eBusiness Technologies - eBusiness Gateways

Definition

Gateway - Link between several computers in a network setup, or a connection between two networks which allows messages on one to be routed through to the other.  Gateway functions typically include choreographing of mapping (translation), enveloping or de-enveloping, logging of transmission activity, and communications software functions. c.f. Pass-thru.

Gateway Components

Gateway functionality can be accomplished with one gateway that incorporates all functions listed below, or can be divided into eBusiness gateway and internet gateway. If divided, then the eBusiness gateway and the internet gateway need to be able to communicate with each other. A gateway can a large system running on a number of servers or a small system running on a small server or workstation connected to a small business or home LAN.

The basic components of a gateway are the same whether the gateway supports traditional EDI, the newer XML standards, or both.

• Communications and routing software
  • Includes communication scripts
  • Database containing information about trading partners, including which processes/messages they may exchange, what versions, sender/receiver ID's, etc.
• Transmission logging software for maintaining audit trails
• For non-repudiation, information about message origins and contents needs to be archived
• Includes the logging of errors.
• Enveloping software
• Mapping software, including dictionaries for all supported business content standards
• Security software, including firewalls and encryption/decryption utilities
  • Can run to 100,000 Euro.
  • Need to maintain a repository of digital certificates and signatures for encryption, authorization and authentication
• Storage/back-up software
• Anti-virus shield and scanning software

Hosted gateways

• A company may choose to use a third-party service to perform its gateway functions. This would be full gateway functionality, and the company's interface to the gateway would be analogous to connecting the company's iintranet to the company's own gateway. The host usually requires that special software be installed on the client. The system requirements vary by platform and by levels of functionality.

Web applications

• A company may be using one or more partners' web applications, or logging onto a third-party service provider's solution to view received documents and create documents to send. For a company using a web application for eBusiness, the equivalent of the gateway is web browser software. The browser should support popular scripting languages such as Java.

Gateway Software Packages

The components listed above may be acquired separately or in one or more packages; it is very common for all to be included in a single package. Packages without the mapping software are also common since many large companies prefer to develop or acquire mapping software or services separately.

• If you are considering such a package, verify that it includes an automatic recovery/restart feature, which would give you the capability to automatically recover any data being processed during either a power or communications failure. When integrated with the other gateway software components, this feature also normally restarts the software component so that processing can begin at the point at which it was terminated.
• Also take into consideration what connection methods are supported by the software.  Does it support the legacy analog modem connection protocols?
• Although the scheduled transmission of EDI and/or XML data is a desirable function, permitting a user to manually start the communications process is also useful. Manual control of the communications software facilitates its initial configuration and aids with correcting communication errors.

XML Parsers

There are currently two prevailing parsing (mapping) methods being used for XML files, DOM and SAX. Both have advantages and disadvantages.  Be sure to ask your solution provider which method they use, in order to determine if it matches your needs.

• DOM is memory resident or tree-driven which means that the entire XML file being mapped is stored inside the parsing program, in the form of a tree data structure. The advantage is that the entire content of the file is available to the parser, so if the processing of data presented at the beginning of the file depends on a piece of data that is presented near the end of the file, the parser can handle it - if the file is not too large. DOM allows more capabilities for data manipulation, since all of the data in the file is available in memory. The disadvantages are that DOM can be slow, and there is a limit to the files size that a DOM-based parser can handle without crashing.
  • Example (hypothetical): In the RosettaNet PIP3A4 Purchase Order Request, the Tax Exemption Status occurs toward the end of an instance of a 3A4 Purchase Order, due to the alphabetical sort of the DTD. If processing of the Account Description near the beginning of the file depends on the Tax Exemption Status, and the file is not very large, DOM works because it can hold the Account Description in memory until it finds Tax Exemption Status and figure out what to do with it.
     
• SAX is streaming or event-driven. SAX processes the XML file a few records at at time, detecting the beginning and end of data elements and processes each bit of data as a parsing event, then discards that data and moves on to the next bits of data. SAX is a faster processor than DOM, and, since the entire file doesn't have to be read into memory, SAX can handle very, very large files, assuming that the server has enough storage space for input and output files. However, SAX assumes that all the data in the XML file is sent in the sequence in which it needs to be processed, so SAX can be problematic if the interpretation of bits of data depends on data that can't be read into memory until the earlier bits of data depending have been erased from memory.

A communications audit trail provides the user with a log detailing the transmission of each interchange or file. Information typically provided with an audit trail includes: times, dates, identifiers, acknowledgments, errors encountered, etc. Audit trails are useful for debugging transmission problems, generating reports, and verifying that an interchange was sent or received by a trading partner.

Viewing Utility

There is a variety of communication data which might need to be viewed by an gateway user. This information includes scheduled transmissions, audit trails, outstanding functional acknowledgments, configuration data, and others. Rather than manually editing files, a gateway product might provide a utility for viewing various aspects of communications data.

EDI Gateway Software Costs - 1997

• PC or Mac Front-end, no integration capability - 1,500 to 3,500 USD
• PC or Mac Front-end with import/export capability - 2,000 to 7,000 USD
• Unix Server Platform - 3,500 - 12,000 USD
• Minicomputer Platform - 7,000 to 30,000 USD
• Mainframe Platform - 20,000 - 90,000 USD
• Maintenance - 15-20% per year

80% of EDI-enabled companies in the U.S. use a PC or Mac Front-end solution.