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The OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) TC solves this problem by defining a syntax neutral semantic library for business documents (the UBL semantic library) that can be restricted or extended to meet the requirements of particular industries, sectors and communities, as well as providing interoperability between systems and vendors when used as a generic interchange document format.
Scope of Work
The specific objectives of the TC are:
– To define, specify and maintain the UBL specification, the UBL semantic library, as well as associated and supporting work products
– To continue promoting UBL’s status as the international standard for electronic business documents
– Fulfill the responsibilities of the designated maintenance authority for ISO/IEC 19845 as well as any other publicly available specification submitted by the TC to an external standards development organization (SDO)
Deliverables
The TC will work on delivering the following work products:
– Publication of the UBL semantic library
– Production of XML and other syntax bindings from the semantic library, as well as technical specifications supporting their use and implementation
– Production of Committee Notes and Specifications to provide guidance for implementing UBL
IPR Mode
The TC will operate under the RF on Limited Terms mode of the OASIS IPR Policy.
UBL is owned by OASIS and is available to all, with no royalty fees.
UBL Technical Subcommittees
UBL Commodities Subcommittee
UBL Organisation Master Data Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Naming and Design Rules Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Payments and Finance Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Post-Award Procurement Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Pre-Award Procurement Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Small Business Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Transportation Subcommittee
Regional Localization Subcommittees
OASIS UBL Latin American Regional Localization Subcommittee
Localization Subcommittees
OASIS UBL Australian Localisation Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Chinese Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Danish Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL German Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Italian Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Japanese Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Korean Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Spanish Localization Subcommittee
OASIS UBL Turkish Localization Subcommittee
Managerial Subcommittees
OASIS UBL Adoption Subcommittee
New Subcommittee: <UBL Commodities>
View all subcommittees
“UBL 2.4 represents a significant advancement, featuring enhanced support for B2C transactions, which will greatly benefit businesses and consumers alike. Additionally, it offers improved alignment with U.S. tax models, ensuring compliance and facilitating smoother transactions. These enhancements reaffirm our commitment to evolving and adapting UBL to meet the ever-changing needs of global commerce.”
Kenneth Bengtsson, UBL TC Chair
We believe that the standardization of a proven, pragmatic, royalty-free XML syntax will encourage the proliferation of inexpensive off-the-shelf-software that “natively speaks” UBL and will thus drastically lower the cost of entry for small businesses into the electronic networks used by their larger trading partners. To put it another way, UBL means the end of the expensive one-off software systems that typified the EDI era.
UBL also provides the opportunity to end the debate over standards for business document formats that has discouraged the adoption of new technologies for conducting business in the digital age.
Possibly the largest impact of a standardized royalty-free data format over the long run will be its creation of an entire computing ecosystem, like the ecosystem that was created by the universal adoption of HTML and HTTP two decades ago. UBL is rapidly becoming established as the equivalent of HTML for business documents in the digital age.
The following groups (public and private) should have an interest in the exchange of structured business documents:
– ERP vendors
– Software and service providers
– National, regional and local public authorities
– Procurement and trade communities
– E-invoicing networks
– Supply chain communities
– Logistics and transportation companies
UBL is the product of an open and accountable OASIS Technical Committee with participation from a variety of international and industry data standards organizations. It was originally approved as an OASIS standard in 2004 and is among the most mature and widely implemented OASIS Standards. The current version, UBL 2.1 (PDF), was approved in 2013.
In 2014 the European Commission declared UBL 2.1 was officially eligible for referencing in tenders from public administrations (one of the first non-European standards to be so recognized).
In 2015 UBL 2.1 was also approved as ISO/IEC 19845:2015, establishing UBL as a true international standard for use by governmental bodies globally. With this endorsement UBL has reached the maximum level of sanction possible for an international standard.
UBL was conceived as the part of the UN/CEFACT-OASIS ebXML partnership that would standardize XML data formats for electronic business. While widely used outside of ebXML and independent of any particular infrastructure framework, UBL continues to complement the ebXML framework of standards.
Also within OASIS, UBL complements and in some cases builds upon the work of the Tax-XML, eGov, Code List Representation, and Business Document Exchange Technical Committees.
UBL provides components to realize the Open-edi model in real-world trading communities as described by the Open-edi Reference Model standardized as ISO/IEC 14662:2010. As such UBL is a key component of the contribution of OASIS to the ISO/IEC/ITU/UNECE eBusiness MoU.
Enhancements in UBL 2.2
UBL 2.2 is a minor revision to the UBL family (because the new 2.2 schemas are backward-compatible with all UBL 2.1 and 2.0 documents). By maintaining complete backward compatibility with all UBL installations since 2006, UBL 2.2 adds these technical refinements and new functionalities without disturbing its extensive implementation base.
UBL 2.2 extends the functionality of UBL 2.1 by increasing the number of defined XML document types from 65 to 81. New document types are now available for eTendering, for business directories and agreements, and a new transportation document for the weight statement. All other additions are minor.
Enhancements in UBL 2.1 – business
UBL 2.1 extends the functionality of UBL 2.0 by increasing the number of defined XML document types from 31 to 65. In addition to the generic supply chain and procurement processes defined in UBL 2.0 (Catalogue, Quotation, Ordering, Fulfilment, Billing, Payment, Statement, Transport Services, and Certificate of Origin), UBL 2.1 adds support for eTendering, Vendor Managed Inventory, Intermodal Freight Management, Utility Billing, and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment. It also adds two supplementary document types, Document Status and Document Status Request.
Aside from adding new document types and areas of functionality, UBL 2.1 also implements a number of improvements across the entire data library.
The several thousand data definitions in the UBL library have been thoroughly revised using an approach designed to aid the user attempting to understand the semantics of UBL business entities.
The financial information capabilities of UBL have been enhanced in the areas of financial accounting, payment mandates, trade financing, currency handling, and payments reconciliation in order to support downstream processing of invoices within financial services. Legal information capabilities have been enhanced to support advanced procurement and global trade using business models such as outsourcing, application service provision, and virtual services via cloud computing.
Enhancements in UBL 2.1 – technical
UBL 2.1 is a minor revision to UBL 2.0 (because the new 2.1 schemas are backward-compatible with all UBL 2.0 documents). By maintaining complete backward compatibility with all UBL installations since 2006, UBL 2.1 adds these technical refinements and new functionalities without disturbing its extensive implementation base.
The transition to a two-phase model of data verification begun in UBL 2.0 has been completed in UBL 2.1, enabling total flexibility in the application of code lists and other validation rules within the standard structure. This approach allows different versions of the same code list to be used in different document contexts.
Optional support for XAdES and other advanced digital signature schemes based on XML DSig is now bundled into the distribution by default, as are current versions of virtually all internationally recognized EDI code lists.
As an aid to implementers, UML and ASN.1 representations of the UBL information entities are provided in separate OASIS Committee Notes accompanying the UBL 2.1 release.
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