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What is it?

cXML is a streamlined protocol intended for consistent communication of business documents between procurement applications, e-commerce hubs and suppliers. http://cxml.org/

cXML Reference Guide (PDF): http://xml.cxml.org/current/cXMLReferenceGuide.pdf

Getting Started

Installation

Then include Composer’s autoloader:

Get current dtd definition files

1. Download get current Specification from http://cxml.org/downloads.html
2. Extract files
3. Use cXML.dtd for validation (see below)

Quickstart

Identity and credentials

Register Handler

Build cXML

Register outgoing cXML documents

You may want to register sent-out documents so they can be referenced by subsequent request-documents via payloadId.

Process incoming cXML documents

Putting it all together

Handling Date vs DateTime

The cXML specification is not perfectly clear about the format of dates and times. The specification says that dates should be formatted "in the restricted subset of ISO 8601". That means that the format could either be a full ISO 8601 format with time and timezone information (i.e. 2015-04-14T13:36:00-08:00) or a format without time and timezone (2015-04-14).

With some fields the actual time of day is not relevant and could lead to confusion. For example, the requestedDeliveryDate field in ItemOut. Real-world experience shows that here it is common to only specify the date. Althout one could argue that the time of day is still relevant here for real tight on-point deliveries.

To solve this problem we introduced a determined CXml\Model\Date class in case of using an explicit date (without time). This class extends DateTime and is therefore compatible with the rest of the model. The class enforces a date-only representation (Y-m-d).

Serialization

You should use the CXml\Model\Date class when generating your object-graph in cases you want to output a date-only value.

Deserialization

When parsing a date-property from a cXML document, the CXml\Model\Date will be instantiated if a date-only value was discovered (Y-m-d).

Extending cXML

Add custom elements

The definition of cXML is open for extension. There are ways to extend the DTD with overriding existing variables and therefore adding custom elements. With version 2.1.0 we introduced a way to add custom elements to the cXML model.

To make this happen, we have to build our own DTD file and import the original DTD file in it. We can then add our own elements and attributes in the variables that are defined in the original DTD file.

TODO this is only really implemented for the Payment node at the moment.

Example

An example of a custom DTD file that adds a custom element to the PaymentReference element:

To use this DTD file for validation as well as for serialization and deserialization, you could save the file next to the other DTD files from cXML and use DtdValidator::fromDtdDirectory just as you would with the original DTD files. Or you could explicitly load only the new DTD file with new DtdValidator($arrayOfDtdFilepaths).

Also you would probably want newly generated cXML files to point to your DTD file. You can do this by telling the serializer to use your DTD file: Serializer::create('http://...publicUrlToYourDtd').

Now the new element also has to be known by the serializer. Usually the model classes can be found in CXml\Model.