A Tool for the Management of ebXML Resources

Abstract

The ebXML initiative is designed for electronic interoperability, allowing businesses to find each other, agree to become trading partners and conduct business. ebXML repository is used to store the ebXML resources and the ebXML registry is used to discover these resources. ebXML resources may be in the form of XML documents, Document Type Definitions, XML Schemas, UML models and various other forms. Therefore a proper tool is required for the management of these resources. Management of ebXML resources has to be done by the experts who create and modify and are in charge of these resources. If there is a tool for the management of these resources, the experts can concentrate more on the content of these resources rather than management of them. This paper describes the implementation of a graphical tool for the management of ebXML resources based on the proposed ebXML specifications. Two approaches are being used to discover these resources. Registry Navigator is one, which is in a tree structure and gives a full view of the registry. Query Manager is the other, which enables quick referencing to the resources if the user is fully aware of what resources are needed. The documents discovered in this manner are to be opened in the Editor pane of the tool. This editor facilitates the creation and modification of documents easily. The tool also incorporates capabilities to add and remove resources through the Life Cycle Manager. It also has a mechanism, which keeps track of different versions of the resources, so that the preferred version can be referred with minimum effort. Finally, it allows non-expert users to dynamically access the content of the registry over the web.