Community Edition
The Community Edition is the free, open way into OpenEPCIS. It is aimed at developers who want to try out or use individual building blocks. If you are looking for a complete, supported solution for your organisation, you will find it in the Research and the Business Edition.
benelog provides various EPCIS building blocks and tools under the Apache 2.0 licence. They are maintained in public GitHub repositories and can be used directly in your browser, run locally from a container image, or added to your build as a Maven dependency. There is no registration, no contract and no trial period, because these tools are offered under Apache 2.0.
The tools at a glance
Tools in the literal sense: each one does one specific job with EPCIS data, from converting to validating to generating test data. They can be used on their own, without the full platform. A selection, you will find all of them on OpenEPCIS on GitHub.
Format Converter
Converts EPCIS documents between version 1.2 and 2.0, and between XML and JSON/JSON-LD. It also converts EPC URN identifiers to GS1 Digital Link and back.
Document Validation
Checks a document against the EPCIS 2.0 schema and the Core Business Vocabulary. Each error comes back with its line and its exact position in the document, so you get a list of the errors that need fixing.
Event Hash Generator
Produces one hash per event. The same event gives the same hash in XML and in JSON. That is what makes duplicate detection and integrity checks possible between two different systems.
Test Data Generator
Builds realistic EPCIS event streams with valid GTIN, GLN and SSCC identifiers. Handy for development, for demos, and for seeing how a pipeline copes under load.
Who the tools are for
Developers Trying Out EPCIS 2.0
Get a feel for the event model, the vocabularies and the JSON-LD context.
Teams Coming From EPCIS 1.2
Transform documents to 2.0 and back while both versions are still valid.
Integrators & Solution Providers
Use one capability inside your own product. A converter in a middleware, or a validator in a build pipeline.
The first steps
Getting started takes no registration and no contract. You can begin right away, on whichever route suits you.
The quickest is straight in the browser, with nothing to install. If you want to go deeper, take the code from the public GitHub repositories, run the tools locally from a ready-made container image, or add individual building blocks to your own software as a Maven dependency. Every interface comes with an OpenAPI description, and you simply keep the licence text and attribution notices in whatever you ship.
If you need more than individual tools, a complete and supported platform, the next steps lead to the Research Edition (free of licence fees for non-commercial use) and the Business Edition (for production use).
Stuck with the tools, or do you need support implementing a specific project? Talk to us, we are glad to advise you.