Registry for trading partners using documents for commerce in trading partner networks
First Claim
1. A method for establishing transactions among trading partners in a network, comprising:
- maintaining, utilizing a processor and memory, a registry of machine-readable specifications specifying business services offered by trading partners, the machine-readable specifications including at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, services offered and at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, documents to be exchanged with such services by trading partners; and
providing, in response to a request, one or more of the machine-readable specifications from said registry via a communication network to a requesting node;
wherein said machine-readable specifications are adapted to be parsed and include data thatidentifies an input document,identifies one or more transactions that accept said input document, anddescribes sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units in said input document.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A market making node in a network routes machine readable documents to connect businesses with customers, suppliers and trading partners. The self defining electronic documents, such as XML based documents, can be easily understood amongst the partners. Definitions of these electronic business documents, called business interface definitions, are posted on the Internet, or otherwise communicated to members of the network. The business interface definitions tell potential trading partners the services the company offers and the documents to use when communicating with such services. Thus, a typical business interface definition allows a customer to place an order by submitting a purchase order or a supplier checks availability by downloading an inventory status report. Also, the registration at a market maker node of a specification of the input and output documents, coupled with interpretation information in a common business library, enables participants in a trading partner network to execute the transaction in a way which closely parallels the way in which paper based businesses operate.
81 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for establishing transactions among trading partners in a network, comprising:
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maintaining, utilizing a processor and memory, a registry of machine-readable specifications specifying business services offered by trading partners, the machine-readable specifications including at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, services offered and at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, documents to be exchanged with such services by trading partners; and providing, in response to a request, one or more of the machine-readable specifications from said registry via a communication network to a requesting node; wherein said machine-readable specifications are adapted to be parsed and include data that identifies an input document, identifies one or more transactions that accept said input document, and describes sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units in said input document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for establishing transactions among trading partners in a network, comprising:
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maintaining, utilizing a processor and memory, a registry of machine-readable specifications specifying business services offered by trading partners, the machine-readable specifications including at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, services offered and at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, documents to be exchanged with such services by trading partners, wherein said machine-readable specifications comprise data identifying respective descriptions of sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units; and providing, in response to a request, one or more of the machine-readable specifications from said registry via a communication network to a requesting node, wherein the sets of storage units comprise parsed data, and wherein the parsed data in at least one of the documents to be exchanged comprises; character data encoding text characters in the one of the input and output documents, and markup data identifying sets of storage units according to the logical structure of the one of the input and output documents. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. An apparatus used for establishing transactions among trading partners in a network, comprising:
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a network interface; memory storing data and programs of instructions, including a registry of machine-readable specifications specifying business services offered by trading partners, the machine-readable specifications including at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, services offered and at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, documents to be exchanged with such services by trading partners; and a data processor coupled to the memory and the network interface which executes programs of instructions; wherein said machine-readable specifications are adapted to be parsed and include data that identifies an input document, identifies one or more transactions that accept said input document, and describes sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units in said input document; wherein the programs of instructions include logic to provide, in response to a request received at the network interface, one or more of the machine-readable specifications from said registry via a communication network to a requesting node. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus used for establishing transactions among trading partners in a network, comprising:
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a network interface; memory storing data and programs of instructions, including a registry of machine-readable specifications specifying business services offered by trading partners, the machine-readable specifications including at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, services offered and at least one of definitions of, and references to definitions of, documents to be exchanged with such services by trading partners, wherein the definitions of the documents to be exchanged comprise respective descriptions of sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units; and a data processor coupled to the memory and the network interface which executes programs of instructions;
wherein the programs of instructions includelogic to provide, in response to a request received at the network interface, one or more of the machine-readable specifications from said registry via a communication network to a requesting node; wherein the storage units comprise parsed data, and the parsed data in at least one of the documents to be exchanged comprises; character data encoding text characters in the one of the input and output documents, and markup data identifying sets of storage units according to the logical structure of the one of the input and output documents. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for executing transactions among nodes in a network, the network including a plurality of nodes which execute processes involved in the transactions, comprising:
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publishing through a communication network a machine-readable specification of an interface to an operation, the specification including a definition of an input document and a definition of an output document, the definitions of the input and output documents comprising respective descriptions of sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units; wherein said machine-readable specifications are adapted to be parsed and include data that identifies an input document, identifies one or more transactions that accept said input document, and describes sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units in said input document; receiving data comprising the input document through the communication network; parsing the data according to the specification to identify the input document; providing at least a portion of the input document in a machine-readable format to a transaction process which produces an output; forming an output document, based on the specification and according to the definition of the output document; and transmitting the output document through the communication network. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A method of executing operations requested by a consuming service running on a consuming server via a network, comprising
exposing to at least one consuming service via a network an operation interface running on a providing server, the operation interface providing access to an operation running on a processing server and, wherein the operation interface implements an interface definition stored in an operation interface definition data structure on an interface storage means and the interface definition data structure includes definitions of input and output business documents, and the definitions include respective descriptions of sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units; -
receiving at the providing server via the network an input business document from the consuming server; parsing at the providing server the input business document according to the definition of the input business document to provide access to its content and logical structure and translating at least part of the parsed input business document into an internal input data object; sending from the providing server to the operation running on the processing server the internal input data object; and transmitting via the network an output business document that conforms to the definition of the output business document to the consuming server. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A method of causing operations to be executed responsive to a request from a consuming service running on a consuming server to an operation interface of a providing server via a network, wherein the operation interface implements an operation interface definition stored in an operation interface definition data structure on an interface storage means and the interface definition data structure includes definitions of input and output business documents, and the definitions include respective descriptions of sets of storage units and logical structures for the sets of storage units, the method comprising:
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marshalling data on the consuming server from a first internal data object into an input business document that conforms to the operation interface definition of the input business document; sending the input business document from the consuming server to the providing server via the network; receiving from the providing server at the consuming server an output business document that conforms to the operation interface definition of the output business document; parsing at the consuming server the output business document according to the definition of the output business document to provide access to its content and logical structure and translating at least part of the parsed output business document into a second internal data object.
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Specification