Getting started with Oracle B2B

Oracle B2B helps exchange information between trading business partners using standard documents and protocols. This article explains how to get started with Oracle B2B in the context of SOA Suite 11g.

1. Create Document Guidelines: Document guidelines are used to translate and validate business documents. They consist of two different files. First, an ECS file to translate & validate flat files into XML. Second, an XSD schema file to validate XML documents. Using ECS guidelines, sample flat files can be generated that conform to the guidelines. We will need to use Oracle B2B Document Editor to generate guidelines. It needs to be installed separately from Oracle SOA Suite. Installation instruction can be found here. More from Oracle.

   

2. Create Document Definitions:  Document guidelines can be used to create document definitions through Oracle B2B console. This can be accessed using http://<your_soa_server_host>:soa_server_port/b2bconsole. Using the Administration > Document tab of Oracle B2B, select from a list of document protocols, and then provide a document protocol version name, a document type name, and a document definition name. Read more from Oracle documentation. 

   

3. Configure Trading Partners: Trading partners represent the physical companies/organizations that participate in business transactions. A transaction involves a Host trading partner and a Remote trading partner. Oracle B2B is installed in Host trading partner systems. Remote trading partner participates in a business transaction with Host partner. Read more from Oracle’s documentation.

   

4. Create Agreements: A trading agreement is a business document exchange between a host and remote trading partner. This can be uni-directional or bi-directional. This is the final step designing a b2b transaction and requires all three steps described above. More from Oracle documentation.

   

In the next article, we shall demonstrate B2B and BPEL integration using inbound and outbound B2B Adapters. We shall use B2B X12 document types 850, 855 and 997 to demonstrate B2B Inbound, Outbound and Acknowledgements.

Related posts

• Oracle B2B Installation
• B2B Generating Document Guidelines