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Semantic Enterprise
Application Integration
for Business Processes:
Service-Oriented Frameworks
Gregoris Mentzas
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Andreas Friesen
SAP, Inc., Germany

Business science reference

Hershey • New York
Director of Editorial Content: Kristin Klinger
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Semantic enterprise application integration for business processes : service-

oriented frameworks / Gregoris Mentzas and Andreas Friesen, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: "This book provides methods that allow for access to corporate and
customer data independent of where it resides"--Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60566-804-8 (hbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-60566-805-5 (ebook) 1.
Semantic integration (Computer systems) 2. Enterprise application integration
(Computer systems) 3. Service-oriented architecture (Computer science) 4.
Management information systems. I. Mentzas, Gregoris, 1960- II. Friesen,
Andreas. III. Title.

TK5105.88815.S424 2010
658'.05--dc22

2009021585

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
 Dedication

To Lily and Maria

Gregoris Mentzas

To Oksana, Daniel, Gregory, and Maximilian

Andreas Friesen
Table of Contents

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................xiii

Preface ................................................................................................................................................. xv

Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................................. xx

Chapter 1
Collaboration Across the Enterprise: An Ontology Based Approach for Enterprise
Interoperability........................................................................................................................................ 1
Aggelos Liapis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Stijn Christiaens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Chapter 2
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios.......................................... 19
Thanasis Bouras, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Panagiotis Gouvas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Gregoris Mentzas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Chapter 3
Ontology-based Patterns for the Integration of Business Processes and Enterprise
Application Architectures ..................................................................................................................... 36
Veronica Gacitua-Decar, Dublin City University, Ireland
Claus Pahl, Dublin City University, Ireland

Chapter 4
Agent-Driven Semantic Interoperability for Cross-Organisational Business Processes ...................... 61
Ingo Zinnikus, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Germany
Christian Hahn, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Germany
Klaus Fischer, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Germany
Chapter 5
The Semantic Side of Service-Oriented Architectures ......................................................................... 90
Catarina Ferreira da Silva, University of Lyon 1, France
Paulo Rupino da Cunha, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Parisa Ghodous, University of Lyon 1, France
Paulo Melo, University of Coimbra and INESC Coimbra, Portugal

Chapter 6
Supporting Semantically Enhanced Web Service Discovery for Enterprise Application
Integration ........................................................................................................................................... 105
Dimitrios Kourtesis, South East European Research Centre (SEERC), Research Centre of the
University of Sheffield and CITY College, Greece
Iraklis Paraskakis, South East European Research Centre (SEERC), Research Centre of the
University of Sheffield and CITY College, Greece

Chapter 7
Light-Weight Semantic Integration of Generic Behavioral Component Descriptions ....................... 131
Jens Lemcke, SAP Research, Germany

Chapter 8
Business Rules Enabled Semantic Service Discovery and Selection for B2B Integration................. 172
Andreas Friesen, SAP Research, Germany

Chapter 9
A Semantic Web Service Based Middleware for the Tourism Industry.............................................. 189
Yildiray Kabak, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Mehmet Olduz, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Gokce B. Laleci, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Tuncay Namli, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Veli Bicer, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Nikola Radic, European Dynamics, Greece
George Milis, European Dynamics, Greece
Asuman Dogac, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey

Chapter 10
Application of the FUSION Approach for Tool Assisted Composition of Web Services
in Cross Organisational Environments ............................................................................................... 212
Spiros Alexakis, CAS Software AG, Germany
Markus Bauer, CAS Software AG, Germany
András Balogh, CAS Software AG, Germany
Akos Kiss, InfomatiX, Hungary
Chapter 11
Semantic Business Process Management: A Case Study.................................................................... 228
Sebastian Stein, IDS Scheer AG Altenkesseler, Germany
Christian Stamber, IDS Scheer AG Altenkesseler, Germany
Marwane El Kharbili, IDS Scheer AG Altenkesseler, Germany
Pawel Rubach, Telekomunikacja Polska S.A., Poland

Compilation of References .............................................................................................................. 251

About the Contributors ................................................................................................................... 269

Index ................................................................................................................................................... 277

Detailed Table of Contents

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................xiii

Preface ................................................................................................................................................. xv

Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................................. xx

Chapter 1
Collaboration Across the Enterprise: An Ontology Based Approach for Enterprise
Interoperability........................................................................................................................................ 1
Aggelos Liapis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Stijn Christiaens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

In this chapter, we will present a methodology, which has resulted in the implementation of a highly
customizable collaborative environment focused to support ontology-based enterprise interoperability.
An additional key issue addressed by the particular platform is the variety and number of different re-
sources that concur to achieve a cross-enterprise business service. A second key issue is the diversity of
agreed (e.g., meaning negotiation when creating online contracts) models, and the difficulty in adapting
its integrated features and services to different situations.

Chapter 2
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios.......................................... 19
Thanasis Bouras, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Panagiotis Gouvas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Gregoris Mentzas, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

If we try to increase the level of automation in enterprise application integration (EAI) scenarios, we
confront challenges related to the resolution of data and message heterogeneities between interoperating
services, which traditional EAI technologies are weak to solve. We propose a semantically-enriched
approach for dynamic data mediation in EAI scenarios, focusing on the resolution of message level
heterogeneities between collaborative enterprise services, facilitating automated data mediation dur-
ing execution time by providing formal transformations of the output and input messages (of the par-
ticipating services) to a common reference business data model, that is, the enterprise interoperability
ontology. Moreover, we present a tool that has been developed to support the user to provide business
data-related semantic annotations and XSLT transformations of the input and output message parts of
collaborative enterprise services. Finally, we demonstrate the utilization of the proposed approach and
toll in a real-world EAI scenario.

Chapter 3
Ontology-based Patterns for the Integration of Business Processes and Enterprise
Application Architectures ..................................................................................................................... 36
Veronica Gacitua-Decar, Dublin City University, Ireland
Claus Pahl, Dublin City University, Ireland

Increasingly, enterprises are using service-oriented architecture (SOA) as an approach to enterprise ap-
plication integration (EAI). SOA has the potential to bridge the gap between business and technology
and to improve the reuse of existing applications and the interoperability with new ones. In addition
to service architecture descriptions, architecture abstractions like patterns and styles capture design
knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of software.
Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically
enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between
users, business processes, and data. Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical
level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. We use an
ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for pattern
definition, extension, and composition are developed and their applicability in business process-driven
application integration is demonstrated.

Chapter 4
Agent-Driven Semantic Interoperability for Cross-Organisational Business Processes ...................... 61
Ingo Zinnikus, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Germany
Christian Hahn, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Germany
Klaus Fischer, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Germany

In cross-organisational business interactions, integrating different partners raises interoperability problems

especially on the technical level. The internal processes and interfaces of the participating partners are
often pre-existing and have to be taken as given. This imposes restrictions on the possible solutions for
the problems which occur when partner processes are integrated. The aim of this chapter is the presenta-
tion of a three-tier framework for managing and implementing interoperable and cross-organizational
business processes. Thereby the authors want to fill the gap currently existing between processes defined
on a strategic level and executed models. We describe a solution which supports rapid prototyping by
combining a model-driven framework for cross-organisational business processes with an agent-based
approach for flexible process execution. We show how the W3C recommendation for Semantic Web
service descriptions can be combined with the model-driven approach for rapid service integration.
Chapter 5
The Semantic Side of Service-Oriented Architectures ......................................................................... 90
Catarina Ferreira da Silva, University of Lyon 1, France
Paulo Rupino da Cunha, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Parisa Ghodous, University of Lyon 1, France
Paulo Melo, University of Coimbra and INESC Coimbra, Portugal

In service-oriented architectures (SOA), service descriptions are fundamental elements. In order to

automatically execute SOA tasks, such as services discovery, it is necessary to capture and process
the semantics of services. We review several Semantic Web services frameworks that intend to bring
semantics to Web services. This chapter depicts some ideas from SOA and Semantic Web services and
their application to enterprise application integration. We illustrate an example of logic-based semantic
matching between consumer services and provided services, which are described in ontologies.

Chapter 6
Supporting Semantically Enhanced Web Service Discovery for Enterprise Application
Integration ........................................................................................................................................... 105
Dimitrios Kourtesis, South East European Research Centre (SEERC), Research Centre of the
University of Sheffield and CITY College, Greece
Iraklis Paraskakis, South East European Research Centre (SEERC), Research Centre of the
University of Sheffield and CITY College, Greece

The availability of sophisticated Web service discovery mechanisms is an essential prerequisite for
increasing the levels of efficiency and automation in EAI. In this chapter, we present an approach
for developing service registries building on the UDDI standard and offering semantically-enhanced
publication and discovery capabilities in order to overcome some of the known limitations of conven-
tional service registries. The approach aspires to promote efficiency in EAI in a number of ways, but
primarily by automating the task of evaluating service integrability on the basis of the input and output
messages that are defined in the Web service’s interface. The presented solution combines the use of
three technology standards to meet its objectives: OWL-DL, for modelling service characteristics and
performing fine-grained service matchmaking via DL reasoning, SAWSDL, for creating semantically
annotated descriptions of service interfaces, and UDDI, for storing and retrieving syntactic and semantic
information about services and service providers.

Chapter 7
Light-Weight Semantic Integration of Generic Behavioral Component Descriptions ....................... 131
Jens Lemcke, SAP Research, Germany

Semantics needs to be considered in two major integration tasks. First, semantically corresponding data
types that can be used for communication between components need to be identified. Second, natural
language documentation needs to be studied today in order to understand component behavior, that is,
dependencies between operation invocations and how semantically different outcomes of operation
calls are represented in the technical output format. The approach presented in this chapter supports
the two tasks as follows. First, closed frequent itemset mining (CFIM) is employed to help identifying
semantically corresponding data types. Second, a formal representation for component behavior is in-
troduced. However, as component behavior is specified during component development, but used during
integration–two distinct phases involving distinct teams–we provide model transformations to ensure the
consistent transfer of generic behavioral information to specific integration constraints before automated
integration techniques can be applied. We applied the CFIM on the message types exposed by SAP’s
standard software components and show that we are able to find semantically relevant correspondences.
Furthermore, we demonstrate the practical applicability of our behavioral model transformations on the
basis of an SAP best practice business scenario. With the little more effort to specify behavioral infor-
mation at development time in a formal way instead of in natural language, our approach facilitates the
reuse of behavioral component descriptions in multiple integration projects and eases the construction
of correct integrations.

Chapter 8
Business Rules Enabled Semantic Service Discovery and Selection for B2B Integration................. 172
Andreas Friesen, SAP Research, Germany

In service-oriented business applications, B2B integration happens when a service requester invokes
services of one or more service providers. Typically, there are several candidate services with similar
capabilities that can be chosen by a requester in order to serve his business needs. The selection of
the service to be invoked may depend on different functional and non-functional properties. The non-
functional properties usually address security, reliability, performance, and so forth. The functional
properties address the business process interplay at the level of the technical Web service interface and
the message choreography associated with it. At the technical integration level, the description of func-
tional and non-functional service properties has been exhaustively addressed in the scientific literature in
the past. The business level however, namely, the requester’s business need, the business meaning of an
offered service, and the capability of a service provider to successfully perform the requested business
transaction, has been rather ignored. This chapter describes a solution for service discovery and selec-
tion at the business level, that is, at the level of offered business capability of a service provider and the
ability to serve a concrete requested business transaction. The proposed solution is based on semantic
interpretation of offered service capabilities, contractual restrictions, business rules of the requestor
specifying selection preferences, and the parameters of the run-time service request. The applicability
of the proposed solution is demonstrated on a shipper-carrier integration scenario.

Chapter 9
A Semantic Web Service Based Middleware for the Tourism Industry.............................................. 189
Yildiray Kabak, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Mehmet Olduz, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Gokce B. Laleci, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Tuncay Namli, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Veli Bicer, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Nikola Radic, European Dynamics, Greece
George Milis, European Dynamics, Greece
Asuman Dogac, Development and Consultancy Ltd., Turkey
Currently in the travel domain, most of the travel products are sold through global distribution aystems
(GDSs). Since only major airline companies or hotel chains can afford to join GDSs, it is difficult for
small and medium enterprises to market their travel products. In this chapter, we describe a middleware,
called SATINE, to address this problem. In the SATINE middleware, existing travel applications are
wrapped as Web services. Web services, as such, is of limited use because the service consumer must
know all the details of the Web service like the functionality of the Web service (what it does) and the
content and the structure of input and output messages. Therefore, we annotate both the service func-
tionality and the service messages with Web ontology language (OWL) ontologies. Service functionality
ontology is obtained from the “Open Travel Alliance (OTA)” specifications. Service message ontologies
are automatically generated from the XML schema definitions of the messages. These local message
ontologies are mapped into one or more global message ontologies through an ontology mapping tool
developed, called OWLmt. The mapping definitions thus obtained are used to automatically map hetero-
geneous message instances used by the Web service provider and the consumer using a global ontology
as a common denominator. This architecture is complemented by a peer-to-peer network which uses the
introduced semantics for the discovery of Web services. Through the SATINE middleware, the travel
parties can expose their existing applications as semantic Web services either to their Web site or to Web
service registries they maintain. SATINE middleware facilitates the discovery and execution of these
services seamlessly to the user.

Chapter 10
Application of the FUSION Approach for Tool Assisted Composition of Web Services
in Cross Organisational Environments ............................................................................................... 212
Spiros Alexakis, CAS Software AG, Germany
Markus Bauer, CAS Software AG, Germany
András Balogh, CAS Software AG, Germany
Akos Kiss, InfomatiX, Hungary

The research project FUSION aims at supporting collaboration and interconnection between enterprises
with technologies that allow for the semantic fusion of heterogeneous service-oriented business ap-
plications. The resulting FUSION approach is an enterprise application integration (EAI) conceptual
framework proposing a system architecture that supports the composition of business processes using
semantically annotated Web services as building blocks. The approach has been validated in the frame
of three collaborative commercial proof-of-concept pilots. The chapter provides an overview on the
FUSION approach and summarises our integration experiences with the application of the FUSION
approach and tools during the implementation of transnational career and human resource management
services.

Chapter 11
Semantic Business Process Management: A Case Study.................................................................... 228
Sebastian Stein, IDS Scheer AG Altenkesseler, Germany
Christian Stamber, IDS Scheer AG Altenkesseler, Germany
Marwane El Kharbili, IDS Scheer AG Altenkesseler, Germany
Pawel Rubach, Telekomunikacja Polska S.A., Poland
The application of semantic technologies promises boosting business process management because
semantic integration of business and IT is achieved. To enable the vision of semantic business process
management, semantic technologies like ontologies, reasoners, and semantic Web services must be
integrated in BPM tools. We extended a professional BPM tool to allow semantic business process
modelling using the EPC notation. In addition, we adapted the tool‘s EPC to BPEL transformation to
preserve the semantic annotations. By introducing a proxy service, we are able to perform Semantic Web
service discovery on a standard BPEL engine. We evaluated our approach in an empirical case study,
which was replicated 13 times by 17 participants from 8 different organisations. We received valuable
feedback, which is interesting for researchers and practitioners trying to bring semantic technologies to
end-users with no or only limited background knowledge about semantics.

Compilation of References .............................................................................................................. 251

About the Contributors ................................................................................................................... 269

Index ................................................................................................................................................... 277

 xiii

Foreword

This insightful new book, published by IGI Global, lays out the history and opportunities of how se-
mantics can be applied to solve real-world enterprise problems, such as enterprise interoperability. It
fills an important void in discussions about the extended enterprise of the future, and hence comes at a
timely moment as the financial and economic crisis looming in the world places a major challenge on
enterprises.
In the wake of the ruin of the international monetary system established at Bretton Woods in 1944
and gradually dismantled from 1968 onwards as the world shifted from the gold-exchange standard to a
de facto dollar standard, the past decade was marked by three interacting phenomena that sew the seeds
of the current financial and economic crisis–a surge of liquidity around the world, a pandemic residential
real estate speculation, and widespread excess leverage in all sectors of the western economies. Besides
the current public policy response to the crisis, which reflects the fact that today’s world leaders have
learned the lessons of the Depression in the 1930’s and resolved to tackle energetically the dismal con-
sequences of the Lehman failure, companies must understand that the longer term answer to the current
crisis is, more than ever, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The way out of the “doom and gloom” is a new wave of technology innovation that spurs a genera-
tion of company formation, job creation, productivity gains, and wealth accumulation. We see the first
expressions of this spur with the thrust towards green technologies, nano-electronics, virtualisation, In-
ternet of things, cloud computing, software as a service, social networking, broadband for all, and so on.
Only investors and entrepreneurs can really create a future that meets the needs and expectations of our
generation and the next one. But in a world where all economies are interdependent and interconnected–a
phenomenon that is as irresistible as the force of gravity–investment and entrepreneurship must be joined
by a third element–collaboration. Today, companies find that they must integrate production across sup-
pliers, partners, competitors, different industries, and different continents. This requires openness and,
in particular, shared standards.
To adjust to this evolution, the first step is to encourage the adoption of efficient ICT by European
enterprises. For those enterprises that are ICT-oriented, including SMEs, the sharing of knowledge,
products or services, the involvement in joined processes or the implantation of common integrated
systems is considerably increasing as they discover the advantages of online collaboration. Additionally,
our study on the Value Proposition of Enterprise Interpretability1 research concluded that to compete ef-
fectively and build for the future, enterprises must continuously innovate and IT is the preferred vehicle
towards that goal.
Interoperable enterprise collaboration tools are urgently required to support the pace of development
observed. The spread and usage of today’s technologies is giving many advantages to those enterprises
investing in ICT but also showing us some limitations. We need to have better concepts, techniques,
methods, and tools that make interoperable and collaborative enterprises a reality. Semantic interoper-
xiv

ability, for instance, is a field that still presents various challenges and its study is absolutely essential
to solve the existing problems and open the door to new possibilities.
In a very rapidly moving environment, enterprises involved in business networks and ecosystems
need to align the meaning they attach to their information exchanges, ranging from fields in business
documents to concepts related to process goals and activities. The semantic dimension is therefore a
basis for mutual understanding and interoperability between collaborating enterprises, something hap-
pening below the layers of process interoperability and business interoperability. Essentially, semantic
research tries to improve the understanding and handling of the meaning of concepts and terms used
by the collaborating entities. Currently this activity is most of the time achieved manually, mainly us-
ing existing standards, and requires a painful adaptation of the processes and data exchange to the new,
shared environment.
The European Commission supports the Enterprise Interoperability and Collaboration research do-
mains since the 5th Research Framework Programme was approved. Under the “Networked Enterprise
and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)” unit, one cluster is dedicated to support the raise of Future
Internet Enterprise Systems (FInES) and is driving the research to a future where European enterprises
will become more competitive, efficient, and flexible. Within this cluster, various projects have proposed
alternative paths to overcoming the semantic barrier using precise, computer-processable, meaning associ-
ated with each concept. They created ontology frameworks and developed various approaches, centralised
or not, smoothly or highly integrated, to formalise the annotation of meaning linked to concepts. There
are still many challenges to be accomplished, but the results so far are very promising.
This book has been created to put together the current knowledge on Semantics in the Enterprise Ap-
plication Integration domain. The authors brought together major stakeholders in this area from Europe
and other parts of the world, to develop a shared knowledge base and offer an integrated picture of the
domain. It certainly represents an important contribution to this field of research and will undoubtedly
be welcomed by a large community of ICT practitioners in Europe, and beyond the continent. The book
provides compelling arguments, uses cases and practical solutions to one of the most important questions
of our time: the relationship between technology, business, and society. It also addresses some of the
most difficult issues in process and service management such as the choreography and orchestration in
collaborative business processes. In this respect, it gives valuable perspectives and practical solutions
towards a more sensible and responsive extended enterprise. The arguments presented are powerful and
convincing for researchers, policy makers, business people, and scholars alike.
We’re very proud to support this important effort of dissemination and are convinced that the readers
will enjoy the discovery of its fascinating contents.

Gérald Santucci
Head of Enterprise Networking and RFID Unit

Cristina Martinez
Head of Future Internet Enterprise Systems Cluster

EndnotE
1
“Unleashing the potential of the European Knowledge Economy,” published by the European
Commission, 21 January 2008.
 xv

Preface

IntroductIon

Most enterprises contain a systemic infrastructure of several heterogeneous information technology

systems, creating a complex, fuzzy network of interconnected applications, services and data sources,
which is usually not well documented and expensive to maintain. Moreover, the introduction of multi-
oriented, separate systems concerning enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship man-
agement (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), e-business portals and B2B transactions, increases
the complexity of systems integration, making the support of the interoperability among these systems
a challenging task.
In this emerging business context, a clear need appears to link these former incompatible systems
to improve productivity and efficiency. The solution to this need is what is called enterprise applica-
tion integration (EAI), which can be defined as the use of software and architectural principles to bring
together (integrate) a set of enterprise computer applications.
The goal of EAI is to integrate and streamline heterogeneous business processes across different
applications and business units. We can distinguish between intra- and inter- organizational enterprise
application integration. Intraorganizational EAI, commonly referred as “application to application”-inte-
gration (A2A), specifies the automated and event-driven exchange of information between heterogeneous
enterprise applications and systems operating within an organization or enterprise. On the other hand,
interorganizational EAI, or else B2B integration, specifies the automated and event-driven information
exchange between various systems of several collaborating organizations and enterprises.
In recent years, most enterprises and organizations have made extensive investments in several EAI
systems and solutions that promise to solve the major integration problem among their existing systems
and resources. The business driver behind all these traditional EAI projects is to integrate processes
across third-party applications as well as legacy systems to decrease the number of adapters one has to
develop if connecting two systems. Traditional EAI focuses on the message-based communication of
software applications interfaces, by pipelining different middleware technologies and developing various
adapters, connectors, and plug-ins to provide efficient messaging support among heterogeneous systems,
allowing their effective interconnection.
However, traditional EAI efforts lack an upper abstraction layer, as well as standardized architectures
and implementations, making customers and end-users captive of EAI vendor-specific solutions, and
creating the need for a new, high level integration for interconnecting various EAI systems with one
another.
Such a need for higher level integration can be supported by exploiting recent research in service-
oriented architectures and Semantic Web technologies.
xvi

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an approach to defining integration architectures based on

the concept of a service. The goal of SOA can be described as bringing the benefits of loose coupling
and encapsulation to integration at an enterprise level. In order to describe SOA, it is first necessary
to define what we understand by a “service” in this context. The most commonly agreed-on aspects of
the definition of a service in SOA are: services are defined by explicit, implementation-independent in-
terfaces; services are loosely bound and invoked through communication protocols that stress location
transparency and interoperability; and services encapsulate reusable business functions. After a function
has been encapsulated and defined as a service in an SOA, it can be used and reused by one or more
systems that participate in the architecture. Note that in contrast to reusing service implementations at
runtime, the encapsulation of functions as services and their definition using interfaces also enables
the substitution of one service implementation for another. For example, the same service might be
provided by multiple providers, and individual service requesters might be routed to individual service
providers through some intermediary agent. The encapsulation of services by interfaces and their invo-
cation through location-transparent, interoperable protocols are the basic means by which SOA enables
increased flexibility and reusability.
The purpose of the Semantic Web effort is to make the web machine processable rather than merely
“human processable.” The upcoming standards of the Semantic Web provide a set of concepts that can
be used to annotate services and processes in a way machines can analyze. The key components of the
Semantic Web technology which enable the design and development of ontologies for structuring and
annotation of services and processes, include: a general-purpose language for representing information
in the Web called resource definition framework (RDF); an RDF abstraction layer called RDF schema
(RDFS); a language with well defined, formal semantics, built on RDF, such as the Web ontology language
(OWL); and formal ontologies for marking up Web resources, used by semantically enriched service
level descriptions. Enriching Web services descriptions with formally defined semantics by introducing
the notion of semantic mark-up, leading towards Semantic Web services, enables machine-interpretable
profiles of services and applications, realizing the vision of dynamic and seamless integration. As this
semantic mark-up is machine–processable and–interpretable, the semantic profiles of Web services can
be exploited to automate the tasks of discovering Web services, executing them, composing them, and
interoperating with them.
The combination of SOA architectures and Semantic Web technologies supports and allows a set of
essential automated services: automatic Web service discovery, involving automatic location of Web
services that provide a particular functionality and that adhere to requested properties expressed as a user
goal; automatic Web service composition, involving dynamic combination and aggregation of several
Web services to provide a given functionality, automatic Web service invocation, involving automatic
execution of an identified Web service by an agent, and automatic Web service interoperation within
and across organizational boundaries.
These semantically enriched Web service oriented features can constitute the ideal solution to inte-
gration problems, as they enable dynamic, scalable and reusable cooperation between different systems
and organizations.
This book presents innovative research results on the use of Semantic Web technologies and service-
oriented architectures for enterprise application integration. It presents novel methods and tools, which
apply semantic technologies in real-world complex systemic environments. It provides the theoretical
foundations, principles, methodologies, architectures, technical frameworks, and case studies for the
design and development of semantic enterprise application integration.
The audience of this book are scholars and researchers in the fields of EAI, Semantic Web technolo-
gies, interoperability, and semantic integration. The book aims to provide “food for thought” for future
 xvii

research. However, it also aims to address the needs of practitioners working on complex supply-chain
environments, who may find within the book the foundations for new ideas in the EAI field. Graduate
and post-graduate students would also find this book to be a useful reference resource.

chaptEr ovErvIEw

Chapter 1 presents a methodology, which has resulted in the implementation of a highly customizable
collaborative environment focused to support ontology-based enterprise interoperability. A key issue
addressed by the particular platform is the variety and number of different resources that concur to
achieve a cross-enterprise business service. A second key issue is the diversity of agreed (e.g., meaning
negotiation when creating online contracts) models, and the difficulty in adapting its integrated features
and services to different situations. These problems are addressed with a flexible solution, avoiding
rigidity that occurs in the implementation and maintenance of existing cooperation platforms and their
integration with an advanced semantic repository. The proposed platform operates at two levels: at the
front end, it enables the end users to access seamless collaborative (e.g., synchronous, asynchronous
and semi-synchronous) as well as individual mode tools and services to extract valuable information; at
the back end, it uses a sophisticated ontology framework to support and record the collaborative work,
enhancing interoperability among different enterprises and other service providers.
Chapter 2 proposes a semantically-enriched approach for dynamic data mediation in EAI scenarios,
focusing on the resolution of message level heterogeneities between collaborative enterprise services and
facilitating automated data mediation during execution time by providing formal transformations of the
output and input messages (of the participating services) to a common reference business data model,
that is, an enterprise interoperability ontology. The chapter presents a tool that has been developed to
support the user to provide business data-related semantic annotations and XSLT transformations of the
input and output message parts of collaborative enterprise services. Finally, it demonstrates the utiliza-
tion of the proposed approach and tool in a real-world EAI scenario.
Chapter 3 discusses architecture abstractions like patterns and styles which can be used to capture
design knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of soft-
ware. Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically
enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between
users, business processes, and data. Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical
level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. The chapter
uses an ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for
pattern definition, extension, and composition are developed and their applicability in business process-
driven application integration is demonstrated.
Chapter 4 introduces a three-tier framework for managing and implementing interoperable and cross-
organizational business processes. The chapter aims to fill the gap currently existing between processes
defined on a strategic level and executed models. It describes a solution which supports rapid prototyping
by combining a model-driven framework for cross-organisational business processes with an agent-based
approach for flexible process execution. It then shows how the W3C recommendation for Semantic Web
service descriptions can be combined with the model-driven approach for rapid service integration.
Chapter 5 reviews several Semantic Web services frameworks that intend to bring semantics to Web
services. The chapter depicts some ideas from SOA and Semantic Web services and their application to
enterprise application integration. It illustrates an example of logic-based semantic matching between
consumer services and provided services, which are described in ontologies.
xviii

Chapter 6 introduces an approach for developing service registries building on the UDDI standard
and offering semantically-enhanced publication and discovery capabilities in order to overcome some
of the known limitations of conventional service registries. The approach aspires to promote efficiency
in EAI in a number of ways, but primarily by automating the task of evaluating service integrability on
the basis of the input and output messages that are defined in the Web service’s interface. The presented
solution combines the use of three technology standards to meet its objectives: OWL-DL, for modelling
service characteristics and performing fine-grained service matchmaking via DL reasoning, SAWSDL,
for creating semantically annotated descriptions of service interfaces, and UDDI, for storing and retriev-
ing syntactic and semantic information about services and service providers.
Chapter 7 considers semantics in two major integration tasks. First, semantically corresponding
data types that can be used for communication between components need to be identified. Second,
natural language documentation needs to be studied in order to understand component behaviour, that
is, dependencies between operation invocations and how semantically different outcomes of operation
calls are represented in the technical output format. The approach presented in this chapter supports
the two tasks as follows. First, closed frequent itemset mining (CFIM) is employed to help identifying
semantically corresponding data types. Second, a formal representation for component behaviour is in-
troduced. However, as component behaviour is specified during component development, but used during
integration–two distinct phases involving distinct teams–the chapter provides model transformations
to ensure the consistent transfer of generic behavioural information to specific integration constraints
before automated integration techniques can be applied.
Chapter 8 describes a solution for service discovery and selection at the business level, that is, at the
level of offered business capability of a service provider and the ability to serve a concrete requested
business transaction. The proposed solution is based on semantic interpretation of offered service capa-
bilities, contractual restrictions, business rules of the requestor specifying selection preferences, and the
parameters of the run-time service request. The applicability of the proposed solution is demonstrated
on a shipper-carrier integration scenario.
Chapter 9 is an application in the tourism industry. Currently in the travel domain most of the travel
products are sold through global distribution systems (GDSs). Since only major airline companies or
hotel chains can afford to join GDSs, it is difficult for small and medium enterprises to market their
travel products. This chapter describe a middleware, called SATINE, to address this problem. In the
SATINE middleware, existing travel applications are wrapped as Web services. Web services, as such,
is of limited use because the service consumer must know all the details of the Web service like the
functionality of the Web service (what it does) and the content and the structure of input and output
messages. Therefore, the chapter proposes the annotation of both the service functionality and the ser-
vice messages with Web ontology language (OWL) ontologies. Through the SATINE middleware, the
travel parties can expose their existing applications as semantic Web services either to their Web site or
to Web service registries they maintain. SATINE middleware facilitates the discovery and execution of
these services seamlessly to the user.
Chapter 10 presents the FUSION approach for supporting collaboration and interconnection between
enterprises with technologies that allow for the semantic fusion of heterogeneous service-oriented busi-
ness applications. The chapter provides an overview on the FUSION approach and summarises integra-
tion experiences with the application of the approach and tools during the implementation in the case
of career and human resource management services.
Chapter 11 extends a professional business process management (BPM) tool to allow semantic busi-
ness process modelling using the event-driven process chains (EPC) notation. The chapter presents an
adaptation of the tool’s EPC to business process execution language (BPEL) transformation to preserve
 xix

the semantic annotations. By introducing a proxy service, it is possible to perform Semantic Web service
discovery on a standard BPEL engine. The chapter presents the evaluation of the approach in an empiri-
cal case study, which was replicated 13 times by 17 participants from 8 different organisations. Valuable
feedback was received, which is interesting for researchers and practitioners trying to bring semantic
technologies to end-users with limited background knowledge about semantics.
xx

Acknowledgment

We were initially motivated to edit this book when we were managing the multiyear multinational re-
search project entitled “Business process fusion based on Semantically-enabled Service-oriented Busi-
ness Applications”–code named FUSION. FUSION was a specific targeted research project partially
funded by the European Commission under the Information Society Technologies programme under
contract No 027385 (2006-2008).
The FUSION project aimed to promote efficient business collaboration and interconnection between
enterprises (including SMEs) by developing a framework and innovative technologies for the semantic
fusion of heterogeneous service-oriented business applications. Led by SAP AG, the FUSION consor-
tium consisted of 14 partners from five European countries (Germany, Poland, Greece, Hungary and
Bulgaria).
We had the opportunity to interact with many people during the development of the FUSION solution
as well as during the preparation of this book. We would like to thank the European Commission for
partially funding our efforts. We thank Cristina Martinez of the European Commission for her continu-
ous support and guidance. We are also grateful to the reviewers of the project: Prof. Nada Lavrac of
the Jozef Stefan Institute (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Ms. Man-Sze Li of IC Focus (London, UK) and Prof.
Robert Meersman of the Vrije Universiteit (Brussels, Belgium). Their comments and recommendations
have been extremely constructive and helped us shape our ideas and work
We would also like to acknowledge Julia Mosemann, Development Editor of IGI Global. We are
appreciative of her interest, persistence, and feedback.
A warm thank you to our families for the support and continuous encouragement they provided us
during our work on this book.

Gregoris Mentzas
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Andreas Friesen
SAP, Inc., Germany
 1

Chapter 1
Collaboration Across
the Enterprise:
An Ontology Based Approach for
Enterprise Interoperability
Aggelos Liapis
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Stijn Christiaens
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

abstract
In the current competitive industrial context, enterprises must react swiftly to the market changes. In
order to face this problem, enterprises must increase their collaborative activities. This implies, on the
one hand, high communication between their information systems and, on the other hand, the compat-
ibility of their practices. An important amount of work must be performed towards proper practices of
standardization and harmonization. This can be defined as the concept of interoperability. Interoperability
of enterprises is a strategic issue, caused, as well as enabled, by the continuously growing ability of
integration of new legacy and evolving systems; in particular, the context of networked organizations
of the reconciliation of the communicated business semantics is crucial to success. For this, nondisrup-
tive reuse of existing business data stored in “legacy” production information systems is an evident
prerequisite. In addition, the integration of a methodology, as well as the scalability, of any proposed
semantic technological solution are equally evident prerequisites. Yet on all accounts current, semantic
technologies as researched and developed for the so-called Semantic Web may be found lacking. Still,
semantic technology is claimed about to become mainstream, as it is promoted by enterprise interopera-
tion needs and increasing availability of domain specific content (for example ontologies) rather than
pulled by basic technology (for example OWL) providers. In this chapter, we will present a methodology,
which has resulted in the implementation of a highly customizable collaborative environment focused
to support ontology-based enterprise interoperability. An additional key issue addressed by the particu-
lar platform is the variety and number of different resources that concur to achieve a cross-enterprise
business service. A second key issue is the diversity of agreed (e.g., meaning negotiation when creating
online contracts) models, and the difficulty in adapting its integrated features and services to different

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-804-8.ch001

Copyright © 2010, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

situations. These problems are addressed with a flexible solution, avoiding rigidity that occurs in the
implementation and maintenance of existing cooperation platforms and their integration with an ad-
vanced semantic repository. The proposed platform operates at two levels: at the front end, it enables
the end users to access seamless collaborative (e.g., synchronous, asynchronous, and semisynchronous),
as well as individual mode tools and services to extract valuable information; at the back end, it uses a
sophisticated ontology framework to support and record the collaborative work, enhancing interoper-
ability among different enterprises and other service providers.

IntroductIon very different cultures, languages, industrial

traditions, tools, laws and business rules. This
Collaboration and knowledge sharing have constrains possible fruitful co-operations between
become crucial to enterprise success in the organizations.
knowledge-intensive European Community and Enterprise modeling is used today mainly by
the globalised market worldwide. In this market large enterprises to clarify, analyze and imple-
the trend in innovation of products and services ment business processes. Enterprise modeling
is shifting from mere production excellence to is intended to achieve a common understanding
intensive, collaborative and meaningful interoper- across stakeholders. It enhances the stakeholder
ability (De Leenheer & Meersman, 2007). understanding of the co-operation however, the
Industry and especially SMEs in Europe are EM delivery need enhancing, perhaps with ad-
under great pressures due to the increasing com- vanced conferencing technologies.
petition from the global market. Large companies The availability of natural resources becomes
can react in setting-up subsidiaries around the more and more critical for the future of an enter-
world. However, SMEs have to concentrate on prise, and the whole product life cycle becomes
setting-up cooperation and collaborations within more and more the focus of interest. So interop-
the global market. Increasingly global supply erability is not only required in the workflow
chains are being established. Industry engaged in between companies during the production, but
this cross regional supply have to handle costs, it also is a prerequisite for the whole Product
quality, trust, transactions etc. in efficient way to Life Cycle Support (PLCS) between the various
be competitive and at the same time be attractive enterprises involved.
for possible collaboration partners. Consequently, The technical support of business will be real-
collaboration methods and tools have to be de- ized with the integration of smart agents/services
veloped and adapted for Enterprise demands to creating the required connection between enter-
reduce the costs for, and to handle, the worldwide prises. The connections are built to meet business
collaboration processes supporting knowledge demands. Knowledge about, and of, enterprises
availability, persistence and sharing focusing on will be used to facilitate interoperability dynami-
reducing interoperability costs in the Enterprise cally during cooperation (might be temporary)
and collaborative business processes. e.g. a knowledge profile of an enterprises might
An important challenge at this point is to be provided in a standard way describing which
understand each other on different levels. This is knowledge services are available as well as the
difficult using the same language and within one conditions to access these services. Visual, easy
culture but it becomes extremely critical between understandable enterprise models, bridging

2
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

the gaps between stakeholders and knowledge 1. Interoperability of

domains and providing the prerequisites for in- Enterprise Models
teroperability between organizations, will provide
the overall picture. The research challenges are Interoperability between systems can be supported
grouped from the overview across the enterprise with semantic technologies by developing a shared
stakeholders, the analysis of the different busi- information model for the use of different solutions
ness facets and the configuration of the business (ATHENA, 2004). Semantic interoperability aims
processes by enterprise models taken into account to provide the ability to bridge semantic conflicts
non-functional aspects of contracting to the bridg- and to create a semantically compatible informa-
ing of culture borders. tion environment based on the agreed concepts
between different business entities (Liapis et al.,
2008).
background Interoperability requires a consolidated and
consistent understanding across all stakeholders,
To the best of our knowledge a large portion of which is gathered from unstructured and incom-
current research supports the view that Enterprise plete views. The application of enterprise model-
Interoperability must come along with consider- ing promotes the common understanding of the
able performance penalty (Hauguel & Viardot, enterprise business processes within the company
2001; IDEAS, 2003). Thus almost all of the and across companies (Liapis et al., 2008). The
proposed models of frameworks used to evaluate company is supported to succeed in reducing the
the difficulties in Enterprise Interoperability are throughput times, improving the process quality,
focusing on communication, security and perfor- reducing costs and therefore improving the cus-
mance excluding the integration of a methodology tomer satisfaction and competitiveness. To assure
focused to serve the specific cause of integration a correct cooperation between two or more entities
and support for legacy systems. it is mandatory to build an appropriate model of
Casola et al. (2007) argue that despite the them (ATHENA, 2004). This can lead to a stronger
fact that a service provider is able to guarantee amplification of all the cross-interface activities
a predefined service level and a certain security and constraints between the entities. Enterprise
level, the mere nature of interoperability and the models illustrate the organizational business as-
utilisation of up to date technologies does not allow pects as a prerequisite for the successful technical
for automatic measurement of such attributes. integration of IT systems or their configurations.
De Leenheer and Christiaens (2007) conceive If an IT system is not accepted by staff members,
the interoperability issue as a gap between differ- because its usefulness or is not transparent, then
ent the social (communication between humans) it quickly loses its value due to erroneous or
and the technical (communication between ma- incomplete input and insufficient maintenance.
chines) parts of any knowledge-sharing system. This at the end results in investment losses (Izza
They adopt the four knowledge conversion modes et al., 2006).
described by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) social- The enterprise models cover the knowledge
ization (person to person), externalization (person of the internal processes and between organiza-
to machine), combination (machine to machine) tions as well as the demand on IT support. The
and internalization (machine to person). These challenge description exemplifies the strengths,
are described in more detail in Figure 1. values, limitations and gaps of the application
of enterprise modeling to achieve and to support

3
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

Figure 1. The gap between the social/human knowledge-sharing system and its technical “mirror”
(adapted from De Leenheer and Christiaens, 2007)

interoperability between companies and illustrates 2. usability of Models

the required research topics.
The knowledge expressed in models has to be
• Interoperability driven by enterprise busi- integrated into the configuration of workflows,
ness models, simulation and application products. To real-
• Generic rules & services for model derived ize the integration between the models and the
service environments, executed business processes, an interoperating
• Interoperability of distributed enterprise middleware between them and the applications,
models. the workflow and simulations is required. This
will allow a real time reaction to business changes
(Izza et al., 2005).

4
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

The evolution of legacy systems and the need enforcement of all the terms and conditions in a
to migrate to or co-exist with other applications contract is, as yet, infeasible, since it would require
cause the requirement for a new environment a machine understanding of legal obligations and
of applications, information sources etc. Issues legal interpretation, which are not yet available
with interoperability demand that ontologies are (Interop, 2003). However, there may be a level
automatically produced from several independent of monitoring and enforcement, which provides
unstructured information bases that can be used benefit in excess of the cost of implementing these
to carry out mappings and allow information management processes (Casola et al., 2007). The
merging or application interoperability (ATH- technical issues of representing and enforcing such
ENA, 2004). SLA and contract conditions need to be resolved,
Currently there are some methods being in- to the level of methodologies for use, so that
vestigated but the resources and computational analyses can be made of the costs and benefits for
power needed would appear to be excessive and different business situations to determine where
not practical to use in an operational scenario the application of the technology is beneficial
(ATHENA, 2004). An interactive enterprise-to- (European Commission, 2006).
enterprise interoperation of business must be
realized. 4. sME situation challenges

3. agreements and contracting A main challenge regarding SMEs is to change

the actual situation for interoperability of SME,
Interoperating systems within an organization can which is based on the force of the demand of
occur without any form of governing agreement, large companies (European Commission, 2006).
but usually they require some form of Service In most cases, SMEs tackle interoperability only
Level Agreement (SLA) between departments, if they are “commercially motivated” by large
divisions or some form of organizational unit customers. Therefore, it is just a reaction of a
which states metrics for charging, and quality of market situation and lags behind the technical
service (Erl, 2005). When systems interoperate evolution of the large market players. This has
across organizations, contracts or Agreements to be changed into proactive acting providing
are usually made containing some form of interoperability actively to many customers. Base-
penalty clauses, or action to be taken when the don the Enterprise Interoperability roadmap only
contracted service is not provided – these may be two main aspects are relevant for SMEs (European
supplemented by SLA providing the detail of the Commission, 2006):
service quality agreed (Interop, 2003). Middleware
mediated interoperability employing Web Ser- • Interoperability enabling cooperation be-
vices or the Grid, which includes a management tween SMEs on demand (support of net-
function, can provide a mechanism to monitor working between SMEs) and
SLA and enforce the contractual clauses to be • Interoperability provided as market pre-
applied when they are breached (Interop, 2003). requisite for the cooperation with large
Automatic monitoring of SLA and enforcement companies (concurrent plug-in to different
of contracts throughout a supply chain provides a cooperation configurations).
rapid response to breaches of agreements, which
in turn fosters trust between organizations as well
as identifying potential financial losses. Complete

5
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

5. Interoperability aspects of application and business interoperability as well

Intercultural cooperation as to face the challenge of mutual intercultural
understanding.
Culture diversities are a barrier between organiza-
tions and national regions to become interoperable
on the enterprise level (Interop, 2003). Industry has IntEropErabIlIty projEcts
already bilateral business links and supply chains
but the effort of making systems communicate with The following projects contribute to address
each other on an interregional and intercontinental interoperability requirements:
level is all on the shoulders of these individual
enterprises. The research agenda is somehow a 1. ATHENA (www.athena-ip.org): Advanced
bit behind in the aspect of supporting these sup- technologies for interoperability of hetero-
ply and value chains. Enterprises are confronted geneous enterprise Networks and their ap-
with cultural diversity when these enterprises plications (ATHENA) aims to be the most
become internationally active. Disregarding the comprehensive and systematic European
cultural component in a situation of intercultural research initiative in IT to remove barriers
cooperation can and will lead to mistakes due to to interoperability, to transfer and apply the
misunderstandings which are the result of differ- research results in industrial sectors, and to
ences in working practices, language and customs. foster a new networked business culture.
Because of these cultural and national differences, 2. InterOP (http://interop-vlab.eu/): InterOP
an information system that works perfectly in one aimed to extract value from the sustainable
place may not work at all in another, or identical integration of these thematic components
systems may find completely different uses in and to develop industrially significant new
different situations (Brodie&Stonebraker, 1995). knowledge. Network’s role was to create the
Hence, from a cultural standpoint, avoiding these conditions of a technological breakthrough
kinds of mistakes plays a very important role for to avoid that enterprise investment be simply
the interoperability among Enterprises and the pulled by the incremental evolution of IT
success of business. offer.
Since communication, knowledge and culture 3. ABILITIES (http://www.viewzone.org/
are intimately connected with one another, inter- abilities/index.php?option=com_content&t
cultural communication has to be a part of the ask=blogcategory&id=15&Itemid=14): The
approach. Also from multicultural coexistence basic goal of the present Application Bus for
to intercultural cooperation, an information Interoperability In enlarged Europe SMEs
system platform for building and managing a (ABILITIES) proposal is: to study, design
multicultural working group is a great challenge and develop a federated architecture imple-
(Casola et al., 2007). Based on this platform, the mented by a set of intelligent and adaptive
intercultural teamwork management could define UBL active messages (an Application Bus
the rules of team members’ cooperation. The vi- for EAI) and basic interoperability services,
sion is the availability of easy-to-use and open which, following the IDEAS framework and
digital services for interregional collaboration, roadmap, aims at supporting SMEs EAI in
which bridge the intercultural and technological e-commerce contexts, specifically in less
differences (Curtis et al., 1998). Concepts should developed Countries and less RTD intensive
be developed to enhance the enterprise software industrial sectors.

6
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

4. No-REST (http://www.no-rest.org/): The thE nEEd for a MEthodology

NO-REST project aims to investigate the
applicability and dynamics of standards in According to the ISO standard, Enterprise Meth-
the e-business and e-government sectors, and odology (EM) is defined as the act of developing
to develop guidelines for tools for the assess- an enterprise model, which is a representation of
ment of their performance, and of the impact what an enterprise intends to accomplish and how
they have on networked organizations. it operates (Curtis, 1988). More precisely, EM is
5. GENESiS (http://ve-forum.org/apps/pub. the representation of the structure, the behaviour
asp?Q=1974&T=Clusters%20and%20 and the organization of the enterprise according to
Projects): The main target of the GENESIS different points of views (Casola et al., 2007):
project is the research, development and
initial, precompetitive application of the • Functional, Informational,
needed methodologies, infrastructure and Physical(Business), Decisional, Processes
middleware software components that will and,
allow the typical, usually small and medium, • Technical, Economical, Social, Human
European enterprise to conduct its Business
transactions over Internet, by interconnect- With two interconnected visions:
ing its main transactional softwareapplica-
tions and systems with those of collaborat- • Global System Theory: the global view
ing enterprises, banking/social insurance of the enterprise which collects objectives,
institutions and governmental bodies, with structure, functions, evolution of the enter-
respect to the evolving legal and regulatory prise (dynamic), links with legacy systems
status. and features of the environment;
6. FUSION (http://www.fusionweb.org/ • Local: detailed description according to
FUSION/): FUSION aims to promote ef- the concepts of activities and processes.
ficient business collaboration within enter-
prises (incl. SMEs) by developing technolo- The role of the methodology is to represent,
gies for the semantic fusion of heterogeneous understand and analyze through an enterprise
businesses applications. Intercultural and model, the running of an enterprise in order to
regulatory aspects of the enlarged Europe improve its performance (Curtis, 1988). The role
countries are considered instrumental in the of EM in Interoperability is to define interoper-
FUSION solution. ability requirements and to support a solution
7. TrustCoM (http://www.eu-trustcom.com/): implementation. This contributes to the resolution
TrustCoMaims in developing a framework of interoperability problems by increasing the
for trust, security and contract management shared understanding of the enterprise structure
in dynamically evolving virtual organiza- and behavior. Several problems are related to
tions. The framework will enable secure interoperability and the absence of a concrete
collaborative business processing within on- methodology to support it.
demand created and self-managed, dynamic
collaborative networks of businesses and • The enterprise systems of the partners are
governments built on top of the emerging not exchangeable (e.g., built using two dif-
convergence of Web Services, agent and ferent languages) or there are compatibility
Grid technologies. issues due to legacy support failure.

7
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

• The same term used by two systems information, to promote the cooperation
does not mean the same thing (lexical between the function in the enterprises and
ambiguity). between the members of the supply chain,
• Models of both enterprises show differ- and the will to increase the vision angle in-
ences in practices, which are not aligned side the supply chain;
(output data of the first is semantically dif- • To model only the information, the flows
ferent to input data of the second). and the services which, concern interoper-
• Models of both information technology ability of the supply chain. We don’t speak
(IT) systems show incompatibility in in- about boundaries of an enterprise toward
formation exchange. another enterprise but we speak about
boundaries of the supply chain. Indeed,
Based on the above issues it is almost certain two enterprises don’t need to be completely
that the implementation of a concrete methodol- interoperable, but they need to be interop-
ogy will play a significant role in interoperability, erable at the interface. For this reason, we
particularly in terms of analysis to target the have to define a supply chain boundary
problems, which can appear in an approach of to separate the services which collaborate
implementation of Interoperability and how to from the others;
solve these problems. Interoperability problems • To take into account the human aspect i.e.
are either related to (i) the semantics and vo- the communication between different peo-
cabulary used to annotate the resources; (ii) the ple and the human psychological aspects
architecture and platform; and (iii) the model of in the evolution of their enterprise. Indeed,
the enterprise. in the evolution management, people are
The first allows having a common language; often recalcitrant to change due to the con-
the second allows the interoperability by the flicts involved with their current legacy
technical aspects (e.g., software, hardware, net) systems.
and the third models the supply chain to allow
having interoperable practices at the interfaces.
To solve the problems related to ontology, we thE rolE of
have two options: either we set up a common and collaboratIon In EI
global ontology in all enterprises of the supply
chain but the implementation and management Collaboration is a key factor to success in any
will be difficult and tiresome, or we set up a enterprise setting, and even more so when enter-
common ontology only at the boundaries of the prise borders have to be crossed (e.g., interoper-
enterprises. Therefore, to bring an answer to some ability in the extended enterprise). According to
of the enterprise interoperability problems, we the FRISCO report (Falkenberg et al., 1996), a
need to develop a methodology, which has the community constitutes a social system, where
following functionalities: action and discourse is performed within more or
less well-established goals, norms and behavior.
• To manage the evolution of enterprise with If collaboration within an (inter-) organizational
the definition of different steps; community is to be successful, it is clear that
• To manage the performance of the supply proper communication should be in place, and
chain in its entirety. The notion of per- that the semantics of the concepts being commu-
formance is very important because it al- nicated are clear and agreed upon. Engineers or
lows to bring the activity and to share the architects tasked with tying systems together need

8
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

Figure 2. Customisation of the main interface (adapted from Liapis, 2007)

to understand each other properly in order to get ment called OMOGENIA as the first of a new
maximum results out of their collaboration. Given generation of CSCW enterprise systems.
the wide variety of design abstractions and differ- The general architecture of the prototype is
ing terminologies, it is clear that communication organized into the following three layers (Liapis,
in this kind of collaboration can lead to frustrating 2007):
misunderstanding and ambiguities.
So far, the majority of enterprise systems have • Configuration level
focused on the capturing and retrieval of data that • Reuse level
is mostly unstructured, like text (in wikis, blogs • Reflection level
forums etc.), or of a small number of predefined
types, such as URLs (del.icio.us), images (Flickr), 1. configuration level
or tags (numerous sites).
Increasingly, the key features of semantically The main attribute of the environment is the
supported, collaborative tools are being applied concept of customizability. It allows the user to
in new contexts, and systems that work with new customize the tools according to the needs of the
types of data, and with data of increasingly rich project by simply dragging and dropping them
variety of content. This trend shows great prom- into the categorized tabs as illustrated in figure
ise in addressing the long-standing and difficult 2 (Liapis, 2007).
problem of system interoperability.
At the same time as the “Web 2.0” phenomenon 2. reuse level
has demonstrated that collaborative tools, even
with very limited and informal semantic support, Generally, the ability to reuse heavily relies on
can dramatically increase the knowledge captured the ability to build larger systems from smaller
and accessible to users. The Challenge and the ones, and being able to identify and resolve com-
opportunity is to find a way to accommodate mon problems and conflicts between current and
greater semantic precision while simultaneously legacy systems (Malins et al., 2006). Reusability
encouraging and reaping the benefits of large-scale is often a required characteristic of collaborative
enterprise system collaboration on a system as environments (Liapis, 2007a). The prototype
well as on a community level. provides users with four recording mechanisms
In the following sections we present the tools able to capture the methodology followed towards
and services of a semantically supported environ- the completion of a system such as real time re-

9
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

cording mechanisms and snapshots. In addition, • Brainstorming

the prototype provides the user with online file • Mind-mapping
repositories hosted on our DOGMA servers where
users are able to store their projects and review Brainstorming, is a highly successful method,
them at a later stage. The system automatically but requires significant support to be successfully
provides Meta information regarding the contribu- used in a virtual setting (Diehl, 1987). There are
tors, date, time, as well as automatic versioning two essential stages to any brainstorming process:
and track-changes features. the first being to generate as many ideas as pos-
sible (Malins et al., 2006); the second being to
3. reflection level categorize or evaluate the ideas that have been
generated (Liapis, 2007). The other technique
The concept behind the implementation of this is mind-mapping. Brainstorming through mind-
prototype was to provide users with appropriate maps may assist the design process by allowing
tools in order to help them reflect on their ideas. the structuring of abstract concepts as well as
The tools were implemented and arranged in a concrete ones (Buzan, 2005).
way that a user is constantly reminded of the next Both tools are using the Triz1 database and the
step, related sources, and about past and present sorting algorithms to allow users access to relevant
strategies. The prototype is designed in a way third party online resources while brainstorming
that allows participants to work collaboratively, (Liapis, 2008). In addition the post it notes tool
as well as individually, simultaneously following includes an integrated Really Simple Syndication
a loosely coupled group approach. The individual (RSS) reader dedicated to scan the web for the
tools allow users to try solutions without feeling latest technologies, approaches and events based
that they are being watched or criticized. When on user input.
all the participants have indicated readiness they
can then begin to place components of their solu- 2. collaborative tools
tions in the collaborative space synchronously or
asynchronously. All the contributions are being Collaborative environments allow a virtual team
monitored and recorded by appropriate mecha- or an organization to share their work, seeing
nisms providing meta-information as to the date what others are doing, commenting and working
and time the contribution took place, and the together. Current collaborative technology still
name(s) of the contributor(s). fails to support real life collaboration (Malins
and Liapis, 2007). This problem is a direct result
of not looking at the dynamic aspects of work.
front-End of thE prototypE In collaborative technology that is able to sup-
port real-life interaction processes we need to
The following section presents the most signifi- pay attention to the fact that real-life situations
cant features of the proposed prototype focusing are dynamic and involve complex tasks (Malins
on their architecture and contribution on the et al., 2006).
particular context. Based on these grounds, we conceived the
prototype as a Client server application over
1. brainstorming the Internet. Clients (user sessions) connect to a
server using BSD sockets technology and TCP/
The proposed prototype includes the following IP protocol with the exception of Skype which
two brainstorming techniques: uses peer to peer technology (P2P). TCP’s reliable

10
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

communication and ordering semantics greatly wide area network (WAN) and mobile network).
simplifies the system implementation offering In the virtual network computing (VNC), server
synchronous as well as semi-synchronous (e.g., machines supply not only applications and data
Google Docs) collaboration amongst the partici- but also an entire desktop environment that can
pants. As concerns security the environment it self be accessed from any internet-connected machine
encrypts every piece of information displayed using a VNC client (Liapis, 2007a).
through it (Liapis, 2007): In contrast to many recent web based or Inter-
net applications VNC uses a random challenge-
• Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) response system to provide the basic authentication
via Skype communicator: Skype is a when connecting to the server (Liapis, 2008). Even
free peer-to-peer VoIP Internet telephony though this is reasonably secure once the user is
network founded by the entrepreneurs connected the traffic between the client and the
NiklasZennström and Janus Friis. This re- server is unencrypted and therefore is unsafe for
search integrated Skype into the environ- professional use (Liapis, 2007a). However VNC
ment because of its ability to work almost may be tunneled over an SSH or VPN connec-
seamlessly across network address transla- tion which would add an extra security layer with
tion processes (NATs) and firewalls. stronger encryption (Liapis, 2008). This approach
• Remote access via virtual network com- encrypts all traffic between the two machines us-
puting (VNC): The second tool provided in ing public key encryption techniques, making it
the collaborative mode of the environment really very difficult for anyone else to access the
is a windows version of Virtual Network data. Also it is a more reliable way to penetrate
Computing (VNC) (Liapis, 2008). This ap- strong firewalls delivering data securely and reli-
plication is an open source, cross platform ably (Liapis, 2008).
project2 developed in the engineering de-
partment of the University of Cambridge. 3. recording Mechanisms
The research has re-implemented and in-
tegrated a portable version of VNC by iso- When a team collaborates using a groupware sys-
lating the critical files and functionalities tem its members must be coordinated in order to
provided in the original application. avoid possible conflicts (Malins et al., 2006). To
preserve the integrity of the project throughout its
VNC uses the remote frame buffer protocol complete lifecycle appropriate recording mecha-
(RFB) to remotely control another computer. In ad- nisms should be integrated into the system (Liapis,
dition it transmits the keyboard and mouse events 2007). Recording mechanisms allow participants
from one computer to another. The administrator to coordinate their work without communicating
or the host of the meeting is able to tune the set- with others. This is an important characteristic
tings of the server customizing its performance and as it prevents coordination breakdowns, which
quality of service. For example is able to choose frequently occur during collaborative design
whether to disable participants’ input, by changing (Malins et al., 2006). The prototype consists of
their status to viewers. This feature is useful when four different recording mechanisms to provide
you are presenting a solution to a distributed group participants with a verification mechanism with
as it creates an interaction protocol amongst the regards to the evolution and security of the project.
users (Richardson et al., 1998). In addition participants can use the outputs as a
The particular technology functions under reference for future work or to review the process
any network type local area network (LAN), (Liapis, 2007):

11
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

Figure 3. DOGMA studio workbench: The modelling tool

• Video and audio recording mechanism for methods, and tools for ontology management,
synchronous collaborative sessions we refer the reader to literature (e.g.,Hepp et
• Automatic logging of users activity when al.,2008).
using the environment The tool illustrated in figure 3is the DOGMA
• Automatic file versioning Studio Workbench, which allows users to elicit
• Collaborative history mechanism in the and apply different ontological elements. They can
ontology modeling tool browse and edit their ontologies, keep a record
of different versions and share selected elements
The outputs of these files are being saved in with other partners.
the file repository tool with appropriate Meta The Workbench is constructed according to
information such as date, time, and participants. the plug-in architecture in Eclipse. There, plug-
ins, being loosely coupled ontology viewing,
4. ontology Management querying or editing modules support the different
ontology engineering activities and new plug-ins
Supporting an online team requires an advanced continuously emerges. This loose coupling allows
ontology management system, capable of medi- any arbitrary knowledge engineering community
ating and sharing the contributions of the team. to support its own ontology engineering method
For a comprehensive state of the art on theories, in DOGMA Studio by reusing and combining

12
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

these plug-ins arbitrarily. Such a meaningful their use through the application-specific
combination of view/edit/query plug-ins is called constraints. By separating the conceptuali-
a “perspective” in Eclipse. sation (lexonbase) from the axiomatisation
(commitment), this approach provides more
common ground for reuse and agreements.
back-End of thE prototypE For instance, a business rule stating that
each person has exactly one address may
As the backbone of our collaborative system, we hold for one partner’s application, but may
adopted the DOGMA (Developing Ontology- be too strong for another.
Grounded Methods and Applications) framework 3. Versioning: As with all things, information
for ontology engineering. A DOGMA inspired systems are in constant flux. Especially in a
ontology is decomposed into a lexon-base and collaborative setting, where ontology serves
a layer of ontological commitments (Meersman, as a mediating instrument, we find a high
1999, 2001). A full formalization of DOGMA and continuous need for proper versioning
can be found in De Leenheer et al. (2007), and and evolution management. DOGMA in-
an overview is given by Jarrar and Meersman corporates proper support for these issues
(2007). through the use of change operators, change
The lexon base is a pool of plausible binary logs and context dependencies. This includes
fact-types that might hold in a certain domain. detailed meta information such as the name
The lexons residing in the lexon base are not of the contributor, time, date, and appropriate
interpreted and thus reusable in different ontolo- commentary on future changes or possible
gies. As the lexon base can become very large, objections in a project.
context was added to the lexons, which imposes a
way of grouping the lexons in a meaningful way. workflow
This context refers to the source where the lexon
was extracted from: We adopt a workflow based on the DOGMA-
MESS ontology engineering methodology (de
1. Concept Definition Service: Each (context, Moor et al. 2006). DOGMA-MESS starts from
term)-pair then lexically identifies a unique a clear communication goal, which is translated
concept. The concept is described by a gloss to specific templates (knowledge artefacts at
(short natural language description) and a set a general level). The appropriate stakeholders
of synonyms. Together with the linguistic specialize these templates according to their own
representation in the form of the lexons, organizational views (divergence), after which
DOGMA remains close to natural language, they negotiate about the relevant differences in
which is indispensable in communication order to reach a common view (convergence). In
between collaborating teams. our experiment, we were able to refine this process
2. Ontological commitment: Any application- into several phases.
dependent interpretation of a set of lexons is
moved to a separate layer, called the commit- 1. Collaborative goal specification: It is
ment layer. This layer serves as a mediator neither feasible nor relevant to consider
between the plausible fact types (lexons) all conflicts at once. By clearly defining a
and their axomatisation in applications. common goal (e.g., the need to exchange
Each commitment consists of a selection account information in order to enable Single
of appropriate lexons and a limitation on Sign On), we can create a highly relevant

13
 Collaboration Across the Enterprise

scope for the next steps. The goal must be futurE and EMErgIng trEnds
specified atomically, so it cannot be further
divided over a number of sub goals. It is clear that current teams, whether they are
2. Template selection: To bootstrap the pro- organisational or inter-organisational, have an
cess, we have to translate the collaborative increasing need for proper collaboration, espe-
goal into an appropriate template (or set cially in a distributed setting. This realization is
of templates), which are small conceptual supported by several emerging initiatives.
models at a general level. In the ideal case, The IBM Eclipse team for instance bundled
these templates can be extracted from avail- their experiences and lessons learnt during the
able and proven patterns. development of the Eclipse framework in the
3. Template specialization: Each party then Jazz project. This collaborative environment is
specializes the template according to the targeted at distributed software teams and pro-
available information in their organizational vides them with decent support for collaboration
model. The results of this step serve as input across time and location (Frost, 2007). The Jazz
for the next step. system, although innovative and reliable, supports
4. Alignment: As a result from the differences only synchronous and asynchronous collabora-
in the involved organizational specifications, tion presenting the user with a cluttered yet fully
a meeting must be held to resolve possible functioning way of developing projects collab-
conflicts through subtle negotiation. This oratively. Another emerging example is Acrobat.
step can be divided over different smaller com, which is a set of online services hosted by
steps: Adobe. They include file sharing and storage, a
◦ Lexical Grounding Step: Where PDF converter, an online word processor, and
lexical conflicts are resolved and a web conferencing, which you can use to create
shared schema vocabulary is built. and share documents, communicate in real time,
◦ Attribution Step: Where conflict and simplify working with others. The DOGMA-
types related to relationships are MESS system (Christiaens et al., 2008) provides
resolved. a Meaning Evolution Support System (MESS)
◦ Axiomatisation Step: Where con- and platform that helps communities of practice
flicts related to constraints and refer- consisting of different stakeholders from different
ence schemas are resolved. organizations to define and evolve shared ontolo-
◦ Test Step: Where the results are test gies that are relevant to their joint collaboration
for referability (Halpin, 2001), sat- objectives. The systems aims to make the evolution
isfiability (Jarrar&Heymans, 2007). process of a collaborative community as effective
Ideally, this includes a population test and efficient as possible. A similar application
as well. is MyOntology3, that provides wiki-based col-
◦ Operationalisation: When consen- laboration and community-driven development
sus is reached, the results can be oper- of ontological artefacts. The system provides a
ationalised by choosing the appropri- technical infrastructure for maintaining a tight
ate operational formats (e.g., XML) coupling between an ontology and the individuals
and adapting the systems to send and creating and using this ontology.
receive the necessary messages. These moves towards collaborative environ-
ments indicate a clear trend towards a vision for
the Future of the Internet, where organizations
will cluster together in digital business ecosystems

14
Collaboration Across the Enterprise

through tight collaboration. These collaborative rEfErEncEs

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задач), a theory of solving inventive prob- formulation, system analysis, failure analy-
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2
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and systematic methods for use in problem http://www.myontology.org/

18
 19

Chapter 2
Dynamic Data Mediation
in Enterprise Application
Integration Scenarios
Thanasis Bouras
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Panagiotis Gouvas
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Gregoris Mentzas
National Technical University of Athens, Greece

abstract
If we try to increase the level of automation in enterprise application integration (EAI) scenarios, we
confront challenges related to the resolution of data and message heterogeneities between interoperat-
ing services, which traditional EAI technologies are weak to solve. We propose a semantically-enriched
approach for dynamic data mediation in EAI scenarios, focusing on the resolution of message level
heterogeneities between collaborative enterprise services, facilitating automated data mediation dur-
ing execution time by providing formal transformations of the output and input messages (of the par-
ticipating services) to a common reference business data model, that is, the enterprise interoperability
ontology. Moreover, we present a tool that has been developed to support the user to provide business
data-related semantic annotations and XSLT transformations of the input and output message parts of
collaborative enterprise services. Finally, we demonstrate the utilization of the proposed approach and
toll in a real-world EAI scenario.

IntroductIon components for efficiently integrating software in an

enterprise. While in the past, the need for integration
In the mid-1990s, a new term called enterprise was driven by lower-level needs to share information
application integration (EAI) was established, among applications, today, business drivers fuel the
which introduced several methods and software need for integration (Vollmer & Peyret, 2005) – the
need for business to respond to regulatory chal-
lenges, improve business process execution, grow
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-804-8.ch002

Copyright © 2010, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
 Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

employee productivity, and improve customer creates obstacles in the automating EAI activities
service is a hallmark driving organizations to (Haller et al., 2006). There is no doubt that these
integrate applications. In response to these new needs impose the use and interpretation of semantics
requirements, the integration market landscape is in EAI and that semantically enriched approaches
shifting. Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), will hopefully mitigate these problems.
business process management (BPM), composite In this book chapter, we present a semantically-
applications, and other new application require- enriched approach for dynamic data mediation in
ments have become the driving force in the market Enterprise Application Integration scenarios, based
(Rymer et a., 2004). on Ontologies, Semantic Web and Semantic Web
The currently available enterprise application Services Technologies. Our approach, which is
integration software address integration problems presented in the next section, focuses on the reso-
for example in the following ways (Friesen et al., lution of message level heterogeneities between
2007): a) graphically supporting the mapping of sys- collaborative enterprise services exposed from
tems’ interfaces to each other (e.g. SAP NetWeaver the participating business systems, facilitating
Exchange Infrastructure), b) reducing complexity automatic, dynamic data mediation during execu-
using intermediate data-exchange languages (e.g. tion time by providing formal transformations of
eXtensible Markup Language – XML), or c) re- the input and output messages (of the participating
ducing the number of connection adapters needed Web Services) to a common reference model, i.e.
through the introduction of hubs (e.g. Enterprise an enterprise data ontology.
Service Bus). These efforts entail significant costs In addition, Section 3 provides an overview of
and typically due to the “lack of automated support the enterprise data ontology that we have devel-
in defining integration, it takes a long time for a oped and utilized as part of a multi- layered and
human engineer to define semantically correct –faceted interoperability ontology, called Enter-
integration” (Bussler, 2003). prise Interoperability Ontology, which provides a
Current industrial EAI trends and technolo- shared, common understanding of data, services
gies, like SOA, Enterprise Bus and Web Services, and processes within enterprise application inte-
are up to now quite mature. However, if we try gration scenarios.
to increase the level of automation in integration Moreover, in Section 4, we present a tool that has
scenarios, we confront several problems and chal- been designed and developed to support the user to
lenges (Bouras et al., 2007), such as a) data and provide business data related semantic annotations
message level heterogeneities between interoperat- to specific web services exposed from enterprise
ing services, b) insufficient search and discovery applications, realizing parts of their functionality.
of published Web Services in a common registry, The developed tool enables the user to graphically
and c) inadequate Web Process composition with define the required transformations of the output
regard to the desired functionality and operational and input messages between web services with
requirements. The problem that still exists, which regard to the respective data entities (used for the
the traditional, syntactic EAI technologies are annotation of these message parts) of a common
weak to solve, refers to the formalization and the ontological model. These transformations are
documentation of the semantics related to the further utilized to enable dynamic data mediation
interfaces and the data structures of the deployed among several interconnected enterprise services,
Web Services. This lack of formal semantics of during the execution of a business process which
applications and services to be integrated makes it contains these services.
difficult for software engineers and developers to Finally, we provide (in Section 5) an indica-
interconnect heterogeneous applications and thus tive business scenario demonstrating how our

20
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

proposed approach and tool contributes to the mappings. Both the mappings and the message
resolution of data heterogeneities among different transformation occur at the instance level between
business, while, in Section 6, we summarize the the WSDL (XML) and the OWL individual.
conclusions and the future work of the research
efforts presented. Extending native web services
Interfaces with data semantics

thE proposEd dynaMIc As already mentioned above, the main idea behind
data MEdIatIon approach the proposed dynamic data mediation approach is
that the native descriptions (i.e. WSDL interfaces)
As already stated the proposed data integration of the standard Web Services of the involved
approach facilitates automatic, dynamic data me- service-oriented business applications is extended
diation during execution time by providing formal with data/information semantics. This extension
transformations of the input and output messages process is called semantic annotation/profiling
(of the participating Enterprise Services) to a and the resulting description is the respective
common reference model (an enterprise interop- SAWSDL-compatible Semantic Profile.
erability ontology that we developed in the Web It is obvious that, in order to solve real inte-
Ontology Language – OWL). More specifically, gration use-cases, the composed processes must
automatic, dynamic data mediation is enabled by also be able to execute/run. Consequently a spe-
providing a priori mappings and transformations cial start event must trigger the run-time engine
for all enterprise services inputs and outputs mes- so as to create a process instance. The process
sage parts (of the services’ native Web Services) instance works with real data which means that
to a common-reference conceptual, ontological it communicates with real Web Services of SOA-
model, i.e. the data-intensive enterprise interoper- enabled business applications. As a result, the
ability ontology. process instance includes an invocation of one
Mappings are created between the enterprise Web Service with given input data, stores the
services message elements and ontology concepts, reply of this Web Service, invokes another Web
utilizing the schemaMapping attribute to semanti- Service with the stored data, and evaluates logical
cally annotate and associate the input and output expressions to decide which execution branch to
message elements of the involved enterprise follow according to stored data, etc.
services, towards the creation of the so-called Because the process instances communicate to
Semantic Profiles of these services, respecting the outside world by using the semantic concepts
the SAWSDL specification for the deployment of the common ontological reference model, the
of Semantic Web Services (Farrell & Lausen, standard Web Services of the service-oriented
2007). In (Nagarajan et al., 2006), two types of applications can’t understand them directly.
mappings between enterprise services message To solve this, the standard Web Services are
elements and semantics have been identified: a) encapsulated (through the semantic annotation/
mappings from the Web Service message element profiling process) into semantically-annotated
to the ontology concept, also called the “up-cast” Web Services, which are directly invokable by
and/or “up-level”, and b) transformations from the a given process instance. These services will be
ontology concept to the message element, called referred as “mediated services”.
the “down-cast” and/or “down-level”.
Once these transformations are defined, two en-
terprise services can interoperate by reusing these

21
 Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

the web services profiling The created XSLT transformation code is stored
walkthrough at a common repository. After the transformations
are present, the reference to them is added to the
We assume that Web Services of the service ori- semantic description, i.e. the Semantic Profile,
ented business applications – called native Web of the service.
services – are described by a WSDL file. This
WSDL description contains the data structure (or
a reference to it) of the requested input and the thE EntErprIsE
provided output data of operations the service IntEropErabIlIty ontology
provides. This structure is in the format of an
XML schema definition (XSD) and is called na- As we have already stated the proposed ap-
tive data structure. During the annotation process, proach for dynamic data mediation is based on
the standard WSDL description will be extended the definition of formal transformations of the
with semantics as described in the following input and output messages of the involved Web
paragraphs. Services to a common reference model. For this
The exact connection between the native data purpose, we are utilizing the Data Facet of the
structure and the used ontological concepts has to Enterprise Interoperability Ontology (ENIO)
be defined first. The concepts of the data-intensive that we have designed and developed [5]. The
interoperability ontology (i.e. the common refer- Enterprise Interoperability Ontology represents
ence model), which are the closest to native data, an explicit specification of the conceptualization
are identified and referenced from the extended of the EAI domain, and structures and formalizes
description of the native Web Service. This results the procedural and operative knowledge needed
in a semantic description which is constructed by to describe and resolve the given EAI problem,
the guidelines of the SAWSDL recommendation, providing a formal and explicit definition of the
i.e. creation and utilization of a “modelReference” data, services and processes that exist within an
annotation mechanism pointing to a data ontologi- application integration problem.
cal concept, for every wsdl:part of the involved
Web Services. overview of the EnIo structure
Although one can find concepts which are very and design principles
close to the native data in meaning, the syntactical
differences between the concepts have to be bridged The ENIO Ontology has a four-fold focus (Bouras
by creating and applying XSLT transformations. et al., 2007): a) to resolve most message level
The XSLT transformations are also used to heterogeneities through the formal definition of
handle data mismatch problems. Data mismatch the data(-types) in the input and output messages
problems may be caused from differences between of a service, providing a reference model of data
native data structures and the selected concepts of semantics; b) to enable effective search and discov-
the enterprise data ontology. This can be due to the ery of services through the formal representation
usage of different units (e.g. when a native service of the capabilities and the functionality of service
uses US units whereas the Ontology concepts use operators; c) to assist manual process composi-
metric units), different currencies, different format tion through (reusable) process templates; and d)
for the same data (for example the address, or the to support semi-automated process composition
date is formatted in many different ways in CRP via the annotation of the behavioral models of
and ERP systems due to the differences between collaborative EAI processes.
national traditions). The above-mentioned goals of ENIO constitute

22
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

Figure 1. The ENIO conceptual structure

the basis for the identification of the dimensions in (Oberle et al., 2006), we concluded that both
and the structure of the ontology. We have cho- DOLCE and SUMO meet most of our require-
sen to introduce the model of an upper ontology, ments. SUMO provides quite a rich axiomatisa-
which covers generic and domain-independent tion that, in our case, could be a disadvantage, as
concepts, with several, domain-related extensions in SUMO, a lot of information is represented as
that we call facets (Figure 1). We have developed instances whereas other modules use concepts
a three-faceted structure for ENIO: data facet; on the same level, concepts are instances at the
functional facet and process facet. In the following same time, relations are instantiated between
paragraphs, we present the upper level of ENIO concepts, and some relations are even modeled
as well as the various facets. as concepts (Oberle et al., 2006). Additionally,
We have decided to define an Upper Ontology SUMO provides a rich taxonomy that can be
for ENIO because: a) it provides a reference point applied fruitfully for domain ontologies. On the
and a framework for analyzing, harmonizing, and other hand, DOLCE is conceptually sound, and
integrating existing ontologies and metadata stan- thus ideally suited for reference purposes (Oberle
dards; b) it provides a starting point, a predefined et al., 2006). However, it does not provide an
set of ontological entities and a ontology design extensive and detailed taxonomy like SUMO,
pattern for building new, lower-level, domain and, thus, a considerable amount of additional
ontologies; and c) a carefully engineered upper modelling would be required.
ontology, used as an ontology modelling basis, Hence we are using in ENIO an alignment
avoids the typical shortcomings, i.e. conceptual of DOLCE and SUMO that combines their ad-
ambiguity and loose design, of commonly built vantages by including a core ontology (based on
ontologies (Oberle). DOLCE) and a domain-independent ontology
Based on the analysis of the characteristics of (based on SUMO) to establish the basic layers. The
several freely available foundational ontologies implementation of our uppoer ENIO Ontology is

23
 Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

based on Smart SUMO (Oberle et al., 2006). To with functional semantics. This categorization
align SUMO to DOLCE, we pruned the upper-level of the intended functionality of the services
of the SUMO taxonomy and aligned the remaining combined with ontology-driven match-making
concepts to the appropriate DOLCE categories. algorithms may support efficient and effective
During the alignment, it became apparent that discovery of published services in a business ser-
grasping the intended meaning of SUMO’s terms vices registry. Furthermore, the Functional Facet
is quite difficult because of the loose merging of of ENIO aims to assist manual process design, as
several theories in SUMO. Finding the best fit- the participation of a specific service in a business
ting super-concept in DOLCE for a SUMO term process composition scenario involves mainly the
was therefore non-trivial. In addition, the design formal specification and shared understanding
patterns of DOLCE, such as the design pattern for of its desired functionality. Our meta-model of
modelling qualities of endurants via regions, had the Functional Facet utilizes the Core Ontology
to be taken into consideration when performing of (Web) Services (COS)1, which is a module of
the alignment. the DOLCE foundational ontology (Masolo et
The Data Facet of ENIO aims to formally cap- al., 2002).
ture the semantics of messages exchanged among The purpose of the Process Facet of ENIO
collaborative enterprise applications that expose is to provide means for defining collaborative
their functionality as web services. The data facet business process templates and for annotating the
facilitates dynamic data mediation by enabling the states of Web Services with interior behavioural
design of mappings and XSLT transformations models that may be utilized in semi-automatic
for all service message elements (i.e. inputs and goal-driven composition.
outputs) utilizing the schemaMapping attribute For the meta-model of the ENIO Process Facet
as in (Nagarajan et al., 2006). we developed a process template ontology that
As we do not intend to re-invent the wheel, we follows the MIT Process Handbook methodol-
based the ENIO Data facet on the Core Compo- ogy (Malone et al., 2003) to compose reusable
nents Technical Specification (CCTS). CCTS is process templates and includes the definitions of
currently the ISO 15000-5 Technical Specification public views of processes and their variants, e.g.
and is supported and used by more than 50 projects the “CRM Sales Order Processing” is a variant
and initiatives (including UBL, RosettaNet, CIDX, of the public process “Sales Order Processing”.
SWIFT, OAG, etc). The meta-model of the ENIO Moreover, the ENIO Process Facet meta-model
Data Facet “ontologizes” the meta-modelling classifies each public view of a process under
elements of CCTS, i.e. Core Components (CC), a specific category, associates them with tasks
Data Types (DT), Aggregated CC (ACC), Basic of the Functional Facet and assigns them with
CC (BCC) and Association CC (ASCC). For the exactly one role, e.g. the previously mentioned
population of the Data Facet, we have utilized as public process “CRM Sales Order Processing”
knowledge sources the following standards and is classified under the “Sales and Services” cat-
vocabularies: the OASIS ebXML Core Compo- egory, and is associated to a task variant of the
nents Dictionary, the RosettaNet Business Dic- Functional Facet class “Sales” and to the “Sales
tionary, the OAGIS specification, and the OASIS Representative” role.
Universal Business Language. In addition to this, the Process Facet includes
The Functional Facet of ENIO defines the a State Ontology which extends the “State” class
capabilities of enterprise services and provides of DOLCE in order to describe the states of
classes for the annotation of services operators complex Web Service operations. We aim to use

24
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

the State ontology in the formulation of process sets of technical tasks: a) the smooth integration of
composition goals and in the specification of the COS, since it is built upon DOLCE; b) the manual
transitions from one state to another. creation and integration of the Process Template
and the State Ontologies using the Protégé OWL
the EnIo data facet API, which extended specific classes of DOLCE,
Implementation Issues i.e. the “Process” and the “State” classes; and c)
the creation of the meta-model and initial popula-
As our goal is to provide a general reference tion of the Data Facet utilizing the UBL/CCTS
ontology for a semantically-enriched data media- specification as a basis, which constituted the
tion solution for EAI scenarios, a fine-grained most complicated task and is discussed in the
axiomatisation is not needed. A semi-formal following paragraphs.
ontology providing a common vocabulary with As OWL and UBL/CCTS do not respect the
a formal taxonomy, but without detailed logical same meta-model formalization, we have defined
axioms is enough for our purposes. We therefore a mapping between the UBL/CCTS meta-model
chose a common denominator of ontology fea- and the OWL meta-model in order to develop a
tures which are present in all current ontological conversion utility that handles the transition from
formalisms, including but not limited to RDFS, UBL/CCTS structure to OWL format. By thor-
OWL, and WSML. oughly examining the UBL/CCTS specification,
The features we use are the following: concepts we have decided on its entities that define named
with formal sub-concept relation, instances with classes or classes’ properties and have concluded
formal instantiates relation, and binary properties on the mapping given in Figure 2.
with single concept domain and range constraints. Specifically, the Core Component Types, the
We have chosen OWL-DL as our implementa- Data Types, Aggregated Component Types, and
tion language because it is an already available the Aggregated Business Information Entities
W3C recommendation and has good tool support. (BIEs) define concept classes. Basic Core Com-
Moreover, other ontology formalisms (including ponents (BCCs), the Basic BIEs (BBIEs), and the
WSML) provide conversion utilities from and to Associated BIEs (ABIEs) define object properties.
OWL-DL. We therefore expect that ENIO can Moreover, the qualification of Core Components
be (semi-) automatically translated into various to BIEs is semantically similar to the sub-concept
other formats in the future, if it is needed by the relation between concepts. A similar approach was
target application domain. proposed during the creation of the Business Data
The creation of ENIO comprised several tech- Ontology of in (Oberle et al., 2006) but it was based
nical tasks since already existing upper ontological on CCTS ver. 1.0. The implementation has been ac-
models were utilized and new facet-dependent complished by utilizing the UBL/CCTS published
meta-models where created. First of all, DOLCE XSD schemas, we then loaded them using a java
was reused as the actual upper core ontology. The based data binder (based on the Apache Castor
first goal was the modification of SUMO so as to Library) and parsed the UBL/CCTS elements to
be aligned to DOLCE. Significant work in this OWL with the Protégé OWL API.
field has been done in SmartWeb where a specific Finally we addressed three more problems (a)
alignment has been proposed in (Oberle et al., the fact that UBL/CCTS uses object composition
2006) and has been adopted by us. instead of the typical “is-a” relation and hence we
Regarding the development of the facet- proceeded to manual modifications; (b) the fact
specific meta-models and their integration to the that UBL/CCTS does not use inheritance at all, for
Upper ENIO Ontology, we mainly tackled three which we identified a proper concept taxonomy

25
 Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

Figure 2. UBL/CCTS-to-OWL mapping

and then deleted redundant properties; and (c) in communication while the semantically enhanced
order to avoid the problems associated to the fact profile is exposed to the community and is interop-
that the UBL/CCTS elements use various codes as erable. The task of transforming interoperable
references to another entity, we replaced the codes calls to native calls is undertaken by the exposed
and IDs references with references to instances service itself. But in order to undertake such a task
of the related concepts. the Semantic Annotation and Profiling (SEAP)
tool must be used.
The SEAP tool is used by the IT experts in order
thE sEMantIc annotatIon and to make already existing exposed web services
sEMantIc profIlIng tool PSA enabled (interoperable). PSA enablement is
the cornerstone of the Private Semantic Adapta-
the need for a tool for facilitating tion Layer according to which if a service is made
data Mediation scenarios ‘PSA enabled’ then other services can exchange
data with this service by exchanging Ontological
The backbone of data mediation is the Private concepts.
Semantic Adaptation layer (PSA). According to PSA enablement actually pre-assumes the
the ‘principle’ of PSA each service has a native data, functional and behavioral annotation of the
profile and a semantically enhanced profile. The service along with the provision of information
native profile is meaningful for the intra-company of up-casting and down-casting information. In

26
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

Figure 3. The main SEAP user interface

the frames of this chapter we are interested only The Ontology Browser area is responsible
in data mediation issues only. for visualizing all facets of ENIO i.e. Functional
After the login to SEAP the main UI is presented Data and Behavioral. The Ontology filtering area
(Figure 3). As someone can notice the main UI (also in the middle) is responsible for providing
comprises of 5 areas. In the left we have the Native some keywords in order to sort out the visualized
Services Area, in the middle we have the Ontology Ontology.
Browser area and the Ontology filtering area, and Finally in the right the Adaptation Layer
finally in the right we have the Adaptation Layer Services are visualized. The Adaptation Layer
Services area and the Adaptation Layer Concepts services are actually the instantiation of services
area. We will examine each area separately. that comprise a Collaborative Business Process
The Native Services Area is responsible for the Template (a.k.a. CBP template in the frames of
visualization of the native services of a company. ENIO). The concepts that annotate inputs and
As it has been already discussed, PSA is only ap- outputs of the CBP template are visualized sepa-
plied to companies that have already exposed their rately in the Adaptation Layer Concepts area for
business logic as Web Services. These services convenience.
are selected and visualized in this area.

27
 Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

Figure 4. The WSDL schematic view of exposed web service

the sEap tool functionality • Ontological Concept Search and

walkthrough Filtering. The endmost goal of Ontology
browsing is to identify an appropriate con-
We will start describing the SEAP Editor func- cept that has to be used during the anno-
tionality utilizing a real profiling example. We tation procedure. This implies that the IT
assume that an IT consultant is responsible for consultant has to search among several
making ENIO enabled interoperable services that concepts to identify the most appropriate.
exist in a department of school that has Central- But searching among the whole Ontology
ized IT infrastructure. In Figure 4, the WSDL of is a very painful task. For this reason a fil-
an exposed service (a Student Transfer Service tering functionality has been implemented
specifically) is depicted. per each Ontology tab. By editing a term to
The functional walkthrough of the SEAP tool the user input area and by pressing Filter
is listed below: the Ontology is automatically filtered and
only relative terms are depicted. Relative
• Ontology Selection, Loading and terms is somehow misleading since if a
Visualization. First of all, the IT consultant concepts contains a data type property re-
has to load the Ontology from the Ontology lated with the user-term then this concept
repository. After loading the Ontology is also shown.
all three tabs (one tab per each facet) are • Web Service Description Selection,
filled with the Ontological concepts. As Loading and Visualization. Once the
presented in the Figure 5, the IT consultant IT consultant selects and loads a native
can use the three different tabs to navigate WSDL (corresponding to an Enterprise
through the facets of the Ontology. The Service) communicating with a pre-con-
Ontology is rendered as a tree in order to figured UDDI registry, the WSDL is vi-
achieve maximum convenience during the sualized (Figure 5) in a descriptive man-
user interaction. Both Datatype properties ner, utilizing different visual elements for
and Object properties are visualized. There each one of WSDL building blocks, i.e.
is a completely different graphical notation wsdl:Service, wsdl:Porttype, wsdl:Input,
model for each type of tree nodes. wsdl:Output and finally Message Part.
There is no constraint to the WSDL schema

28
Dynamic Data Mediation in Enterprise Application Integration Scenarios

Figure 5. Multi-faceted ontology and native WSDL visualization

since a description with multiple Services tool, the user is assisted during the anno-
that contain multiple Porttypes with mul- tation procedure since you cannot drop an
tiple inputs/outputs can be successfully Ontological concept to an irrelevant WSDL
loaded. construct e.g. a functional concept to mes-
• Manual Add/Remove-Annotation sage part. After the annotation takes place,
Procedure. The most significant task of the user can easily edit its annotation by
the IT consultant is to annotate the WSDL right clicking the appropriate concept.
using the concepts of the ontology that has • Transformations Creation. Once the data
been already loaded. The use of the SEAP annotations are completed, the IT consul-
tool eases this task since it eliminates tant has to provide the up- and lower- lift-
the overhead of doing the annotation in ing information for the message parts of
the WSDL source level. Such an annota- the selected native WSDL utilizing the
tion would produce questionable results. so-called Transformation Editor of the
According to the Annotation procedure SEAP tool that visualizes all the participat-
that has been defined in the ENIO refer- ing structures. Assuming the existence of a
ence model data annotations refer to mes- wsdl:MessagePart (e.g. CustomerRecord)
sage parts, functional annotations to port that is annotated with the ontological con-
types and behavioral annotations at the cepts “Address” and “Customer”, the IT
message part level also. Using the SEAP consultant connects all elements that exist

29
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XXXVI. KÖTET
A MAGYAR ELŐIDŐKBŐL * EGY ASSZONYI HAJSZÁL

BUDAPEST
RÉVAI TESTVÉREK KIADÁSA
 1895

A MAGYAR ELŐIDŐKBŐL
*
EGY ASSZONYI HAJSZÁL

IRTA

JÓKAI MÓR

A FRANKLIN-TÁRSULAT TULAJDONA

BUDAPEST
RÉVAI TESTVÉREK KIADÁSA

1895

A MAGYAR ELŐIDŐKBŐL
 EGY BUKOTT ANGYAL.
Volt idő, midőn a magyar négy annyi volt, mint mennyi most.
Még ellenségei is magyarból teltek ki; a kún, a jász, a bessenyő,
mind az ő nyelvét beszélték, egy haza bölcsője ringatta őket, egy
név volt őskirályuk neve. Egy örökségen osztoztak egymással.
A kún nemzet most egy pár kerületen megfér, a bessenyő alig
tesz néhány szétszórt falut és maga a magyar oly egyedül van a
világon.
Eltemették egymást. Azt vélték, ellenséget fogyasztanak, és
önmaguk fogytak…
Támadjatok elő ti vérrel és dicsőséggel pazarló idők
képzeleteinkben! tünjenek el előlünk e kalászos mezők, ez ismert
városok! Lássuk az egymásba omló hadsorokat, mint dúlnak előre
hátra harczi paripáikon, halljuk a csatakürtök rivallását, a buzogány
döngését az öblös paizsokon, az összevert kardok csattogását s a
viadalittas harczolók csatakiáltásait.
A harcz reggeltől estig folyik, a folyam pirosan megy alá a
csatatér mellett; azt sem tudni, a lemenő nap festette-e pirosra,
vagy a vér?
A küzdők már felére fogytak alá; – annyi jó férfi fekszik már
némán a mezőn; ajkainkról önkénytelen tör ki a kiáltás:
– Ne bántsd egymást, testvér! vesd el a kardot kezedből, magyar
vér az, a mit kiontasz, szüntesd meg a harczot!
Szavunk nem hallik odáig… Nyolcz század fekszik köztünk és
közöttük.
 ***
A mogyoródi csata megvívatott. Magyar győzött, magyar vesztett.
A herczegek diadalt ültek, a király futott, egyedül rosz ördöge a
Guthkeled Vid veszett a csatában, de elveszett ránézve a korona is
örökre.
Futtában lova kidőlt alóla, gyalog, fáradtan és sebesülten vette
útját az erdőknek, s még hangzott fülében a polgárharcz zaja, már ő
azon gondolkozott, mint lehetne azt újra kezdeni.
A nap leáldozóban volt már, az erdők árnyéki mindig lejebb
szálltak, s midőn a futó király egyszerre megállott, csak akkor vevé
észre, hogy körüle minden oly néma, hogy a hadsorok, miken
keresztül törni vélt, csak a ligeti cserjék virágtalan bozótjai s kisérői,
kiket nyomába ügetni képzelt, a csöndes, hallgatag völgyek.
Körültekinte, senki sem jött utána. Még reggel egész hadsereg
kisérte, még kardját apródjai kötötték föl oldalára, még sisakját az
ősz Ernya tette föl fejére, még sarkantyuit fölcsatolni Vid hajolt le
lábaihoz. És most ezek mind oda vannak, szétverve, halva, vagy
elpártolva talán. És ha a sereg elveszett, nem jobb lett volna-e a
vezérnek is együtt veszni vele, s ha leesett a korona, nem kellett
volna-e a fejnek is utána esni?
A király lélekben, testben összezúzva dőlt le a pázsitra. Kinek
keze egy óra előtt rokon vérrel itatta a haza földét, annak szemei
most forró könyekkel áztatták azt.
Kora tavasz volt az idő, – nem volt még az erdőknek dallosa, és a
királynak még is úgy tetszék, mintha a szellő csalogányok, vagy
angyalok dalait hordozná hozzáig, tündéries töredékben. – Figyelni
kezde s ráismert az énekre, melynek oly csodatevő ereje volt szivén
keresztül hatni. Valami édesbús női hang éneklé buzgón, áhitatosan
a «de profundis»-t.
Az üldözöttnek jól esik az oltár zsámolyához menekülni, és őt
nem csak ellenségei üldözték, hanem saját lelke is.
 Fölkelt s követve a szent hangokat, egy völgy hajlásában kisded
fehér keresztet pillanta meg, mely előtt egy ifjú leány térdelt, – tán
inkább örökké ifjú angyal, vagy valaki a túlvilágról.
A király döbbenve állt meg, félve háborítni a szent hölgy áhitatát,
s míg annak csengő éneklése hangzott, úgy érzé, mintha lelke
megfürödnék e hangokban, lemosva magáról indulatot, vágyat,
szenvedélyt.
A hölgy végezve esti áhitatát, egy közellevő barlangba lépett,
melyet kedveért befutott a téli zöld, hogy a zordon időkben is friss
lomb árnyazza fekhelyét. A természet télen meleget, nyáron hűs
árnyat külde barlangjába, a vadfa gyümölcsöt terme neki, a nem
ápolt mező harmatkásával táplálta, a patak oda folyt barlangjához, s
a fejős szarvastehén bejárt hozzá reggel, este, édes tejével adózni.
A király tisztelettel járult a szent hölgy elé, föl sem merve rá
pillantani.
– Eltévedt vadász áll előtted, oh szent szűz, kit társai elhagytak a
vadászaton, s ki nálad menedékért esd.
A szent szűz csendes szemrehányással viszonzá:
– Te nem vagy eltévedt vadász, te Salamon vagy, ki a csatából
futva jösz.
Salamon megdöbbenten nézett a hölgy arczára. Az fátyollal volt
betakarva, csak beszélő ajkait lehete látni.
– Ha ismersz, rejts el és szabadíts meg, s ha ura leszek egykor e
földnek, kolostort építtetek e helyre, melyben száz hajadonnak leend
menedéke.
A nő jóslatterhesen felelt:
– Ura nem lész te e földnek, s nem kőfal az, a mi a világ elől
menedéket ad, hanem az erény.
 – Nem rémítesz el szavaiddal. Ha elhagyott az Isten, nem
hagytam el magamat én.
– Nem Isten hagyott el téged, te hagytad el őt, esküdtél és
megszegted azt, békét vettél örökségbe, s harczot hagytál magad
után. Nem emberek keze, az Istené ejte el téged.
Salamon összeborzadt.
– Ki adott neked hatalmat szivembe és jövendőmbe látni?
– Az, a kinek keze megszabadíta tőled. Gondolj reá, hogy egy
jóslat már beteljesült rajtad. Ki mondá neked egykor e szavakat: «te,
ki mindenkit üldözesz most, mindenkitől üldözött leendsz egykor?»
– Jehova Istenre, te Irmén vagy! ő mondta azt.
– Irmén meghalt a világnak, én Charitas vagyok, szólt a szent
szűz, felemelve fátyolát, s egy arczot mutatva a királynak, melynek
láttára az térdre hullott.
Liliomfehér arczának egy felhője sem volt még. Redőtlen,
szenvedélytelen volt az, mint az angyaloké, kik csak Istennel
beszélnek, hajfürtei hosszan omlottak alá, tiszta, fehér öltönyére.
Ugy állt ott, mint egy álomkép, mit a szellő jobbra, balra ingat. A
király halvány dicsfényt vélt homloka körül látni.
– Teljesüljön jóslatod egészen! szólt a király meghajolva.
Mondád: «te, ki egy nőt hagysz magad előtt térden állani
könyörtelen, egykor e nő előtt fogsz térdelni magad». Im itt térdelek
előtted.
– Kelj fel, oh király. Charitas nem emlékszik arra, a mit Irmén
mondott. Irmén megátkozott, Charitas imádkozik érted; Irmén
gyűlölte szerelmedet, Charitas szeretni tanít.
A szűz megfogta a király kezét s föl akarta őt emelni, az magához
ragadá hévvel a nyujtott kezet s ajkaihoz szorítá azt; mintha soha
sem akart volna tőle megválni.
 – Te megbocsátottál nekem, és én annyit vétettem ellened!
Kiüldözélek a világból.
– Egy jobb világba üldözél. Az emberektől távol, de az Istenhez
közelebb. Oh, Salamon, jó lakni e magányban itt. Érezni a túlvilág
gyönyörét előre, elfeledni azon árnyék örömöket, miknek töve a
földbe van ültetve, s virága a földre hull; nem érezni indulatot,
alacsony szenvedélyt, érzéki vágyat, csak az Isten közellétét. Én
boldogabb vagyok, mint voltam.
– És mégis miattad vert meg Isten. Egy átok sem eshetett rám
oly keményen, mint a te néma arczodnak egy tekintete, s midőn
kezeim közt mint hervadt virágszál letörtél, akkor éreztem
koronámat fejemen először ingadozni. Im most azért találtalak fel
újra, hogy megmondhassam: lásd, országom elveszett.
– Van egy boldogabb ország, oh király! melyet nem szerez meg
kard, s nem vehet el árulás. Ez ország az égben van. Boldogtalanok,
kik nem ismerik azt, kik nem sóhajtanak, nem epednek utána. Az
élet forrásai vannak előttük rejtve… Ez országnak kapui mindenki
előtt nyitva állnak, csak a bűn előtt vannak zárva. Egy világot látsz
azon belől, melynek zöld mezeje a multak édes emléke, derült ege a
boldog jövő, hol minden felhő egy angyalarcz, mely reád mosolyg,
minden szellő egy köszöntés üdvözültek ajkairól; hol az öröm mindig
új és soha el nem fogy, angyalok hordanak karjaikon, szeráfok éneke
ringat édes álomba, cherubok fonnak koszorút csillagokból
homlokodra s Isten mosolygása napként süt reád, ki ül a napok
napjai felett, hivők, boldogok és szentek hálaimáiban gyönyörködve,
felhallik hozzá a reggeli madárdal és a tiszta kebel titkos sóhajtása, s
ő örül mind a kettőnek. Ez ország nem veszett el számodra, oh
király!
Salamon elmélázva hallgatta a szűz szavait, lelkében új hurokat
halla megrezzenni, s midőn fáradt fejét a szent szűz által illatos
diófalevélből vetett fekhelyére lehajtá, behúnyt szemére leszálltak az
álom tündérei s megnyílt előtte a távol ég; látta a csillagokat
közelebb jönni, a felhőket mosolyogni, megannyi angyalarczczá
válva, hallá a nyájas köszöntéseket láthatatlan ajkakról suhanó szellő
képében, látta a napok napjai felett ülni, ki tartja kezében a
világokat, érzé e fenséges arcz mosolygásának melegét, érzé, mint
ragadják könnyű cherubkezek véghetlen téreken keresztül, és előtte
egy fényes alak repült, egyik kezével az ő kezét fogva, másikban
pálmaágat. És megismerte benne a kedves leányt, kit a világból rút
szenvedélyével kiüldözött, s ki őt azért egy jobb világba jött vezetni,
és saját alakját is látta Salamon, és csodálkozott rajta; hosszú, ősz
ezüst szakáll borult mellére, hófehér haj vállaira s a fényes királyi
öltöny helyett durva szőrkámzsa volt tagjain.
Egyszerre trombitaharsogás rivallt fel az erdőben, az álmából
felriadó király egy csoport lovagot láta a barlang felé sietni, kiknek
vezérében Bátor Opost ismeré meg, az egyetlen, a legvitézebb
lovagot, ki valaha hivatva volt, hogy ellenséges hadak vezéreit
öldösse le.
A hű lovag összegyűjté a csata után Salamon híveinek
megmaradt töredékeit és elindult a királyt fölkeresni.
Neki magának jutott a szerencse őt feltalálhatni. A lovag sírt
örömében, midőn meglátta királyát s leborult, annak kezét csókjaival
s könyeivel elhalmozni.
– Te hű maradtál hozzám? szólt érzékenyen Salamon.
– Ha az egész világ elhagy is, szólt a lovag égre emelve kardját,
én nem hagylak el s ha az egész világ rád támad, én megvédlek,
vagy elveszek.
Salamon a mint a kivont kardot látta megvillanni, elfeledé boldog
álmát, újra harcz és véres dicsőség töltötték el lelkét, megújult
büszkeséggel ült lovára, s arczát az égre vetve, felkiálta:
– Elbuktam, de nem törtem össze!
A mint az égre tekinte, épen hajnalodott, apró rózsaszín
felhőcskék úsztak az égen csendesen; a király egy pillanatig még
most is vélte látni a mosolygó angyalarczokat közöttük, s oly nagy
volt a képzelet csalódása, hogy önkénytelen vitte kezét állához,
hosszú ezüst szakállát végig simítandó.
Azzal csüggedten tekinte szét, szemeivel Charitast keresve, a
szent szűz nem volt látható sehol; Salamon bal előérzettel hajtá le
fejét lova nyakára s fejébe nyomva kalpagát, szótlan bánattal
elnyargalt. Vissza sem tekinte többet.
Már látszottak Pozsony vár tornyai a távolból a menekvők előtt,
Salamon a mint távolabb hagyta a veszélyt, könnyelmű vad kedve
annál erősebben tért vissza. Elfelejté a vesztett csatát, a vett sebet,
mint elfeledé az esküt, melylyel azt magára idézte, s a halavány
Charitas túlvilági arczának körrajzait elmosták szivében a szép
királyné, Judith ragyogó vonásai.
Uj élettervek születtek már agyában. Menekvő csapatja minden
nyomon új bajnokokkal szaporodott; a vár, melyhez közelíte, azon
időben Magyarország legbiztosabb erőssége, hívei által volt
megszállva, a császár, hatalmas ipja nem messze a határtól kész
hadaival, és azután a nejéhez siető szerelmes férj gondolhat-e
egyebet, mint hogy az egész világ rózsákkal van előtte behintve,
bárha háta mögött leütött fejekkel van is beszórva.
– Nyargalj előre, Opos, szólt a király a kapuhoz érve, gondod
legyen rá, hogy midőn megérkezünk, temetés vagy barát, vagy vén
asszony ne jőjjön ránk szembe. Ha jön, kergesd vissza.
És Opos még nem érte el a kaput, midőn egy agg nő jött ki reá
szemközt, nehéz gyászruhában, galambfehér őszhajára fekete
diadem volt körítve.
Opos megdöbbenve rántá vissza lovát. A király anyja volt a nő.
Salamon megilletődve szállott le lováról, hogy anyja karját
megfogja, s mintha neheztelne érte, hogy a baljóslatot ő hozta elő,
elfojtott gyermekies zugolódással mondá:
– Miért nem hordatod magadat zselyeszékedben, ha a városban
jársz?
 – Nem illet már az engemet, szólt reszketeg hangon a matrona,
mankó illik kezembe, szegény nyomorult asszonynak, ki vénségére
koldusbotra jutott.
– Minő háborodottul beszélsz, anyám?
– Hát nem vesztéd el a koronát?
– Azt igen, de megmaradt a kard.
– Vesztetted volna el inkább a kardot!
– Asszonyok így szoktak beszélni, te kevésbbé bánnád, ha
nádszállal látnál is trónomban ülni, mint a megváltót, csak trónban
ülnék.
– A kard az átok a földön, a béke az áldás.
– Igy beszélnek az asszonyok. Ha rajtad állna, összetörnél
minden fegyvert, hogy ne legyen mivel hadakozni. Hiszen egyetlen
nemzeti ereklyénket, Attila kardját, az égből esett aczélt, melyet a
hadisten hajított alá, mely a félvilágot tanítá remegni, s melyet négy
századon át imádtak őseink bálvány istenükként, te csupa kard iránti
ellenszenvből valami bitang rokonodnak elajándékozád, a ki azóta
rég nyársat csináltatott belőle. Az enyémet nem fogod elajándékozni.
– Mit akarsz még? Nem szeret senki saját néped között, országod
határán állasz; idegent, ellenséget akarsz vinni saját hazád ellen? A
vértenger nem ér még ajkadig, a mit kiontál?
– Érjen fejem tetejéig! Békesség idején megrohad a világ, az
emberek elszaporodnak, mint a fügefalevél, s elevenen eszik meg
egymást: így legalább megölik elébb.
– A ki vért vet, halált arat. Emlékezzél azokra, a kik előtted jártak.
Péter véren keresztül jutott a trónra, vérében bukott le róla. Aba
megölte Pétert, az ő feje is legördült. Atyád Aba vérébe hágott és őt
testvére paripái gázolták agyon a csatában. Béla atyád holttestét
lépte át a trón lépcsőjéig, s őt a trón omladékai zúzták össze…
 – Engem hát a haza omladékai temessenek el! kiálta föl elszilajult
daczczal a király.
Az agg királyné eltaszítá fia kezét, s eliszonyodva fordítá el tőle
arczát.
– Legyen hát neked a te szavaid szerint! Menj és ott pihenj meg,
a hol el fogsz esni; vérnyom maradjon utánad a hol jársz; ellenséget
találj akármerre fordulsz, ki ne gázolj a harczból soha; reményed
legyen csalódás és emléked átok, és e hazában, melyet egy sírrá
akarsz ontani, ne találj magadnak egy sírt, melyben megpihenj!
– Asszony, ne tovább! ordíta Salamon magán kívül, s ádáz
dühében annyira elfeledkezék magáról, hogy kezét ősz királyi anyja
ellen fölemelte.
Bátor Opos elszörnyedve veté magát Salamon elé s kezével
föltartóztatá annak öklét.
– Uram, anyádat látod magad előtt.
– Még pedig utoljára! szólt az agg nő, azzal megfordult és
elhagyta Salamont örökre, rajta hagyva átkát.
Salamon nyugtalan kedélylyel nyargalt föl a várba, lelke
háborgását vidámabb gondolatokkal csillapítva. Első kérdése volt
odafenn:
– Hol van nőm?
Az udvarmester kedvetlenül felelt:
– Az éjjel elutazott Regensburgba.
Salamon lelke egyszerre elsötétült, várt viszontlátás öröme volt
benne az egyetlen világos kép s most ez is kitörlődött…
– Tehát nem várt reám. Bizonyosan nem gyanítá, hogy jövök.
 – Sőt hallotta, uram, balsors szerint közeledésedet, s eltávozott
sietve, mert félt, hogy Pozsony ostrom alá jut.
– Úgy? igaza volt, ha azért ment el. Nem izent nekem valamit?
Tán hogy utána menjek? Vagy hogy megizenjem, ha vissza jöhet?
Az udvarnagy hallgatott. És Salamon úgy szeretett volna
kérdezősködni.
– Nem volt-e beteg? Nem érte-e az úton valami baj? volt-e
elegendő kísérete?
– Volt uram. Ulrich herczeg kísérte el.
Salamon arcza még jobban elborult. Közel volt hozzá, hogy
sírjon. Rögtön leült levelet írni nejének, s azt elküldé leggyorsabb
futárja által, lelkére kötve, hogy siessen a válaszszal vissza. A levél
tele volt gyöngéd panaszszal, forró szerelemmel, epedő vágygyal, a
hogy szerelmes férjek szoktak nejeiknek levelet írni.
Salamon nem volt ember addig, míg a hirnök válaszszal vissza
nem érkezik, nem volt eszméje, nem volt gondolatja ez egyen kívül,
tízszer fölment egy órában a vároromra, vizsgálva, hogy nem jön-e
futárja? Kiszámítá az órát, melyre oda kelle érnie, az időt, mennyi
kellett nejének, hogy levelet írjon, s azután vissza az útat. S midőn
elmult az óra, nyugtalanul töprenkedék magában, mi történhetett,
hogy senki sem jő. Tán a hirnököt fogták el az úton, vagy elveszté
levelét s nem mer vissza jönni? – vagy talán kiáradt valami folyam, a
víz elvitte a kompokat s a hirnök tulnan rekedt.
Oh, az aggódó ember oly leleményes a legtávolabb lehetőségek
kitalálgatásában, s rendesen a legközelebbit nem látja.
Végre abban kezde megnyugodni, hogy neje tán azért nem küld
izenetet, mert maga akar jönni helyette, s e gondolaton sokáig
megpihent, de a hogy a másnap is elmult, nem állhatá tovább; új
hirnököt küldött új levéllel, harmadnap harmadikat, s ez így ment
egy hétig, a levelek mind panaszosabbak, mindig szemrehányóbbak
kezdtek lenni.
 Salamon elvégre alig ismerte már magát, semmire sem tudott
egyébre gondolni, kérdésre nem felelt, feleletre nem várt, semmi
sem érdekelte és minden izgatta. Végre mintegy heted napra
visszaérkezett valamennyi hirnöke, egy igen rövid levelet hozva
Salamonnak, melyben Judith szárazon tudósítja, hogy a császár nem
sokára Pozsonyba menend, s hogy ő a helyett, hogy helyzetéhez
illetlen szerelmi ömledezésekkel foglalja el lelkét, sokkal bölcsebben
teend, ha azon törődik, mint foglalja vissza elvesztett országát.
Ez keserű orvosság volt, de használt.
Salamon egy ideig zúgolódott ugyan, mint kit igen édes álomból
költenek fel azzal a szóval, hogy induljon dologra, hanem utoljára is,
ha álmodni szép, de ébren lenni jó. S harczra készülő embernek
sokat ér egy kis szerelmi, vagy családi keserűség.
IV. Henrik nem sokára leérkezett Pozsonyba s hadseregeivel
megindult a Duna balpartján, veje országát visszahódítani.
De az anyaátok mindenütt feje fölött lebegett annak! Vele járt a
seregekkel éh- és döghalál képében, nehéz álmokat küldött a
vezérekre, mikből a velük volt püspökök baljóslatokat magyaráztak,
a jóslatok híre elterjedt a katonák közt, s azok az út felén megálltak
vezéreik ellen fellázadva, s visszatértek az ellenség elől, kit még csak
álmaikban láttak.
Salamont elhagyta Isten és ember.
A beteg oroszlán ellen feltámadnak a farkasok.
A nemes vetélytársak, Géza és László nem üldözék a legyőzött
fejedelmet, ott hagyták őt békével időzni Mosonyban; hanem
előjöttek bukása hírére mind azok, kiket egykor dicsősége
tetőpontján fegyverei villogása elől futni látott.
A kún és bessenyő fajok, elűzve a Száván túli erdők menedékébe,
összegyűjték falkáikat, s előjöttek éktelen vad csordáikkal, az elesett
boszúállót meggázolni.
 A király hívei kis csapatjától környezve, nem mérhette össze
kardját elleneivel a sík mezőn; Henrik ujra el volt foglalva saját
pártos vazalljaival, hanem élt a szomszéd morva földön egy derék
kövér gróf, Mjesko, Salamon végveszélyében ennek igért jó csomó
pénzt, hogy verje el róla a hivatlan vendégeket.
A grófnak úgy sem levén egyéb dolga, megalkudott nyolczvankét
véka lengyel garasban a szorongatott királylyal, s mire a bessenyő
had a Fertő egyik szélihez ért, ő is megérkezett jó pánczélos
lovagjaival Mosonyba.
Derék, termetes ifjú vala a morva gróf, mintegy negyvennyolcz
esztendős. Derekát két ember öllel keresztül nem érte, s ló el nem
viselte terhét egy óránál tovább. Tenyereit ha befogta, elveszett
bennök az öblös palaczk, s tartalma a hordónak elenyészett ajkai
nyilása előtt, hosszú bajusza nagymessze lelógott, s kétfelől felhajtva
az öve mellé volt bedugva, nehogy valamibe találjon akadni.
Rettentő ereje híres volt hetedhét országon, mert a patkót csak
úgy tördelte ketté, mint utódai a vajas süteményt, és két kézre
fogott pallosával képes volt nyeregkápáig ketté hasítani a pánczélos
embert. Csupán az az egy baja volt, hogy ha egyszer elesett, nem
tudott többet felkelni, s ha egyszer lovára felült, nem tudott többet
leszállani.
Ő tehátlan megérkezék, ivott is rögtön baráti poharat a királylyal,
s másnap mindjárt neki indult, megtudva, hol az ellenség, s igérte
keményen, hogy az egész ronda hadat párjával összekötözve fogja
rabságra hajtani, s valahány szárazmalom van országában, abban
mind őrölni fognak.
Ez igen jeles szándékkal kivonult a bessenyők elé s szüntelen a
Fertő partja mellett tartva s naponként elismerést érdemlő
óvatossággal és körültekintéssel nem téve több útat két órainál,
végre egy szép esti órában meglátta a túlsó parton a bessenyő tábor
számtalan füstjeit, miknél e barbár emberek egész ökröket sütöttek.
 Ott tehát jó biztosságban érezve magát, – minthogy a víz nagyon
széles volt, szépen sátort üttetett, táborát körülsánczolá, hegyes
karókat is veretve mellé, azon hadi tervet készítvén magában, hogy
onnan addig meg nem mozdul, míg ellenségét helyéből ki nem
éhezteti, s vagy arra nem kényszeríti, hogy sánczait megrohanja a
vízen keresztül, vagy pedig megadja magát.
E becses határozatnál maradván, maga s több vezérei kisétálának
a tópartra, fölállítának egy hordót s azt körülülvén, poharazának
emberségesen, mialatt a lemenő nap gyönyörűen behinté aranynyal
a Fertő síma tükrét.
A Fertő síma tükrén itt-ott egy úszó lápot hajtogatott a föltámadó
szél. Mjeskó, ki még sohasem látott olyat, csodálkozva hallá
kisérőitől megmagyaráztatni, hogy azok tündérnádasok, miket az
elfek és érlek, s más afféle morva lidérczek hajtogatnak a vizen alá s
föl, néhány magyar is vala ott, hanem az nem tudott rajtok egyebet,
mint békát és szunyogot.
A határgróf bámulá őket kegyesen. – Ni, hogy úsznak erre-arra!
bárcsak egy felénk közelednék, itt meglepnénk s elfognánk rajtuk a
lidérczeket, és spiritusba téve bemutatnánk a synodusnak.
És erre a szóra egy zöld folt csakugyan elkezde feléjök tartani
szép egyenes irányban haladva, mindig közelebb, közelebb; a víz
színe felett csak a nádbojtok látszottak, rezegve, hajladozva, mintha
valami rázná őket alól.
Már egészen közel ért az úszó nádberek.
– Sehol sem látom a tündéreket, – szóla Mjeskó. – Hja azok a víz
alatt vannak, ott készítenek sípot és dudát a nádszárból s lovagolnak
a halakon. – Hálót kell alájok vetni s elfogni őket halastól.
De mielőtt a hálót valaki kivethette volna, egyszerre megdűlt a
nádberek, s helyette száz torzpofájú rémalak bukott föl a víz színére,
vad ordítással rohanva a parton iddogálókra.
 Bessenyők falkája volt ez, kik meglátva Mjeskó táborát, a tóba
bocsátkoztak, mindegyik egy hosszú nádszálat fogva szájába s azon
keresztül szíva levegőt a víz alatt, átusztak észrevétlenül a gyanutlan
bámulók szemeláttára s mielőtt azok ijedelmükből magukhoz
térhettek volna, rajtuk rohantak görbe fűrészfogú késeikkel, s
kikeresték a helyet, a hol nem talál pánczélt a vas, hón alatt és
vékonyán szurkálva a meglepett vigadókat.
Azok a zavar első pillanatában azt sem tudták, mihez fogjanak; a
pokoli lárma, e vízből előtámadt ördögök fekete pofái annyira
megzavarták őket, hogy fegyvereiket sem találták oldalaikon, s mire
az első rémülésből magukhoz térve, visszafordultak megtámadóikra,
azok végezve, a mit végezhettek, egyszerre visszafutottak ismét a
vízbe s átúsztak, a honnan jöttek. Csupán egyetlen egy került
belőlük fogságra, ki Mjeskóval magával eredvén birkozásba, azt
ugyan fel bírta taszítani, hanem a herculesi erejű ember ekkor úgy
magához szorította őt két kezével, hogy az meg sem bírt mocczanni,
s ha Mjeskónak azon már elébb említett sajátsága nem lett volna,
hogy ha egyszer elesett, többé felkelni nem tudott, legyürhette volna
ellenségét; így azonban be kellett érnie azzal, hogy őt ott tartsa
magán, míg emberei oda érnek s elébb azt jól megkötözve, őt is
szépen felemelik.
Az ekként elfogott bessenyő mozdulatlanul esett a földre, s akár
rúgták vagy ütötték, semmi jelét sem adta az életnek.
– Ebből ugyan kiszorítád a lelket uram. Mondának Mjeskónak.
– Nem kell neki hinni, kiálta ez dühösen, elszörnyedve ez
emberek vakmerőségén. Összemorzsolhattam volna, de készakarva
nem tevém, hogy tőle megtudhassuk seregeik számát, vezérük
szándékát, s más egyebet. Rakjatok máglyát, vessétek fel reá, majd
ha égni fog alatta, akkor ő is megszünik a halottat játszani.
A katonák rögtön máglyát raktak sánczkarókból, feltevék rá a
bessenyőt, az feküdt rajta élettelenül hátrakötözött kezekkel.
 A láng felcsapott a máglyán, a bessenyő meg sem mozdult, már
haja és szakálla leégett, a tűz tagjait csapdosá, egy vonás sem
mutatta rajta, hogy él, míg a lángok közepett a kötelek leégtek
karjairól, akkor egyszerre felugrott a tűz közül, s egy égő hasábbal
szétcsapva maga körül, a felriadt csoporton keresztül, összeégett
testtel kirohant és beleveté magát a Fertőbe s miután messze
beuszott, rémületes kaczagással fordítá vissza összeperzselt arczát
kővé meredt üldözőire, kikben hülni kezdett a vér.
– Nem. Ördögökkel nem harczolunk, mondának Mjeskó zsoldosai,
ha csillagokkal fizetsz is bennünket. Emberek ellen szegődtünk, de
ezek világosan ördögök, kik tűzben, vízben hadakoznak. Te is fogj
magadnak ördögöket, ha velök harczolni akarsz.
Mjeskó mit tehetett volna? Igéret és fenyegetés hiába volt,
emberei felmondták a szolgálatot s ha azt akarta, hogy vele
menjenek, kénytelen volt őket visszavezetni Mosonyra.
A király már azt hivé, hogy az ellenséget hozzák.
– Derék szomszéd, monda Mjeskó szörnyűképen kegyes képpel.
Tudod, hogy én a múlt husvét előtt való nagyhéten bűnös
vallástalansággal vadászatot tartván, lovamról leestem s kimarjítám
a bokámat; akkor fogadást tevék szent Hubertusra, hogy soha az
egész nagybőjtön keresztül semmiféle vérengző munkába nem
kezdek. Midőn felszólítál, nem jutott eszembe, hogy épen a
nagybőjtben vagyunk, most figyelmeztet reá a castellanusom. Én
kétségbe vagyok esve. Azt átlátod, hogy fogadásomat megszegnem
lehetetlen, én pedig átlátom, hogy te nem várhatod el a nagybőjt
végit, hogy akkor kezdj csatába. Hanem azt tanácslom neked, állj ki
te magad a mennyi embered van e gaz pogányok ellen, így te fogod
kezdeni a harczot, nem én. Én magam majd felmegyek a baki
hegyre, s ha akkor aztán meglátom, hogy tégedet vernek, na akkor
én is lejövök, én bele elegyedem a csatába, mert már a folytatás
fogadásomon kívül esik.
 Salamon megérté a dolgot, s hagyta menni a grófot a hová neki
tetszik, maga pedig felment szobájába, kiválasztá a legjobbik kardját
s összegyűjtve saját harczosait, megálla közöttük és szilárd
reszketéstelen hangon szólt:
– Itt az idő, hogy meghaljak, a ki halni akar, velem jön utánam.
A bajnokok szemeiből kicsordult e szókra a köny. Kevesen
valának számra, de mindnyájan jó vitézek, s ha egyenkint
fölszámította volna mindegyik: hány ellenséget ölt meg életében,
nagy sereg telt volna ki belőle.
– Nem úgy uram, szólt kardját megütve Opos. Királyok nem
halnak oly könnyen, elébb meghalunk mi mind, s a hova mégy, oda
nem utánad, hanem előtted megyünk.
A király megrázta a hős jobbját. Hej sokan megismerék ezt a
jobbot, a kiknek nem maradt idejük róla beszélni.
– Hogy elvesztém országomat, szólt a király, az a gondolat is
nehezen ül szivemen; hogy magyar volt, a ki legyőzött, s ön
nemzetem, ki száműzött, ez fáj és kétségbeejt; de hogy e nyomorult
bitang had meggyalázza bennem a magyar királyt, s bepiszkolja
nemzetemet, azt nem tűröm, s ha nem maradt egyebem ez
országból, mint ennek határa, e határért megvívok, vagy elveszek.
A harczosok elkeserült ordítása hirdeté, hogy nem fog elveszni
egyedül.
– Ha elbuktam, testvér volt, a ki elejtett, szólt a király, – és
nálamnál jobb vitéz. De ti nektek léha rablók, megmutatom, hogy
még nem gyengült el a kar, mely egykor a bolgár hegyekig vert,
mely Belgrád alatt összetört! s ha lesznek köztetek, kik találkoztak
velem Cserhalomnál, majd megmondják, ha sápadtabb vagyok-e
mint voltam akkor?
Ezalatt a Hanság téreit e barbár gyülevész ellepé.
 Fajonként megosztva külön csoportosult, a hol szabad térre
kapott az erektől átszeldelt ingoványba, sátorhely és legelőnek
foglalván el annak süppedékes szigetjeit.
Itt kurta kazarok legeltették lovaikat, makacs, indolens nép,
magok is rajt ültek a lovon, soha le nem szálltak róla, a nyers húst
nyergeik alá tették s mire az a nyargalás melegétől megporhanyult,
akkor hasznukra fordíták; a lovak legeltek szanaszét, gazdáik aludtak
rajtuk, előre, hátra bókolva, vagy végig hasalva a lovon, s midőn a
kürtszó megzendült, egyszerre nyeregben ültek s felütve villogó
szemeiket, nyargaltak ismét előre. A legszélesebb vizeket lovaik
hátán uszták meg, s ha egy várat elfoglaltak, még a lépcsőket és a
szédítő sánczormokat is lóháton nyargalták össze.
Távolabb lármás jászok zajongtak, soha ki nem fogyva a perből
és osztozásból, egész nap elhuzakodtak egy-egy rablott paláston,
rongyokat hasogatva belőle, s ha otthon elfogyott a per, a szomszéd
nyirekre kezdtek átlövöldözni nyíllal.
Emezek jó fustélyforgató pásztorok voltak, kik szerették elhajtani
a más csordáit, s e szándékkal csatlakoztak a bessenyőkhöz.
Öltözetük legnagyobb ellenségeik bőréből, a farkasokéból telt ki,
melyet derekukon átkötének; hajuk hátul le volt nyirva, elől három
csimbókba kötve, mely jobbra, balra fityegett.
Középen feküdt a bessenyők hada, eleven, lóhátas nép, kiknek
mindegyike képes volt lovon nyargaltában ellőni nyíllal a repülő
fecskét s egy kötéllel elkerített térségen tanyázott maga Zolta vezér,
válogatott testőreivel. Ezek voltak a hadsereg legszálasabb legényei,
hosszú kopjákkal ellátva, s hogy mentül borzasztóbbak legyenek az
ellenségnek, a levágott ökrök bőrei fejeikre voltak huzva, s úgy
csüngtek végig hátaikon, úgy, hogy messziről két szarvú
ördögcsordának lehete őket bátran nézni. Köröskörül iszonyú tüzeket
raktak összehordott nádkévékből, nem azért, hogy süssenek nálok
valamit, hanem hogy megvilágítsák a tájat.
 Zolta leterített medvebőr kaczagányán feküdt a tüzek mellett és
aludt, mint a kősó. Felhasgatott borostömlők, mik üresen hevertek
körüle, engedék gyanítani mély álma okait s ha az öklében tartott
buzogányról s néhány mellette bevert fővel horkoló bajtársról lehet
következtetni, hihetőleg élénk vita előzé meg az édes álmot.
Kissé távolabb, egy emeltebb dombon lehete látni egy
szekérsánczot, melyen belől tanyáztak a kunok, kiket Kutesk király
saját harczias leánya vezérlete alatt küldött, annak eljegyzett
vőlegénye, Zolta segélyére.
Hadilán volt a neve a délczeg amazonnak, s ha a saját táborában
uralkodó rendet nézzük, ismeretség előtt gyanítanunk kell, hogy
nevét megérdemelte, jelentvén az elég világosan magyarul «hadi
lányt».
A hajnal már pirkadni kezdett, midőn a Mosony felé elfuttatott
kémek visszaérkeztek azon hírrel, hogy Salamon síkra szállt.
Föl kelle ébreszteni a vezért, hogy tartson rögtön korultájt (így
hívták a tábori gyűlést náluk), de hiába ránczigálták azt, meg-
megmozdult, jót rugott azon, a ki költögette s aludt tovább. Nem
volt mód lelket verni bele.
Ekkor egynek az jutott eszébe, hogy meg kell fuvatni a riadót, s a
mint az első kürthang megszólalt, Zolta rögtön talpra ugrott, s
egyszerre kijózanulva tekinte szét.
– Mi hír? kérdé, meglátva kémeit.
– Salamon közeleg hadával.
– Mennyit tesz e had?
– Mehet mindössze nyolczszázra.
Zolta felkaczagott.
– Hisz ezt ha meg kellene ennünk, sem laknánk jól vele. Kár,
hogy gyermekeinket nem hoztuk magunkkal, most azokat
küldhetnénk ellenök. Hirdessétek ki a seregben, hogy ma nem lesz
csata, hanem hajtóvadászat.
A sereg az alatt mindenünnen összegyült, mindenki lován ült már,
csak Hadilánra várakoztak még. Ezalatt zajgott, lármázott mindenki;
minden vezérnek és minden közembernek más hadi terv fúrta az
agyát. Egyik azt mondta: vegyük őket körül s fogjuk el mindenestől,
– másik beakará őket csalni a Hanságba s ott megszorítani; a jászok
rögtön akartak menni, a kazarok el akartak kerülni Mosonynak s
Salamon háta mögött kirabolni a várost, a vezérek előbb
összevesztek Zoltával, azután egymás között, végre katonáikkal.
Mindegyik jobban akarta tudni, hogy mit kell tennie, egy sem
akart hátul, vagy oldalvást állni, hanem valamennyi első akart lenni,
ki az ellenséget megtámadja.
A nyirek előbb bátorságos helyre iparkodtak szállítani csordáikat s
behajtották azokat a Hanság ingoványai közé; a jászok észrevéve,
hogy őket hátul akarják hagyni, összesugtak s egy szót sem szólva
senkinek, előre elosontottak az ellenséget fölkeresni, míg a kazarok,
kik a magyar sereg megkerülésére voltak rendelve, egyet gondoltak
s neki rugtattak Mosonynak, hogy azt társaik előtt bevegyék.
Végre előjött Hadilán szekérvárából, megjelenvén a lármás
korultájon, a hol már akkor senki sem hallotta saját szavát.
A magas, karcsú amazon büszkén ült hollófekete paripáján.
Naptól barna arczán keresztül világlott a vér piros heve s nincs az
égnek sem oly napja, sem oly éjszakája, mint az ő két fekete szeme,
miknek villanása többször tudott győzni, mint éles kardjáé. Hosszú,
göndör haja, mint egy palást borult le kereken domború csipejéig, s
utána lobogott, ha vágtatott a csatában. Gömbölyű karjai fedetlenek
voltak, arany pereczekkel körülszorítva; rövid ujju dolmány feszült
délczeg termetéhez csattos boglárokkal. Gyakran megesett, hogy az
ellenség, kivel összecsapott, mintegy elbűvölve, rajta feledé szemeit
a bűbájos alakon, s nem véve észre kardja villanását, égő szemeitől
megrontva.
 Zolta durva tréfával fordult arájához.
– Későn ébredtél a kürtszóra, menyecske, nagyon sokáig
piperézted magad. Csata napján nem kell annyit időzni a
cziczomával.
– Ma ránk nézve nem lesz csatanap, – viszonzá Hadilán
komolyan.
– Mit mondasz?
Az éjjel kimentek a jósok a berkekbe a farkasok szavait hallgatni,
és megérték belőle, hogy e mai nap ránk nézve veszélyes. Hagyd e
napot lemenni, s kezdj harczot azután.
– Vessz el jósaiddal együtt! nem hiába viselnek a kunok
vászonöltönyt, s engedik magukat asszonytól vezérelni, gyávák
valamennyien. Szállj le lovadról némber, s végy guzsalyt és pártát,
kard és sisak helyett, és ti gyáva kunok mindannyian pusztuljatok
szemem elől, vagy rátok küldöm testőreimet, s lehuzatlak lovaitokról
és tehenet adok alátok.
– Próbálj közel jönni ökreiddel, – szólt Hadilán felemelve fokosát;
megérzik a taglót szarvaik között, fogadom azt.
A többi vezérek közbeveték magukat, különben ott mindjárt
egymás közt kezdték volna meg a csatát, s Zoltát nagy nehezen félre
taszigálva, Hadilánt rávevék könyörgéseikkel, hogy vonuljon vissza
szekérsánczába; hanem azt nem gátolhatták meg, hogy a bessenyő
tábor csufondáros kiabálással és fütytyel ne boszantsa a kunokat s
egy merész ficzkó szekérsánczuk szélére egy kopjára szúrt szoknyát
zászló gyanánt fel ne tűzzön.
Ezalatt lassankint előre mozdult a tábor, nagy hühó és rikoltozás
között. Zolta összeterelt mintegy huszezer csatárt, de csak akkor
vette észre, hogy nem tud velük hova lenni. Egy pár száz szót
fogadott, a többi azt tette, a mit akart.
 A Hanságon keresztül egy szűk téren lehet jutni, melynek
mellékutait, ha sokáig száraz az idő, kocsikkal is lehet járni, de ha
megáznak, akkor csak a közepén járható az út.
E síkon vonult végig a rendezetlen sereg. Az eleje már
mérföldekre elől volt, míg a hátulja csak akkor bontakozott;
csatarendnek, hadseregfelállításnak, haditervnek híre sem volt.
Iparkodott mindenki mentül előbb ellenséget találhatni.
Salamon és kisded csapatja – mind elszánt bátor vitézek, –
azonban hátukat egy fűzes dombnak vetve, várták ellenségeiket,
készek vagy győzve, vagy holtan maradni a csatatéren.
Halvány arczczal, de büszkén állt legelől a király, legpompásabb
fegyverzetét ölté fel magára, csillogott rajta arany és boglárkő, hogy
messziről megismerje benne az ellenség a vezért, s minden nyíl őt
keresse. De mellette áll balfelől Opos, sohasem távozva oldalától,
hogy őt találja előbb minden csapás, mielőtt a királyt érné.
Egyszerre megharsant körül a csataordítás. Az elősietett jászok
kibukkantak a fűzerdőkből, s meglátva Salamon csapatját, vad
süvöltéssel kapták le vállaikról tegzeiket, s a több száz lépésnyi
távolból sűrű nyílfelleget lőttek fel az égre, mintha előre elrémíteni
akarnák elleneiket; a nyilak az éktelen távolt megfutva, ártalmatlanul
hullottak le Salamon harczosai lábaihoz, egy-kettő megüté a király
pánczélját is és visszapatant róla.
De más felhők érkeztek most csatázni. Míg a bessenyő sereg
nyílzáporral rémíté a magyarokat, mintha Isten szavára
viszhangoznának, megdördültek egyszerre az ég sarkai, s fekete
gomolygó felhők kezdtek tornyosodni az égre, a csatatéren rettentő
forgószél viharzott végig, homokkal szórva tele a jászok arczát s
nyilaikat elkapkodva, a villám végig czikázott az égen, s a meghasadt
felhőből omolni kezdett a zápor; a bessenyő sereg legfélelmesebb
fegyvere, a nyíl, megszünt ártani, az esőben kiengedtek a tegzek
húrjai, s a meglankadt ideg nem volt képes a nyilat elpattantani
többé.
 – Isten harczol velünk! kiáltá a király s megeresztve lova zabláját,
lerohant a halomról megtámadóira, kik előnyüktől megfosztva, egy
percz alatt össze lőnek törve a rendezett csapat rohamától.
A tegzet el lehetett vetni, s az ügyetlen görbe kard, melyet
magukkal viseltek, nem védte meg félmeztelen tagjaikat a nehéz
harczszekercze csapásai elől.
Az eső zuhatagokban szakadt alá, de még a vér is; mire Zolta a
derék sereggel megérkezék, jász csapatjai már akkor le voltak
aprítva.
A mint a sötét láthatáron föltüntek e borzalmas alakok, ágas
szarvaikkal, Salamon emberei visszarettentek, azt vélve, hogy
ördögök jönnek rájuk.
– Ejh – kiálta Bátor Opos, lássuk meg hát, hogy az ördögöt nem
fogja-e a kard? – s azzal neki rugaszkodva, rajtahajtott Zolta
seregein, s a mint az elsővel találkozék, azt úgy találta két szarva
közt ütni buzogányával, hogy menten a lova alá bukott.
Vérszemet kapának erre társai is s belerontva a felszarvazott
seregbe, oly pusztítást követtek el benne, mintha valódi ökrökkel lett
volna dolguk s a mi egy percz előtt ijedségükre szolgált, az most
nevetségessé vált előttük.
Zolta vezér azonban, látva mint rontja össze hadsorait a neki
dühödött Bátor Opos, neki fordítá a kantárszárat, s hosszú dárdáját
két ökölre fogva, neki vágtatott a daliának, ki véres arczczal dúlt
testőrei között, egyik kezében kopját, másikban kardját forgatva.
A tér megritkult, a hol e két ádáz harczos összetalálkozék, a
vezér dühösen csóválta meg gombos szálfáját s egy iszonyú csapást
mért vele Opos fejére. A szálfa lezúgott, de Opos visszavágott rá
kardjával s a dárda hegye és gombja messze lerepült nyeléről. Zolta
kardját rántá ki ekkor, s egy testőre az alatt pajzsát tartá elé, hogy
Opos süvöltő kopjája elől megóvja, de az elhajított gerely keresztül
törte a tizenkét bivalybőrből készült vértet s megjárva a
fegyverhordó vékonyát, az egész embert vértestül együtt, áthatott
hegyével ura pajzsához szegzé, mint a denevért szokták az ajtóba
verni.
Zolta elrémülten fordult meg erre Opos előtt s futni kezdett
veszélyes ijedelemmel, jelt adva hadainak a szaladásra.
Ez rendes fogás volt a barbár hadaknál, ha nem várt akadályra
találtak, visszafordultak s addig csalogaták maguk után üldöző
elleneiket, míg alkalmasabb térre jutva, ismét helytállhatnak nekik,
vagy véletlen tőrbe csalhatták az utánok rohanókat, s akkor
egyszerre körülfogták.
De most rosszul sikerült a csel; a folyvást szakadó zápor
megárasztá az ereket hátuk mögött, miken átjöttek, s a mint a
bessenyő hadak vissza akartak vonulni, a biztos mezők helyett,
miken az éjjel lovaikat legeltették, süppedékes ingoványra leltek,
mely lépteik alatt beroskadt s elnyelte a lovagot lovastul; a
mocsárnak szorított nyirek nem birtak kihatolni a dágványok közől, a
hátul űzött seregektől beletaposva az iszapba, míg Salamon vitézei
jól ismerve az utat, mely egyedül volt járható ily időben, bizton
üldözék a menekülő Zoltát, ki seregeit veszendőben hagyva, egy
kisded csapattal futott vissza Hadilán szekérsánczáig, segélyt és
menedéket könyörögve arájától.
– Eredj tova! – szólt az amazon, elutasítva őt onnan. – Bolond
voltál a harcz előtt, gyáva vagy a harcz után. Vidd fejeden a vészt.
Zolta káromolva vágtatott az esőszakadásban tova, sehol sem
állíthatva meg seregét, mely a keskeny partos gátra szorult s
szemeivel látva, mint vesznek el a többiek, kik a mellékutakon
rohanva, a mocsárba tévelyedtek. Egy rendetlen gomoly, mely
egymást tapossa a vizekbe és iszapba. Gázoló lovak, miknek
zablájába, farkaiba fuldokló emberek kapaszkodnak, mentül tovább,
annál nagyobb a víz, s annál kevesebb a fő, nagy messze alig látszik
még egynehány, kik beúsztak a Fertő közepébe, ijedelmükben nem
tudva: merre a part?
 Mint a krónikaíró mondja: «az ellenség elolvadt a király arcza
előtt, mint a viasz a tűz színétől». Egyedül Hadilán szekérsáncza állt
még ellent a győztesek rohamának. A kunok hosszú dárdákra kapva,
szekereiken álltak s előbb a rajtuk özönlő bessenyőket taszigálták el
onnan, megtagadva tőlük a menedéket, s a hogy azok elfogytak,
daczos arczczal fordultak üldözőik, a magyarok ellen. Számra
mindkét had egyenlő volt, a szemetet elfútta a szél, csak a magva
maradt ott, s ha az egyiket lelkesíté a diadal, a másikat a
kétségbeesés. A nyíl haszontalan fegyver volt e perczben, csak a
kopja és a csákány használt, a férfiak vértet vértnek fektetve víttak,
csattogott az érczpaizsokon a buzogány s ki-kihallatszott a harczból,
mint a menykőcsattanás, Bátor Opos harczfejszéjének ütése. A
magyarság lóhátról harczolt, a kunok a szekereken állva; benn
Hadilán nyargalt körül, fekete paripáján ülve, csengő hangja bátorítá
a harczolókat; hosszú langos haja lobogott mint egy harczi zászló s
kardjának és szemeinek villanásai versenyeztek a villámokéval.
Háromszor ostromolt már a magyar, háromszor verte őt vissza
Hadilán, midőn maga a király ragadá kezébe a zászlót s paripájával
neki vágtatva a sáncznak, felszökött a legszélső szekérre, vakmerően
odavetve magát megrémült ellenfelei közé. A másik perczben már
Bátor Opos paizsa fogá föl a reáirányzott csapásokat, nehéz
harczfejszéje elejte mindenkit, a ki Salamonra tört s néhány pillanat
alatt át volt szakítva a szekérsáncz; a támadt résen dühösen
rohantak Salamon után a magyarok, a kún elhányta fegyverét,
csupán egy kis csapat állott még ellent, ott vívott Hadilán, ércz
szavával bátorítva mellette harczoló híveit. Mindig apadt azoknak
száma, alig vívott még nehány ifju, egyenként elhulltak ők is,
egyedül maradt az amazon, a győztes magyaroktól körülfogva.
– Add meg magad kún leány! kiálta rá Opos dörgő szava.
– Élve nem, szólt Hadilán, és elveté paizsát, sisakját s úgy állt
fedetlenül, ágaskodó paripájára emelkedve s kardját megforgatva
feje fölött, mintha csak a halálért akarna még küzdeni.
 E pillanatban fölszakadtak a felhők s az alá sütő nap fényes
küllője odavilágított a király délczeg hősi alakjára, a mint
méltóságteljesen közelíte a hölgy felé.
Hadilán karja reszketett, a kard aláhanyatlott kezében, a mint e
tüneményt megpillantá, nem hős volt többé, ki a kardot tartá,
hanem egy gyenge nő, s miután szivét elveszté a király ellenében,
minek tartotta volna meg kardját? azt is átnyujtotta neki.
A mint elvégződött a harcz, egyszerre kisütött a nap s Mjeskó
gróf arcza is kisütött a baki hegyről, a honnan ő nézte vala az egész
csata folyamát.
Nagy elégülten jött alá, megrázta Salamon kezét, megdicsérte,
hogy jól viseltük magunkat, s kivánta immár, hogy miután az
ellenség meg van verve, méresse ki vékával az ő szegődött garasait
a nyujtott segítségért.
A király elbámult: hisz te csak nézni segítettél.
– Mit tehetek én arról, hogy téged meg nem vertek s rám nem
került a sor!
– Igen jól van, tehát a hány ellenséget levágtál, annyi vékával
méress ki magadnak kincstáramból – ne garast, hanem aranyat.
Mjesko gróf haragudni akart e gonosz tréfáért, s még azzal
fenyegetőzött, hogy összekap Salamonnal, de a király elég jókor
figyelmezteté őt azon fogadására, hogy nagybőjt alatt vérengzést
nem kezd, melyre aztán a jámbor gróf visszatért a maga hazájába, a
maga embereivel, sok tapasztalást vivén magával.
Salamon visszabocsátá atyjához a fogoly amazont. Könyezve vált
az el tőle. A király nem látta e könyet.
A kit a korona gondja foglal el, nem lát az álmában
rózsakoszorúkat.
 – Ha egykor nem lesz hazád, mondá a hölgy búcsúztában, jer mi
hozzánk s ott új hazára találsz. És ha senki sem fog szeretni, jer
hazámba, ott fogsz találni, a ki örökké szeretend.
Salamon elfeledé a szavakat, el a szerelem rezgő hangját, melyen
azok mondva voltak és az epedő pillantást, a mely azokat kisérte; a
mint elfeledett annyi mindent!
Alig verte le a bessenyőket, ismét rokonainak fordult,
megpróbálni, ha nem fordult-e meg akkor csillagzata? A sors nem
segíté őt többé a király ellen. Kardja beletört a szent László elleni
harczba, az utolsó harczos is elveszett oldala mellől, Bátor Opos; és
az eltört kardból nem lehetett más, mint gyilok s midőn a hősök
elfogytak, került a sor az orgyilkolásra.
Salamon bérenczeket fogadott László király megölésére, de a
gyilkos és az áruló egy fán terem; azok elárulák, s az ország örök
fogságra itélte őt, ki fölkentje ellen fölemelte kezét.
Hol most ama négyszögű rom Visegrád tövében szomorúan
tekint alá az örök Duna vizére, ott ült egykor a fogoly fejedelem,
szenvedéseivel nevet adva börtönének.
Fogva volt, de nem legyőzve, itt a szűk négy fal között is
királynak érzé magát, s nem imádkozott szabadságért soha, de
harczért mindennap.
Egész nap szőtte, fonta terveit, és az mind háború volt. Várta,
mint fognak egy napon hívei börtönére ütni s leverve annak zárait,
diadallal repülnek vele Fehérvárra; vagy jönni fog a császár roppant
hadaival s kezébe adandja az arany kopját, mint uralkodása jelképét;
vagy felzendül a háborgó nép s László ellen őt hívja ismét a trónra.
Mind hasztalan. Az idő csendesen múlt. Hívei nem emlékeztek róla, a
császárnak sok baja volt saját pártos vazalljaival és a magyar
megnyugodott valahára; királya szent volt és hős.
Sokszor látta ablakából Salamon, mint áll meg a torony alatt egy-
egy vadász és tegezét megfeszítve felczéloz. Ez titkos hirnök,
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