B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Integration Brokers 265
Table 9.1. Semantic differences between source and target applications
Source Application (CRM — Clarify)
UserlD — Char (10)
UserName — Char (50)
PostalAddress — Char (100)
PhoneNumber — Char (15)
Target Application (ERP — SAP)
user_id — Char (12)
first_name — Char (20)
middle_name — Char (2)
last_name — Char (20)
street_address — Char (20)
city — Char (20)
state — Char (5)
zip — Char (7)
country_code — Num (4)
city_code — Num (3)
phone_number — Num (10)
Table 9.1 shows the semantic difference between the schemas of the
two applications.
It is apparent that the two applications have different data schemas.
There will be several errors if an attempt is made to move the data from
one to the other without transformation. However, if the same data is
passed through an integration broker, it will transform the data from
CRM application to a form that is in congruence with the schema of
ERP application.
Integration brokers should support a full range of data types, including
all the leading standards such as XML, cXML, EDI, RosettaNet,
EDIFACT, XI2, HL7 and SWIFT.
Usually, integration brokers include a graphical tool known as
DataMapper, which allows visual creation of maps that define the
correspondence between the records and fields of the source application
with those of the receiving application. A map may represent
specifications in any language such as Extensible Stylesheet Language
(XSL) style sheets that are used by the broker to perform the
transformation described in the map.