EBXML
Electronic Business XML. The OASIS family of standards that has structured B2B e-commerce since 1999.
Definition
ebXML is a family of XML standards published by OASIS and UN/CEFACT starting in 1999 to automate B2B e-commerce. It covers five pillars: ebMS (Messaging Services, including ebMS3 and AS4), CPPA (Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement), Registry (UDDI-like), BPSS (Business Process Specification Schema) and Core Components (business semantics).
Origin
ebXML was launched in November 1999 by OASIS and UN/CEFACT at a kickoff meeting in San Jose. The first specifications shipped in 2001. The family was subsequently aligned with ISO 15000 (ebXML parts 1 to 5) and is the technical foundation of major public B2B networks: PEPPOL relies on AS4, which derives from ebMS3.
Example in context
The AS4 protocol used by OpenPEPPOL to ship electronic invoices between Access Points is a lightweight profile of ebMS3, itself part of the ebXML family. When a French biller sends an invoice to Belgium over the PEPPOL network, they sign and encrypt a UBL 2.1 payload in a SOAP envelope compliant with ebMS3 — that is, with ebXML.