To configure the EDI data handler for use with a connector, take the following steps:
Each of these steps is described in more detail in the following sections.
The EDI data handler relies on a EDI name-handler lookup file to determine which business object to create based on the EDI message. This name-handler lookup file contains the following tab-separated columns:
A sample of a name-handler lookup file without the optional version number follows:
850 123465 X12_850A_Order 850 122227 X12_850B_Order 855 122227 X12_855A_Response 855 123465 X12_855A_Response
A sample of a name-handler lookup file with the version number follows (the version numbers appear in the second column; in this example the version number is 004010):
850 004010 111111 X12_850A_Order 855 004010 122227 X12_855A_Response
To provide the EDI data handler with information about the business objects it creates, you must:
c:\\home\\DataHandlers\\edi\\edi_xref
UNIX pathnames do not use a backslash and therefore do not need to be escaped:
/home/DataHandlers/edi/edi_xref
The EDI data handler refreshes the information from this file each time the file is updated. Therefore, it picks up new or changed values immediately, so you do not have to restart any components.
To configure an EDI data handler, you must ensure that its configuration information is provided in the EDI data handler's child meta-object. For the EDI data handler, IBM delivers the default child meta-object MO_DataHandler_DefaultEDIConfig. Each attribute in this meta-object defines a configuration property for the EDI data handler. Table 32 describes the attributes in this child meta-object.
Table 32. Child meta-object attributes for the EDI data handler
Attribute name | Description | Delivered default value |
---|---|---|
ClassName |
Name of the data handler class to load for use with the specified MIME type. The top-level data-handler meta-object has an attribute whose name matches the specified MIME type and whose type is the EDI child meta-object (described by Table 32). | com.crossworlds. DataHandlers.edi. edi |
DefaultVerb | Name of the verb to set in the business object when converting from an EDI document to a business object. If no value exists for this attribute, the EDI data handler does not include a verb in the business object. | Create |
DummyKey | Key attribute; not used by the data handler but required by the business integration system. | 1 |
ISA
(X.12 standard) UNA and UNB (EDIFACT standard) |
Provides
positional information for separators so that the EDI data handler
can obtain the values of separators from the EDI document itself.
The name of this attribute must correspond with the name of the
first segment in your EDI document, as follows:
For information about the values in this meta-object attribute, see (SII79963). |
None |
NameHandlerClass | Name of the class to use to determine the name of a business object from the content of an EDI document. Change the Default Value property of this attribute if you create your own custom name handler. For more information, see Customizing the EDI data handler. | com.crossworlds. DataHandlers.edi. EdiNameHandler |
NameHandlerFile | Fully qualified name of the EDI name-handler lookup file, which contains a name-handler lookup table for transaction IDs, an optional version number, DUNS numbers, and business object names. For more information, see Creating the name-handler lookup file. | Windows systems: C:\\crossworlds\ edi\dbfile.txtUNIX systems: /home/crossworlds/ edi/dbfile.txt |
RELEASE_CHAR | The character to use as an escape character in the attribute value. This escape character is necessary if any of the EDI document separators is part of the actual value of an attribute. You must precede the character in the actual value with this escape character. For example, if an attribute value is "*dog?" and the element separator is the asterisk, you must escape the asterisk in the attribute value, as follows: "?*dog??". | ? (question mark) |
SEPARATOR_ELEMENT | The character used as the element separator in the EDI document. | * (asterisk) |
SEPARATOR_COMPOSIT | The character used as the composite separator in the EDI document. | , (comma) |
SEPARATOR_REPEAT | The character used as the repeat separator in the EDI document. It is used to separate repeating composites. | ^ (caret) |
SEPARATOR_SEGMENT | The character
used as the segment separator
in the EDI document. If you want to set the segment separator to a
newline character, you must escape the character, as follows:
|
~ (tilde) |
ObjectEventId | Not used by the data handler but required by the business integration system. | None |
The "Delivered default value" column in Table 32 lists the value in the Default Value property for the corresponding attribute in the delivered business object. You must examine your environment and set the Default Value properties of all the attributes to the appropriate values.
To invoke multiple configurations of the EDI data handler, take the following steps:
For more information about how to configure a data handler, see Configuring data handlers.