Re: XML and AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

I understand your point of view.  I feel a lot of the new e-business
concepts and tasks are a rehash of current EDI capabilities.  I believe
the fine point here has to do with volume and response time.  

I used to work of a manufacturer that dealt with all the big retail
chains. We'd get thousands of EDI transactions each day (mostly orders)
and drop them automatically into the database for the plants to fill. 
Then the customer wanted inventory information and order inquiry.  OK,
so we implement those transactions, but now we must receive the inquiry
transaction, map it to our database, blast a message to the plant, wait
for them to respond to the inquiry, and then map the response to the EDI
transaction.  Oh, did I mention the value added network provider must
then route the transaction to the customer , who receives it and
reformats the answer into their system.
  
Now for high volume transactions, you can't beat EDI.

But truckload shipment information that must be received and processed
before the truck arrives at the distribution center, (which by the way
is only a half hour drive from the manufacturer) may be a candidate to
something with a little less overhead.

sorry for the long response, but I do believe that an intelligent mix of
the old and the new always provides the best mix.

Thanks
Wayne
Scott Mildenberger wrote:
> 
> I'll readily admit that I may not understand XML very well but I have been
> recently been doing a little reading.  To me, it is just a different way of
> formatting EDI.  It does format it with tags so that a browser can maybe
> ignore it if it doesn't understand.  But, like EDI, to be real useful the
> parties at either end need to have the same understanding of the data.  As
> far as RPG accessing XML.  It is just formatted text which can definitely be
> read/translated by RPG.  I work on software for a railroad and we have RPG
> code translating the tremendous amount of EDI that we send/receive every
> day.  We could do XML this way if we wanted, although if there is a parser
> available that converts it to a more readily accessed format then that would
> be easier.
> 
> I may be missing something but it seems to me that XML is just a different
> way to format data, very similar to EDI.  It is just a lot more exciting
> because it is 'new' and 'internet' and all those fancy buzzwords.  I have
> seen little that XML does that EDI doesn't, especially when talking about
> business to business transactions which is where XML is supposed to make a
> big impact.  Maybe someone else is seeing the part that makes XML a real big
> deal but to me it is just EDI formatted differently.
> 
> Scott Mildenberger
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Colin Williams [SMTP:Williamsc@technocrats.co.uk]
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 7:28 AM
> > To:   'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
> > Subject:      RE: XML and AS/400
> >
> > Read! Very interesting article. Is XML going to really have that much
> > effect on us all? Will everyone be using it eventually?
> >
> > If RPG will find it very difficult to access XML, what do you access it
> > with, JAVA?
> >
> > (Suggestion for D.G. How about a message board on the same page as the
> > IMHO articles so that we can discuss the issues raised)
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Chuck Lewis [mailto:clewis@iquest.net]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2000 10:26 AM
> > To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> > Cc: Don
> > Subject: Re: XML and AS/400
> > Importance: High
> >
> >
> > Don,
> >
> > What timing !
> >
> > Read Phil Hall's "In My Humble Opinion" on Midrange-L's web site !!!
> >
> >  http://www.midrange.com/imho/phil/200002.htm
> >
> > Chuck
> >
> > "Schenck, Don" wrote:
> >
> > > Does the AS/400 support reading/writing XML?
> > +---
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-- 
______________________________________
Wayne W. Capwell
Red Oak Technologies, Inc.
11301 Carmel Commons Blvd., Suite 114   
Charlotte, NC  28226
704-945-1067

Manufacturing...Production...Solutions
     http://www.redoaktech.com/
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