Defining Inbound EDI Routes

Defining this object sets the route for an EDI document to follow for integration into your back-end systems.

These steps take place in the Inbound EDI Route editor, which contains two tabs: Inbound Matching (sections include Trading Partner, Inbound Settings, Envelope Matching, Process Binding, and Contacts) and Acknowledgment (sections include Acknowledgement Settings and Acknowledgement Error Codes).

Note: Routes used for the TRADACOMS standard will not contain the Acknowledgement section.

1. Under the Trading Partner section, select or create a Trading Partner for the Inbound EDI Route (click the link to create new, or click the field to select an existing).
2. Under the Inbound Settings section, select Process Duplicate Interchanges to instruct the Studio to process duplicate interchanges.

   A unique identifier is stamped on each EDI document. The identifier helps tracking and auditing of received and sent EDI documents. The Studio examines this identifier and checks to see if it has previously received an EDI document from the trading partner with the same identifier. If so, the Studio halts processing on the document. This prevents duplicate EDI documents from being integrated into your systems. However, for various trading partners or situations, it may be necessary for you to override the default behavior. Selecting this field allows duplicate interchanges to be processed.

3. Specify the Priority Level.

   For each business document (invoice, purchase order, etc.) within the EDI document (envelope), you may specify one or more Inbound EDI Routes. Specifying more than one for a document instructs the Studio to perform multiple Business Processes for a single document. This indicator directs the order in which the Business Processes are performed according to the numeric value specified. An Inbound EDI Route that's Priority Level has the lowest number, such as a value of 1, will launch it's Business Process first over another matching Inbound EDI Route that's Priority Level is a value of 2.

4. Under the Enveloping Matching section, select or create the Parent Inbound EDI Route (click the link to create new, or click the field to select an existing one).

   Inbound EDI Routes can be organized into a logical hierarchy. The hierarchy provides a way to share information between common EDI routes. For example, most organizations trade more than one kind of business document with a single trading partner. They may trade purchase orders, ASN's, invoices, etc. The envelope information between the business documents is nearly identical. You can define an Inbound EDI Route that simply identifies your trading partners Sender Id (who the document is from) and your Receiver Id (who the document is sent to). If your trading partner sends you advanced ship notices, you will also create an Inbound EDI Route for both documents. When you define the invoice and advanced ship notice EDI routes, you select the Inbound EDI Route with the sender and receiver information as the Parent Inbound EDI Route. This will cause the Envelope Matching information to be inherited from the parent Inbound EDI Route. This way, you don't have to re-enter the sender and receiver information on the child document level Inbound EDI Routes.

5. Enter the envelope routing criteria in the Value column.

   Note: It is not necessary to enter a value for each Name. Those without a value will be ignored. Typically, you will enter a value for the Sender Id Qualifier, Sender ID, Application Sender Id, Receiver ID Qualifier, Application Receiver Id, and the Message Id. The values you enter will be matched against every inbound EDI document. When a match is found, the Studio executes the associated Business Process.

6. Under the Process Binding section, indicate the Business Process to be performed for the inbound EDI document. Click the Add button to add a row and select the Business Process. The list will be filtered; only those that have Inbound EDI Business Process as their template appear.
   1. The Properties view/Fields tab lists any fields that were created in the Business Process. In the Value column, assign runtime values for the fields that will be passed into the Business Process.

      Note: For more information on how these work, see Fields.

   2. From the Properties view/Ignore Errors tab, instructs the Studio to ignore certain validation errors.

   If you choose to return an Acknowledgement for the inbound document, the Studio validates the data before issuing the Acknowledgement. If errors are found, the default behavior is to halt any further processing on the EDI document (that is, the Business Process attached to the Inbound EDI Route will not be performed). Sometimes it may be necessary to override the default behavior. By using the Ignore Errors tab, you can instruct the Studio to ignore certain errors and continue processing.

   1. Choose the Level 
      • Interchange: errors that occur in the outer EDI envelope segments (ISA, UNA, UNB)
      • Group: errors that occur in the inner EDI envelope segments (GS, UNG)
      • Messages: errors that occur in the EDI message segments (ST - SE, UNH - UNZ)
      • Segments: errors that occur within the EDI business document message.
      • Elements: errors that occur in the business data.
   2. Choose the Code

      The list of codes change based on the Level that is chosen. The list of codes for each level reflect all the errors discovered during the validation phase of the inbound EDI process.

7. Under the Contacts section, store contact information related to the Inbound EDI Route. Click the Add button to enter Name, Phone and Email information.
8. The next steps refer to the Acknowledgement tab and related sections. Select this tab, which can be found at the bottom of the editor.
9. Enable Acknowledgements for the Inbound EDI Route by clicking the Enable Acknowledgement ( ) button. The entire screen remains uneditable until this takes place.

   Note: While Acknowledgements are optional, they are mandated by your trading partners in most cases.

10. Click the X12 TA1 Acknowledgement checkbox to send TA1 acknowledgements back to your trading partner.
11. Click Validating Schema to specify the EDI schema that will be used to validate the inbound EDI document.

    Occasionally you may run into a situation where one trading partner's version of an EDI document differs from your other trading partners. For example, you may be trading invoices with all your trading partners, but one trading partner requires the invoice to be treated differently. This can include a different ordering of the segments, different allowable values for certain elements, etc. You will want to ensure that the proper validation is performed on such special cases. You can create a new EDI schema for your special cases and use it to validate your special case documents. You can also create a generic EDI schema for the general cases and use it for everyone else.

12. Click Target EDI Enveloper to specify the enveloping instructions for the Acknowledgement to be returned to your trading partner.
13. Select from the Ack Level to Send field's options to indicate the level of information to return in the Acknowledgement.

    Options include:

    • Interchange level, all interchanges: Send only Interchange level messages (EDIFACT only)
    • Group level, all groups: Send Interchange and Group level messages.
    • Message level, all messages: Send Interchange, Group and Message level messages; send all success and error messages.
    • Message level, error messages: Send Interchange, Group and Message level messages; send error messages only.
    • Segment level, all messages: Send Interchange, Group, Message and Segment level messages; send all success and error messages.
    • Segment level, error messages: Send Interchange, Group, Message and Segment level messages; send error messages only.
    • Element level, all messages: Send Interchange, Group, Message, Segment and Element level messages; send all success and error messages.
    • Element level, error messages: Send Interchange, Group, Message, Segment and Element level messages; send error messages only.
14. Select from the F/A Message field's options to specify the version of the Acknowledgement to send.

    The 4060 version of the X12 997 document contained some slight differences from previous versions. There is an additional element in the ST segment. Typically, your trading partner will direct which version of the 997 (Acknowledgement) document they want to receive.

15. Under the Acknowledgement Error Codes section, indicate how errors in the inbound EDI document should be reported in the Acknowledgement.
    Action options include:

    • Report Error and Reject: Report the associated error on the acknowledgement and halt processing on the document (i.e. the Business Process attached to the Inbound EDI Route will not be executed).
    • Report Error and Accept: Report the associated error on the acknowledgement, but allow the document to be processed (i.e. the Business Process attached to the Inbound Route will be executed).
    • Ignore: Do not report the error in the acknowledgement and allow the document to be processed (i.e. the Business Process attached to the Inbound Route will be executed.)
16. Click Save to complete this task.