Patent ID: 8126775

Claim:
A computer-based method for electronic communication between consumer goods trading partners, comprising: establishing, by a computer, an electronic communication link between first and second trading partners; defining, by the computer, user-defined extended data attributes into a plurality of tables through a graphical user interface, the tables including, (a) a first table for providing extended data definitions of each extended data attribute, each extended data definition in the first table including an extended data definition identification field, extended data name field, extended data type field, extended data description field, extended entity type field, and unique link to the second trading partner, (b) a second table for correlating each extended data type field used in the first table, the second table including an extended data type field, extended data type name field, and extended data type description field, (c) a third table for correlating each extended entity type used in the first table, the third table including an extended entity type field and extended entity type name field, and d) a fourth table for correlating the extended data definition identification used in the first table, the fourth table including an entity owner of the extended data type definition and values for each extended data attribute; transmitting, by the computer, standard data attributes to the second trading partner; and transmitting, by the computer, the extended data attributes from the plurality of tables as an XML-message to the second trading partner.