以XML與動態代理人為基礎之跨企業電子商務架構與交易處理

Cross Enterprise EC and Transaction Processing with XML and Dynamic Agents

傳統的電子化交易EDI環境，系統建構花費高，而且是傾向於封閉式的交易環境。隨著網際網路的盛行，任何企業只要用低廉的價格便可以與全世界相連接，因此也開啟了新一代的網際網路電子商務。為了建構跨企業商務環境，我們提出一個以XML為基礎的完整架構，將跨企業的交易行為模式化為一個工作流程(workflow)，並設計一個具備完善正規語意的視覺化工作流程描述工具AC Diagram來具體化交易流程。為了有效執行跨企業流程，我們使用XML來做為交易環境中的主要描述語言，並利用動態代理人(dynamic agents)技術，設計交易運作、交易回復、以及後交易回復等演算法來進行跨企業交易。透過「跨企業代理人交易系統(Cross-enterprise Agent Transaction System, CATS)」的實際建置與效能評估，證實所提架構與方法能夠充分利用動態代理人所具有的彈性及智慧，搭配XML可延伸化特性，在分散式的環境下，正確有效率的完成使用者所交付的跨企業交易。

Traditional EDI systems for enterprise applications are mostly expensive and closed. With the proliferation of Internet and World Wide Web, a new generation of network-centric electronic commerce (EC) infrastructure is emerging. To facilitate the construction of cross enterprise EC applications, we propose an XML based framework that models a business process as an Internet workflow which is represented by a visual language with formal semantics named AC Diagram. For the efficient execution of cross enterprise workflow, XML is used as the major workflow description and data representation language, while dynamic agents are employed for distributed workflow transaction execution and recovery. With the design and implementation of a Cross-enterprise Agent Transaction System (CATS), we demonstrate that our mechanisms can successfully and efficiently complete user specified business transactions expressed as cross enterprise workflows.