Scenario 4. B2B Messaging: Online Multivendor Shopping Cart Design Using XML

Problem. Company X needs to build an online shopping cart the products on which come from various vendors. Company X want to receive orders online and then according to what product is ordered funnel the order to the correct vendor accordingly.

• Solution. Use XML to deliver a more integrated online purchasing application. While a user is completing a new purchase requisition for new hardware, they can go directly to the computer manufacturer's web site to browse the latest models, configuration options, and negotiated prices. The user's site sends a purchase requisition reference number and authentication information to the vendor's web site.

  At the vendor site, the user adds items to their shopping basket, then clicks on a button to indicate that they are done shopping. The vendor sends back the contents of the shopping basket to the Company X's application as an XML file containing the part numbers, quantities, and prices that the user has chosen.

  Items from the "shopping basket" are automatically added to the new purchase requisition as line items.

  Customer orders are compiled into XML and delivered to the appropriate vendor databases for processing. XSL is used to transform and divide the cart for compliant transfers. Data is stored in a relational database and materialized using XML. See Figure 2-4.

• Main Tasks Involved. For examples of similar implementations see:
  • Chapter 10, "B2B: How iProcurement Uses XML to Offer Multiple Catalog Products to Users"

  • Chapter 13, "B2B XML Application: Step by Step"

• Oracle XML Components Used: Oracle XML Parser, XML-SQL Utility, XSQL Servlets, XML-SQL Utility, and custom Java code for authenticating the "Shopping Cart" it receives from the vendor web sites.

Figure 2-4 Scenario 4. Online Multivendor Shopping Cart Design Using XML