the data description layer in leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications may make the work of the Open Applications Group (OAG) standards body more relevant to the industry and bring a degree of interoperability to typically shuttered ERP systems."
[March 24, 1999] "webMethods Announces webMethods B2B 2.1 for XML-Based Business-to-Business E-Commerce." - "webMethods, Inc., provider of cross-platform XML solutions for business-to-business e-commerce and integration, today announced availability of webMethods B2B 2.1, a significantly enhanced version of the company's XML-based solution that facilitates inter-enterprise integration between ERP applications, Web sites and legacy data sources. webMethods B2B 2.1 offers guaranteed delivery and enhanced continuous operation capabilities to support high-volume, mission-critical applications. In addition, webMethods B2B 2.1 includes support for OAGIS Document Type Definitions (DTDs) developed by Open Applications Group (OAG) to provide XML-based interoperability APIs for financial, human resources, manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain management systems."
[October 30, 1998] "The Open Applications Group Supports XML." By Thomas Sullivan. In ent [Online] Volume 3, Number 17 (October 21, 1998), page 36. [Data Management.]
[January 25, 1999] "QAD Solution Breaks New Ground in Interoperability Between Enterprise Applications. QAD's Q/LinQ Helps Businesses Maximize Data Transfer Efficiency and Slash API Integration and Maintenance Costs." - "Available immediately, QAD's new Q/LinQ is one of the first interfaces to offer plug-n-play interoperability, support the Open Application Group Integration Specification (OAGIS), and use extensible markup language (XML) for automatic transaction processing by other applications. . . Using XML, Q/LinQ's functionality allows sales orders, inventory queries, and other important transactions within QAD Applications to be automatically processed by other programs."
