EDI Connect User's Guide
CHAPTER 2
There are several ways in which EDI Transmissions are received: via custom service triggers, Internet-EDI or from a file system. A custom service trigger is built by the customer. The Internet- EDI trigger is a standard Composer service trigger. The file system contains the data which will be brought into the Composer service. The diagram below shows how the interactions work.
Traditionally, a printed transaction such as an invoice, would be sent via mail on a preprinted form as follows:
For those unfamiliar with EDI, a transaction set can be thought of as a document. The document (or transaction) has general parts called paragraphs that are divided into sentences (or segments). The sentences are then broken apart further into words (or elements) and words can be divided into letters (or sub-elements).
For example:
The bracket emphasizes an entire transaction set.
The shaded area shows a complete segment.
The double underline shows a single element
The bolded "ST" denotes a Segment ID.
Notice each element including the Segment ID is separated by a character called a delimiter. In this document an asterisk (*). Also notice each segment ends with a character called a segment terminator. In this document it is the (A) character. Although not used in this document, on occasion, elements can be broken apart further into sub-elements. When this occurs, a character denoting a sub-element separator will also be present.
Each transmission can be broken down into five distinct areas: Communications Transport Protocol, Interchange Control Wrap (ISA & IEA), Functional Group Wrap (GS & GE), Transaction Set Wrap (ST & SE), and the body of the transaction. The following diagram illustrates this structure:
A transaction can also be broken down into four distinct areas: envelope, header, detail, and summary information. In order to transmit an EDI document, special segments known as "envelope wraps" enclose the transaction set. The envelopes contain IDs and other pertinent information allowing the document to be electronically transferred to and from the appropriate locations. The header area pertains to information that is common to the entire transaction set. The detail area, which can occur or loop multiple times, refers to baseline item information. The summary area contains information such as order quantity totals, that also pertains to the entire transaction. Several samples of this breakdown are shown in this document at the beginning of each transaction section.
This structure provides great flexibility for both composing electronic documents and changing them later without causing disruption to existing processes. This structure also permits document adaptation by different organizations. However, this flexibility causes the electronic document to be somewhat difficult to read or decipher directly. This is why "translation" software is required.
For demonstration purposes, one transaction is issued throughout this document. The sample presented is divided into Inbound and Outbound processing actions. The sample transaction represents a scenario of processing a certain type of purchase order, in ANSI X12 format with a document name, for example, V4010-850. The steps listed below are followed to explain the transaction processing. Refer to Chapter 4 "Performing EDI Actions," for the sample transaction.
The steps used in creating a simple EDI component are as follows:
Inbound Actions:
Outbound Actions:
Refer to Chapter 4 "Performing EDI Actions," for a description of each of these Actions.
When you create a Resource for the EDI Component, you have two choices: a Document Resource, and an EDI Interchange. The benefit of having two resources is that exteNd Composer for the EDI Connect can handle the complex transmission of multiple documents including both ANSIX.12 and EDIFACT all in one transmission.
The Document Metadata Resource describes the translation information for a particular document type, i.e. V4010-850 Purchase Order in ANSI.X12 format.
The Interchange Metadata Resource contains metadata that describes the transformation metadata for a set of documents of the same standard, i.e. a set of ANSI.X12 documents. An example of such metadata would be the common separators used in the set of documents in an EDI interchange.
The EDI-to-XML and XML-to-EDI transformation process is driven by a metadata description of the target document. The metadata is represented in XML and is input to the transformation engine as an in-memory DOM.
Metadata, as discussed here, refers to a structured set of elements that describe an EDI document's layout. The EDI Connect for Composer comes with various Metadata Resources (which show up in the nav frame of Composer's UI), such as the EDI Interchange Metadata resource list. These metadata documents essentially describe various types of EDI interchanges in an XML format Composer can understand. Composer will consult the appropriate metadata resource(s) to determine how to parse a given EDI interchange.
You can examine the contents of your metadata resources in the Composer UI, just as you'd do with any other XML file. Depending on how you want to view the document, you can look at the metadata in tree view or text view. The latter is just a raw text-editor view of the XML.
EDI Interchange Metadata can be created automatically when you create a new component; however, you can create it manually if you need to import a specially formatted file.
To create EDI Interchange Metadata:
From the Composer File menu, select New > xObject, then open the Resource tab and select EDI Interchange Metadata.
NOTE: Alternatively, you can highlight Resource in the Composer window category pane, right click your mouse button, then select New. A dialog box allows you to select the type of Resource you wish to create. In this example, click on EDI Interchange.
The Create a New Resource Wizard appears. Type a name for the resource.
Click Finish. The newly-created resource object appears in EDI Interchange Screen.
The dialog box appears, click on Browse button to locate the file and click OK.
To create EDI Document Resource Metadata:
From the Composer File menu, select New > xObject, then open the Resource tab and select EDI Resource Metadata.
NOTE: Alternatively, you can highlight Resource in the Composer window category pane, right click your mouse button, then select New. A dialog box allows you to select the type of Resource you wish to create. In this example, click on EDI Document.
The Create a New Resource Wizard appears. Type a name for the resource.
In the Metadata File Format, click in the checkbox to import a SEF file. Use the Browse button to locate the file.
Click Finish. The newly-created resource object appears in EDI Document Screen.
From the Menu Bar on this screen, click on Resource and select Load Sample EDI Input.
The following dialog appears. Click on the Browse button to select the Input file you wish to load, then click OK.
The following screen appears with the left pane displaying the EDI transmission, the right pane blank (awaiting test results), and the bottom pane displaying metadata.
If you want to add or edit data in the Metadata screen, you can do so by using the following procedure.
To Edit the Resource or Document Metadata
In the Metadata Screen, change the view from tree to text by clicking on the RMB and selecting View>Text.
A line starting with Message appears. Position the cursor after Message, press the space bar on yoour keyboard and a drop down list of possible entries appears. Double click on the selection you want to add.
Change the view from text to tree by clicking on the RMB and selecting View>Tree.
The additions or edits can now be viewed in the tree as shown below.
You can create a template for your document by using an option from the EDI Document Resource Editor which is accessible from the Menu Bar in Resources.
From the EDI Document Editor Menu Bar, select Resource, then Generate XML Template.
Sample Name: Enter the name of the sample.
Template Category: From the dropdown list, select the type of template
Template Name: From the dropdown list, select the name of the template
Checkboxes: Check to include any of the following listed below, otherwise leave blank.
The EDI Document Resource Component Editor supports the following functions:
Generate XML Templates (previously explained in Creating Templates)
Load Sample EDI Input (previously explained in the sample in Creating an EDI Resource)
The EDI Document Resource Editor is composed of three panels to contain the transformation metadata, the sample input (EDI or XML) and the Test Results (XML or EDI)
All the functions are active with the exception of Test and Save Test Results. These functions are available once a sample input document is loaded. Description of the functions are provided.
This function allows you to import the EDI Resource metadata in its native format.
From the Menu Bar on this screen, click on Resource and select Import Metadata.The following dialog appears. Click on the Browse button to select the Input file you wish to import, then click OK.
This function allows you to export the EDI Resource metadata in its native format.
From the Menu Bar on this screen, click on Resource and select Export Metadata.The following dialog appears. Click on the Browse button to select the location for the file you wish to export, then click OK.
This function allows you to load a sample input document. The input panel is context sensitive. When the input sample is XML, a read-only XML tree panel displays the sample. The output panel contains the resulting EDI output of the "test" function.
From the Menu Bar on this screen, click on Resource and select Load Sample XML Input.The following dialog appears. Click on the Browse button to select the Input file you wish to import, then click OK.
This function is only available when a sample input document is loaded. When the sample input document is EDI, an outbound test is run with XML results displayed in a read-only XML tree panel. If the XML tree panel does not have any contents, then the test function was not run or the test had a fatal error.
If the input sample is XML, the output panel contains the resulting EDI output of the "test" function as a read-only text control. If the text control does not have any contents, then the test function was not run or the test had a fatal error.
You can save the XML or EDI output to a file by using the Save Test Results function.
From the Menu Bar on this screen, click on Resource and select Test.The following dialog appears. Click on the Browse button to select the file you wish to Test, then click OK.
This function is only available after a successful test has been completed. You may save your XML or EDI output to a file on your system.
From the Menu Bar on this screen, click on Resource and select Save Test Results.The following dialog appears. Click on the Browse button to select the directory where you wish to Test, name the file and then click OK.
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