openTRANS
XML standard for business documents · version 2.1
openTRANS is an open XML standard for exchanging business documents between companies, such as the order, order confirmation, dispatch notification and invoice. It was created from 2001 onwards by an initiative of industrial and trading companies led by Fraunhofer IAO and complements the BMEcat catalog standard; the current version, openTRANS 2.1, has been available since October 2009.
Last updated:
- Developed by
- Fraunhofer IAO with the University of Duisburg-Essen and companies from industry and trade
- Current version
- 2.1 (October 2009)
- Documents
- ten, from the request for quotation (RFQ) to the remittance advice (REMITTANCEADVICE)
- Related
- BMEcat 2005 (catalog data), cXML, IDoc ORDERS05
/01
The ten document types
openTRANS 2.1 describes ten business documents along an order: request for quotation (RFQ), quotation (QUOTATION), order (ORDER), order change (ORDERCHANGE), order confirmation (ORDERRESPONSE), dispatch notification (DISPATCHNOTIFICATION), receipt acknowledgement (RECEIPTACKNOWLEDGEMENT), invoice (INVOICE), invoice list (INVOICELIST) and remittance advice (REMITTANCEADVICE). Each document has a header with document number, date and parties, an item list and a summary.
/02
openTRANS and BMEcat
BMEcat describes catalogs, that is items, prices and features; openTRANS describes the documents that follow the catalog. Both standards use the same data types and terms: openTRANS 2.1 is compatible with BMEcat 2005, and item details such as the supplier's part number (SUPPLIER_PID) come from the BMEcat namespace. Anyone who already supplies catalog data as BMEcat will find their way around openTRANS quickly.
/03
Where openTRANS is used
openTRANS is common mainly in German-speaking countries, among manufacturers, wholesalers and their business customers who work with BMEcat anyway. The standard defines the format of the documents, not the transport: depending on the agreement, they are transferred over HTTP, as files or by email, for example.
/04
openTRANS, cXML and IDoc ORDERS05
All three formats carry purchase orders and the documents that follow. cXML comes from the world of procurement systems such as SAP Ariba and Coupa and also covers the punchout; IDoc ORDERS05 is the format of SAP systems. openTRANS is vendor-neutral and matches BMEcat catalogs. Combinations are common: the cart comes via SAP OCI, the order then as an openTRANS ORDER.
/05
openTRANS with orcamultimedia
orcamultimedia's openTRANS interface exchanges the documents between Magento, Shopware or OXID eShop and the business partners' systems. It is a ready-made plugin, integrated directly into the shop system.
/06 questions
Who developed openTRANS?
openTRANS was developed by an initiative of industrial and trading companies led by Fraunhofer IAO, together with the University of Duisburg-Essen. The standard was created to complement BMEcat and is compatible with it.
Which openTRANS version is current?
The current openTRANS version is 2.1 from October 2009. It is compatible with BMEcat 2005 and covers ten document types from the request for quotation to the remittance advice.
What is the difference between openTRANS and BMEcat?
BMEcat is the standard for catalog data, openTRANS the standard for the business documents that follow, such as the order, the dispatch notification and the invoice. Both use the same data types, so item details from a BMEcat catalog recur in openTRANS documents.
