The Use of Existing XML Vocabularies for Web Services – Querying Product Information with Web Services and BMEcat –

Abstract: Dynamic Web service applications, e.g. querying product information from different suppliers for the purpose of a price comparison, can only run automatically if, beside the technical interface, the semantics of the data are standardized. Several XML vocabularies, which, among other things, address the exchange of product data, have been developed independent of Web services (e.g. BMEcat, cXML, and xCBL, just to name a few). However, to our knowledge, these standards have hardly been mentioned in conjunction with Web services for querying product information. This article examines how BMEcat, as an example for such a standardized “business language”, can be used within a Web service interface. By using specific program code examples a “procedure-oriented ” and a “document-oriented ” approach are compared.