Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

What This Means for You

How you should make sense of this situation depends on whether you are an end user or a developer.

If you're an end user, you're most likely going to implement what your big trading partners require. If you're lucky, you won't have different customers implementing different technologies. To the extent that you are given choices, keep in mind the general considerations presented at the beginning of the chapter. With an understanding of the various technologies available to you, make your choice based on which option best fits your requirements.

If you develop business applications for the people mentioned in the previous paragraph, you should come away with the message that the situation is still very much in flux and probably ...