An Interactive Tool Based on Xml Technology for Data Exchange between Heterogeneous Erp Systems

Data exchange between enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in a supply chain system needs to fulfill requirements of both schema integration and message translation. Since ERP systems with relational database systems are developed independently, schema conflicts between databases is a common problem for schema integration. Thus, supply chain partners need to preserve the data integrity of transacting messages with respect to the ERP database systems. The core technique of this kind of data exchange is matching XML documents and relational database schemas. An interactive tool is proposed here to simplify the integration and implementation efforts of data exchange between heterogeneous database systems in the supply chain system. The interactive tool is Web-enabled and it applies XML and XSL to translate trading messages. In order to store XML documents into the relational database, the structure and content of the XML document should be matched with the database schemas and verified by the users. The data contents of the XML document need to be matched not only with data types of the database but also with relational constraints to preserve the data integrity. XML schema and XSL transformation are applied to translate data and solve schema conflicts between XML documents and the database system. Using this interactive tool, the matching methods provide mapping suggestions, and it relies on users with specific schema knowledge to provide final verification of the matching results. This tool provides an environment for administrators and designers of heterogeneous database systems to communicate data requirements, to resolve semantic conflicts, and to preserve data integrity.