[October 11, 2001] On October 10, 2001, Vitria Technology announced the availability of Value Chain Markup Language (VCML) as a new business collaboration standard. Sample XML Schemas, DTDs, and instance documents may be downloaded from the project web site. The Value Chain Markup Language is "a comprehensive set of XML-based, industry-specific vocabularies (defined words and meanings) and documents such as purchase orders, invoices, etc. required to conduct business over the Internet. VCML schemas support over 100,000 pre-built vocabulary structures and over 4,000 pre-built, complete documents. VCML provides a standard set of vocabularies, transactions, elements, and guidelines that power value chain collaboration within and across vertical industries using a common syntax and semantics. VCML supports the North American, European, and Asian direct material procurement standards (including ANSI X12 and EDIFACT transaction sets in all current versions). Support is also included for industry-specific standards including aerospace, automotive, banking and finance, education, energy, government, healthcare, insurance, petrochemical, retail, telecommunication, and transportation industry-specific EDI documents."
"VCML - Value Chain Markup Language is the first effort to date established to deliver existing B2B documents in an XML format that retains the structure and business rules embedded within well-defined, existing documents, such as EDI. You can use VCML's standardized, dictionary-based business vocabularies to quickly and easily link existing legacy-based vocabularies to XML. You can then take advantage of the benefits of XML to electronically extend legacy systems to additional value chain partners....The VCML vocabulary approach utilizes a complete set of dictionaries that combine human- and machine-readable metadata into an existing document, thereby creating an XML representation of the exact document. VCML enables you to quickly and easily transform data between documents from one vocabulary to another using the metamodel of the original data. Leveraging existing semantics enables information contained in the documents to be easily repurposed when programming for translation, transformation, and real-time analysis. All VCML vocabularies share a common XML syntax and document structure. This common syntax, coupled with the flexible semantics that leverage existing metadata, enable transformation from one vocabulary to another without losing or compromising the original document and its data content. This creates a seamless interoperability among vocabularies..." [from the Executive Overview]
VCML packages provide industry-specific: (1) Schemas: A schema for every transaction set, segment, and element in its standard vocabulary dictionaries. You can use these schemas to create transformations from one vocabulary to another. (2) Specification Guides: Specification Guides for communicating VCML specifications to trading partners. (3) Getting Started Guide: A summary of the possible uses for VCML and a description of the components provided in the VCML industry download packages..."
References:
- Vitria Technology
- VCML web site
- About Value Chain Markup Language
- VCML FAQ document
- Contact: support@xedi.org
- Announcement 2001-10-10: "Vitria Introduces VCML to Standardize Business Collaboration Across the Extended Enterprise. New Universal XML-based Standard Delivers Dramatic Cost Reductions for Global 2000." [source]
- "Value Chain Markup Language - VCML: A Collaborative E-Business Vocabulary." Executive Overview. [PDF, cache]
- VCML Getting Started Guide. 6 pages.
- "Vitria VCML: Best Choice for E-Business Data Standard Bridge Solution." By Ken Volmer, Giga Information Group. August 6, 2001. 2 pages. [cache]
- VCML Sample: Purchase Order. Schema, DTD, XML instance. See download for complete details.
- VCML Sample: Invoice. Schema, DTD, XML instance. See download for complete details.
