ubl — archive

[Tim McGrath]

i agree with sylvia but i think she is reading too much into this. what i see in ken's documents is simply the "only mandatory" items. that is, an automatic generation of a model that only contains the items flagged as mandatory in the schema. no business rules are used to guide this model and as such it is fairly meaningless.  no-one could use this model as-is.  consider the waybill - it only decribes a shipment and no parties involved! i suspect ken was seeing value in a "meets all mandatory requirements" generic model for minimum compliance checking. but i am think this is more a technical objective than a business one. in fact there is a danger here that this type of model may become a target for compliance in application interfaces.  i am not sure we want that. nice try though ;-) Sylvia Webb wrote: Ken, Based on my experience, I have serious reservations that there can be a universal minimum subset defined by the UBL TC. Such a subset can run afoul of local, regional, and international laws which specify minimum data requirements for specific transactions. Additionally, purchasing or contract law can dictate what a minimum subset should be between trading partners. As an example, if I establish a business relationship with a EU company or government agency, I have different minimum data requirements that may be specified in their subsets or guidelines plus additional requirements specified by U.S. and California laws. If I am shipping hazardous goods, I have yet another minimum subset of data required. Finally, depending on what is specified in any purchase order or contract that I receive, I can have multiple minimum subset requirements based on the legally binding requirements of those documents. These minimum data requirements do not include additional data that I may wish to include to satisfy any best practices which my company wishes to follow. IMO, there isn't any way that a standards body can have access to all of the subject matter experts needed to consider all of the business rules and laws which would be needed to determine an internationally acceptable minimum subset. Regards, Sylvia