BizTalk: Converting EDI Documents using BizTalk Server 2006 R2

What is EDI?

• Originated in 1970s to facilitate the delivery of data between businesses
• Computer to Computer exchange is much less expensive than traditional methods of document exchange
• Benefits – reduced human error, speed, faster transactions, etc
• Drawbacks – tightly integrated with formats, tight coupling between source and destination
• Supports data security using passwords, encryption and user identification

Primary Steps

Primary steps in defining and working with EDI schemas are:

• Using an EDI Implementation guide
  • Defines documents, how they are formed, data format
• Determine the right BizTalk schema
  • Based on implementation guide, determine appropriate BizTalk schema
• Modify the BizTalk schema based on Trading partner
  • To fit the requirements of the individual trading partne
• Promoting field
  • Used for Send Port filtering or orchestration logic
• Validating and generating EDI instances
  • Start with a known/working EDI instance

EDI Schemas

• EDIFACT and X12 Schemas
  • X12 standard is for United States/North American Markets
  • EDIFACT standard is for European/United Nations
  • Basic structure is same but segments and elements differ greatly
• Batch Schemas
  • Used primarily to validate EDI document instances during schema development
  • EDI Schema on its own do not support Header and Footer schemas but with the help of batch schema they could
  • Batch Schema should be added only during design time and should not be deployed
• Service Extension Schemas
  • Contain those elements within the EDIFACT and X12 schemas that can have additional enumerations specified
  • Header, Context and Footer segments are set as EDI properties in a BizTalk party that EDI Send Pipeline processes, these values are controlled by Service schemas not EDI Transaction schemas

Microsoft BizTalk EDI Support

EDI Schema

• X12 – American Standard
• EDIFACT – European Standard

EDI Instance

Full EDI instance contains a header, context, detail and footer information

HEADER/CONTEXT

DETAIL

FOOTER/CONTEXT

 

ISA*00* *00* *30*999999999 *30*07777777 *080917*1438*U*00501*100000002*0*P*~\

GS*RA*0926451519*071000013*20080917*1438*2*X*005010\

ST*820*0001\

BPR*C*345*C*ACH*820*01*00000000*DA**0926451555**01*036076150*DA*611111111*20080917*VEN\

N1*PR*COMPANY NAME &*91*\

N1*PE*STATE OF THE ART\

ENT*1\

RMR*IV*333333**345*345*0\

REF*VV*333333*20080815\

SE*8*0002\

GE*1*2\

IEA*1*100000002\

 

EDI 820 SEGMENTS & Sample Data

EDI 820 ISA Segments

EDI 820 GS & ST Segments

EDI 820 BPR, DTM, N1, RMR Segments

EDI 820 SE, GE, IEA Segments

BizTalk X12_00501_820 Schema

• Base Data Type and Data Type: standard types such as string, int and EDI-specific fileds such as X12_ID
• Notes: describes what the field represents
• Max and Min Occurs: represents how many times the node or element can occur (Mandatory)
• Length, Maximum Length and Minimum Length: dictate how long the field can be
• Enumeration: contains array of values that can be entered and compared against a schema

EDI Acknowledgments

•Standards based

–That can be configured for a trading partner and are sent automatically when an EDI transmission is received.

–Functional acknowledgments

–Technical acknowledgments

–Flow like any other EDI document but are generated automatically and correlated back to Trading Partner

•Business Level

–Common EDI documents and require no special configuration (PO acknowledgement)

BizTalk Trading Partner

•EDI Documents are resolved to BizTalk Parties, which represent a relationship that is set up between BizTalk and a Trading Partner

–Parties contain header and other context information that will appear in EDI document

•Parties can be configured as “Trading Partner as Receiver” that receives an EDI document from BizTalk Server.

–Header and Context information configured appropriately for party resolution and document routing

•Parties can be configured as “Trading Partner as Sender” that sends EDI document to BizTalk Server.

–Header and Context information configured appropriately for party resolution and document routing

•AS2 properties are used when sending or receiving EDI documents over AS2 protocol (HTTP).

–These documents are wrapped in an envelope that contains information describing the data, how the data is encrypted and what certificates to use to accept and read the data.

BizTalk EDI Party

•Create Party for each Trading Partner

•Use Global EDI Properties for Home Party

•Global Parties do not override individual parties.

 

EDI Pipelines

•EDI Receive Pipeline

–Examine Document type

–Resolve Party

–Schema Resolution and Validation

–Create acknowledgment

•EDI Send Pipeline

–Destination party name context property matching

–ID matching

–Send Port Affiliation

Schema Resolution and Validation

Setup BizTalk EDI Environment

•Enable BizTalk EDI Runtime

 

•Configure EDI on the server