2. Business processes and documents

Beyond the technical uses of XML, the language has also been adopted by a growing community of users to model and represent documents and business processes. Driven by the idea of replacing the specific formats of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) protocols with XML, which is more readable and easier to transport via Web protocols, numerous initiatives to define messages, documents and business processes have been launched since 1998 for applications in a wide variety of industrial fields. In response to the proliferation of these efforts, OASIS sought to bring together a set of simple business document standards for the most widespread transactions, whatever the industry concerned. The result of this work, UBL (Universal Business Language), version 2 of which was adopted in October 2006, has two objectives:

• supply prefabricated components...