ECS/EDI Processor - Inbound Application Integration

The ECS/EDI Processor can be integrated to any AS/400 Business Application with the use of EDI Mapping programs. Integration of data derived from Inbound EDI Messages requires the development of Converters and Selectors. 

The development of EDI Mapping programs is a technical task. Before commencing development please ensure that you have the necessary AS/400 authority to create the required objects and that you are technically able. Developing EDI Mapping definitions requires a good understanding of the AS/400, DB/400, PDM, RPG, Query, some knowledge of EDI and the Business Application you are updating.  

For an Overview of the ECS/EDI Processor, click here

Business Application EDI Integration 

The point of application integration with the ECS/EDI Processor is with two DB/400 physical files: 

• IEXC  - ECS/EDI Transaction Control

• IEYT  -  ECS/EDI Transaction Detail file

User defined mapping programs, shown in the following diagram in yellow, are required to integrate the ECS/EDI Processor Transaction and Control Files with your Business Application System: 

The ECS/EDI Processor is responsible for performing the following actions for Inbound transactions: 

• Search the defined Input Folder for new EDI Interchanges.

• Read the Interchange Header Envelope Segment and locate the related Trading Partner Event. 

• Unpack the EDI Interchange into individual EDI Message files.

• Validate the EDI Message(s) against the EDI Standard and Syntax Set, report any errors to the Event Administrator.

• Remove Release Characters. 

• Translate data values according to the predefined Element Translations configured for the EDI Trading Partner Event.

• Convert the EDI Message to AS/400 Database format.  

The ECS/EDI Processor responsibility ends once the EDI element values has been written to the DB/400 Transaction file (IEYT) and the control file updated (IEXC). The Application relevant mapping program developed to select Inbound Transactions with a status of "RDY", meaning that the transaction is ready for mapping. Once mapped the status should be changed to "FIN" to indicate the data has been mapped successfully. 

The ECS/EDI Transaction File will contain a record for every data element populated within the Inbound EDI Message. The EDI Transaction record contains the following key values: 

• Element Id.                (IEYT.YTELE)

• Segment Id Tag.       (IEYT.YTSEG)

• Element Value          (IEYT.YTVAL)

The Element Value contains the actual data, whereas the Segment Id Tag and the Element Id describe the data content. 

The following Example represents a section of a sample EDIFACT, ORDERS message, Version D96A: 

BGM+220+121704+9'
DTM+137:20001231:102'
NAD+BY+ECS Limited+++PO Box 534+Horsham++RH13 9WJ'

The EDI Trading Partner Agreement is required during the design & analysis phase to help establish the Element Id' selection criteria required  for mapping to the Business Application system. The following is a sample extract of a message agreement for the three segments listed above, the data elements in use are highlighted in Blue:  

The example EDI Message section represents 3 Segments with a total 11 elements containing data. The ECS/EDI Processor writes a Transaction detail record for every element containing data, so the result would be 11 Transaction detail records (IEYT). 

An example of the ECS/EDI Transaction and Control records that would be created by the ECS/EDI Processor would look like the following: 

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 1   BGM+220+121704+9'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 2   BGM+220+121704+9'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 3   BGM+220+121704+9'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 4   DTM+137:20031025:102'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 5  DTM+137:20001231:102'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 6   DTM+137:20021025:102'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 7  NAD+BY+ECS Limited+++PO Box 534+Horsham++RH13 9WJ'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 8  NAD+BY+ECS Limited+++PO Box 534+Horsham++RH13 9WJ'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 9  NAD+BY+ECS Limited+++PO Box 534+Horsham++RH13 9WJ'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 10  NAD+BY+ECS Limited+++PO Box 534+Horsham++RH13 9WJ'

File: IEYT, ECS/EDI Transaction detail file - Record 11  NAD+BY+ECS Limited+++PO Box 534+Horsham++RH13 9WJ'

The ECS/EDI Control File contains a record each EDI Message processed. The following record layout provides an example of the information available on the ECS/EDI Control File (IEXC) when receiving a sample EDI Message: 

The Converter

The Conversion program is an Inbound mapping program that is responsible for processing the transaction records for a single EDI Message (transaction) on each program execution. The conversion program should be developed to perform the following basic functions;

• Read through the ECS/EDI Transaction records (File: IEYT)

• Select the required data values and populate the appropriate Business Application database.

• Update the status on the ECS/EDI Control file  to indicate the data has been mapped. (Update IEXC.XCSTS from "RDY" to "FIN")  

The Selector 

There are two approaches to controlling the execution of  Inbound conversion program:

1. Select the required data using a Selector program.

2. Configure the Conversion program as a Trigger Program within the EDI Trading Partner Event.

The decision as to which option is best depends on the Business Application environment. If ECS/integrated email is to control the execution of the conversion programs then allowances need to made to ensure that the library list is set accordingly and the User Id configured within ECS/ie has authority to the application. 

The design of the Conversion program should remain the same, whether a Selection program is used or not. A conversion program is responsible for processing the transaction records for a single transaction (EDI Message). 

ECS/EDI Processor Sample Application

ECS/integrated email is supplied with a sample EDI integration environment with programs and documented source code demonstrating how Conversion and Selection programs are built,  these can be used as templates and adapted to suit your EDI and Business Application requirements .

  Click here for more information on using the EDI Sample Application and Mapping Programs.

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