DataDirect Bridges XML/EDI Gap

An interesting new product announcement came out of DataDirect Technologies this week that should help smooth the flow of information between enterprises. The company says its XML Converters now supports leading electronic data interchange (EDI) standards, as well as the flat and binary file formats used by retail, healthcare and other organizations.

This allows organizations to communicate better across the wide array of XML and EDI formats that make up the patchwork of B2B communications. Applications range from e-commerce and collaborative development to sales and marketing initiatives and external data integration.

EDI has been the standard means of transaction for worldwide commercial activity for over a decade. Recently, however, a number of XML-based systems have drawn increased support. Forrester Research reports that stateful and stateless XML and flat file exchanges are actually gaining adherents more quickly than EDI. DataDirect says its converters allow enterprises to convert legacy data formats to XML and back without major network alternations.

The XML Converter works with the company's XQuery processor for seamless integration of W3C data in relational, XML and flat file formats. The system supports SAX, StAC, XmlReader, XmlWriter, DOM and I/O streaming interfaces.