REIMSnet eXchange Format Features

Common Architecture

The documents within the REIMSnet eXchange Format (RXF) document set have been designed with a common top-level structure, whereby all documents are made up of header, lines (repeated as required) and trailer sections.

Click on the document to view example elements within each section.

The document header section is designed to hold information that is common to all lines on the document (e.g. document number, buyer, seller, and delivery point). It also holds document definition information, allows references to other documents and caters for optional text information. The remainder of the header section depends on the document type, e.g. order, invoice. The line information is designed to hold repeating occurrences of details such as order lines, invoice lines etc. These will typically hold such data as product, quantity and price information. The trailer section generally holds totals and summary information such as the number of transactions, total quantity and total value. Each section contains a number of generic elements, as well as elements that are specific to that document. All of these elements are pre-defined in the common vocabulary.

Common Vocabulary

The document schemas (standardised formats), in the RXF document set, are composed of pre-defined data elements, i.e. a common vocabulary. This enables consistency between documents and gives the capability of new document creation by means of plugging together a set of common elements, with limited impact on the vocabulary. The common elements for describing a party involved in a transaction are as follows:

Presentation Scripts

By bringing together XML and an XSL script, either at client level in a web browser or at server level, an XML document can be displayed as a presentable, structured web page.

Internet Explorer and Firefox have the ability to act as a parser. To view a live demonstration of presenting XML as a web page, using Internet Explorer or Firefox, click on the browser image. The XML file is requested, and displayed according to the XSL instructions.

Transformation Scripts

Despite striving for standardisation, as exemplified by the RXF, there will always be an occasion where individual applications or two trading partners have deployed different XML schemas. An XSL Transformation (XSLT) script is therefore used to convert data from one format to another.

Guidelines

A set of guidelines is available to support the schemas for each transaction in the RXF document set. The guidelines describe the various scenarios that can exist for each document type, e.g. invoices with multiple VAT rates, all of which are demonstrated with example XML files that are derived from the RXF schemas.

Read the REIMSnet eXchange Format overview.

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