EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) is an ISO/IEC/GS1standard that helps to generate and exchange the visibility data within an organisation or across multiple organisations based on the business context. EPCIS standard has been adopted by various industry sectors such as automotive, food, healthcare, retail, and many more. Different suppliers and organisations currently face the problem of producing bulk test data which can be used for testing purposes (load tests, populating test databases, etc.). Hence, to tackle this issue, some companies have developed purpose-built solutions such as excel macros, use case-specific scripts and other proprietary software. However, they are neither publically available, nor do they provide an adequate level of flexibility for other EPCIS community members.
This open-source web application is capable of generating a significant number of EPCIS events efficiently and effectively. It provides a single solution for creating test events irrespective of the industry, use case or supply chain system. The generated EPCIS events conform to the current version of the EPCIS, i.e. EPCIS 2.0. Besides, using the tool events can be generated in both XML and JSON/JSON-LD format.
This project has been developed using the mainly HTML, AngularJS and Node.js. Node.js creates the server and provides the local environment for running the web application. Hence, it needs to be installed for running this application locally. Node.js software can be downloaded and installed from the official website: https://nodejs.org/en/. The web application can be accessed using the three statements from the command line utility:
- Install all the necessary dependency which are required for the web application to run:
npm install- To start the local server:
node index.js- The web application can be accessed using the URL:
localhost:3000If you prefer not to install NodeJS on your local machine and want to run the Test Data Generator for EPCIS Events on Docker, you can use the provided Dockerfile or docker-compose.yml to run it.
- Bring up service using docker-compose
docker-compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up- Create Image from Dockerfile:
docker build . -f ./docker/Dockerfile --tag gs1/epcis-test-data-generator- Run Docker container
docker run --rm -ti -p 3000:3000 gs1/epcis-test-data-generatorThe web application consists of two different views. In the first view, the user can provide the required data and create the bulk EPCIS events directly. This view is beneficial for users when there are no specific requirements based on their organisation-specific supply chain. The following figure 1 provides the filled information in the view-1 of the application for the rail sector. It has been designed for the arriving events of the trains at a particular station. The generated events contain the unique GIAI and Event Time, indicating the different trains arrived at a station. However, other information such as Read Point, Business Location, Business Step, Disposition, etc. remain identical as they are captured at the same station and using the same device.
Figure 1: View-1 of the application with information for the rail sector.
After providing all the required details for the bulk test events when the user submits the information, then the test events are generated in both XML and JSON/JSON-LD format.
Figure 2: Bulk test events for the rail sector.
The second view supports the provision to model the events based on user requirement. This view is helpful for the users when they need to model events according to their supply chain system or business processes. It has the potential to mimic the organisation’s entire chain of critical tracking events. In this view, the created identifiers pass through a series of steps according to user modelled business processes such as packing, shipping, receiving, etc. When events are added to the canvas using drag and drop feature, each of the events consists of a button. Upon the click of a button, Bootstrap modal is displayed requesting details for each event. This view also provides the connector option, which can be used to establish the connections between created events. When the connector is added to the canvas, it consists of the two labels requesting for the EPCs and Quantity. These EPCs/ Quantity counts play a pivotal role in modelling the subsequent events. If the current event of What dimension does not contain the identifiers (EPCs/Quantities/ParentID), then it inherits them from the previous event based on the provided count automatically. Unlike view-1, each of the events can have different information as per the user requirements in this view.
The following figure 3 describes the modelling of the events for the healthcare industry. It consists of various business steps, such as commissioning, packing, shipping, receiving, etc. Each of which can be designed using the application.
Figure 3: Modelled events for the healthcare sector using the application.
Figure 4: Bulk test events as per the modelled healthcare sector.
The demonstration of bulk events generation described here provided a simple example for modelling the supply chain events for healthcare and rail industry. Similarly, any industry or organisation can be modelled according to their industry-standard and supply chain system.
Copyright 2020 | Aravinda Baliga B aravindabaligab@gmail.com.
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