XML-Based Frameworks for Internet Commerce

XML-based frameworks or industry standatrds for Internet Commerce are rapidly launched and changed. The contribution of this paper is to increase the understanding and facilitate comparison and evaluation of the most commonly refered framworks. The paper provides a survey of the architecture and message definition of BizTalk, cXML, eCo Framework, ICE (Information and Content Exchange), IOTP (Internet Open Trading Protocol), OAG (Open Applications Group), RosettaNet, xCBL, ebXML and ontology.org. The relationships between these frameworks are cooperative and competitive and thus the merger and change are unavoidable. At present eCo Framework and xCBL are tightly cooperative and supported by others. The competing initiative is centered around Microsoft‘s BizTalk, supported by cXML and OAG. The future will probably see closer cooperation to make formats compatible. Microsoft is both promoting BizTalk and is a member of eCo Framework.