Tools:TraceCore XML Overview

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TraceCore XML (TCX) is an XML format for the capture and exchange of traceability information between parties in a supply chain. It is being developed in Work Package 4 as part of the EU project "Trace" lasting from 2005 through 2009. The main organizations contributing to the specification are

The purpose of TCX is to define a format where all the minimum elements (hence the "Core" in the name) needed to model traceability relations between organizations in a supply chain are included. Only some basic properties are included in the core, while extension mechanisms are meant to provide ways to include industry specific properties, properties exchanged between specific parties etc.

Contents

Status and Future

The current revision of the format is Revision 2, Release Candidate 2. XML Schema files, documentation and supplementary files are for now available here:

TCX adoption has had limited success so far, and user experiences from early adopters are not overly positive. The group behind TCX has therefore discussed how TCX could get more momentum in the industry in the future. After the Trace project ends in December 2009 there are no more funds to further develop, support and maintain the format. It is therefore important to try to identify commercially driven processes that can support the further development of the format. As opposed to R&D driven or pure academic driven projects, a commercially driven process will also guarantee a minimum level of users and activity.

With this perspective, the group started such discussions during and just after the Trace annual meeting in Torremolinos in April 2008. A key goal was to identify existing communities and/or frameworks with solid momentum in the supply chain and check ways to "join" and bring TCX into one such community. The most important communities and frameworks identified were:

A point we made before we selected a community/framework was that it would be strategically smart to identify data models and formats that could map whole or parts of the TraceCore model and then align TraceCore XML to one such format/model. The opposite strategy would be to approach the community with our existing work and try to convince them to adopt it.

To cut a long story short, the group has now decided that EPCglobal probably is the "best" community to approach. What "best" means and the reasoning behind the decision can be read in documentation linked in further down on this page.

Early adopters of TraceCore XML

  • Norges Sildesalgslag in a project for the pelagic industry in Norway

Norges Sildesalgslag has developed a TraceCore XML for Wild cached fish. This has later been further developed to a Simplified Trace Document.

  • "FisHmark", traceability software from the Icelandic company Matis
  • The Israeli solution provider Afcon has been using TraceCore XML in the 6FP EU Project "Chill-On"
  • The EU project Traceback

New documentation related to EPCIS alignment

External links

The Abstract Model

To be able to map the traceability model behind TraceCore onto more than only one format (not necessarily only XML), the TCX group decided to create an abstract model to represent the TraceCore data model and traceability model. Such a model could at the same time be seen as a carrier of the intellectual work invested by the TCX group into the project.

The model is worked out in UML and can be downloaded below:

Meetings and Minutes

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