Over the years I built a number of tools that can be used for the synchronization of reference data. They are now available in a toolkit:

• XML schemas for events that are generated when an entity is changes (added, modified or deleted);
• tools to synchronize two systems based on: SQL, flat-file and XML data source/targets)
• instrumentation of existing applications to generate events when data changes:
  • event tables populated by the application on a change
  • web-service invocation
• pre-defined auditing and logging capabilities for data synchronization. User interface to access the audit/log.

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The classification of data in an enterprise is a daunting task but, roughly, there is reference data and transaction data. Sub-categories of transaction data are: orders, invoices, tickets, … . Many of the projects that I have been working on involve in one way or another synchronization of orders, meaning keeping the orders state consistent across multiple sub-systems. In time, a few patterns emerged and we built tools to implement these patterns. The kit consists of XML schemas and Java libraries for: canonical representation of Product/Service/Resource orders, decomposition and status aggregation of status, web-services interfaces based on NGOSS SID and OSS/J (JSR 89 and JSR 264).

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