Acord Standard for Insurance. Has anybody dealt with this mess?

Question

We need to implement a WCF Webservice using the ACORD Standard.

However, I don't know where to start with this since this standard is HUMONGOUS and very convoluted. A total chaos to my eyes.

I am trying to use WSCF.Blue to extract the classes from the multiple XSD I have but so far all I get is a bunch of crap: A .cs file with 50,000+ lines of code that freezes my VS2010 all the time.

Has anybody walked already thru the Valley of Death (ACORD Standard) and made it? I really would appreciate some help.

Answer 1

I wrote a ACORD to c# class library converter which was then used in several large commercial insurance products. It featured a very nice mapping of all of the ACORD XML into nice concise, extendable C# classes. So I know from whence you come!

Once you dig into it its not so bad, but I maintain the average coder will not 'get it' for about 3-4 months if they work at it full time (assuming anything but inquiry style messages). The real problem comes when trying to do mapping from a backend database and to/from another ACORD WS. All of the carriers, vendors, and agencies have custom rules.

My best suggestion is to find working code examples (I have tons if you need them) and maybe even a vendor or carrier who will let you hook up to a ACORD ws in a test environment.