Configuring the EDI data handler

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.

Note:
To use the EDI data handler, you must also create or modify business object definitions so that they support the data handler. For more information, see Business object definitions for EDI documents.

Creating the name-handler lookup file

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:

Note:
Separate the fields of the name-handler lookup file with tab characters.

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
 
Note:
In this example, "X12_" is used as a common prefix for the top-level business object names. This prefix is not required. You choose an identifying prefix when you create your top-level business objects. For more information, see Top-level EDI business object.

To provide the EDI data handler with information about the business objects it creates, you must:

Note:
The Default Value property of the NameHandlerFile attribute in the delivered version of the child meta-object contains a value. You must ensure, however, that the pathname in the NameHandlerFile attribute specifies the name of your EDI name-handler lookup file. When you specify the path on a Windows system, you must escape all backslash (\) characters by including a second backslash. For example:
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.

Configuring the EDI data handler child meta-object

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 28 describes the attributes in this child meta-object.

Table 28. 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 28). 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:
  • If your EDI messages follow the X.12 standard, the EDI document starts with a segment named ISA; this positional-information attribute is named ISA.
  • If your EDI messages follow the EDIFACT standard, the EDI document starts with a UNA service string advice (optional) and an initial segment named UNB. Therefore, you must create two positional-information attributes in this meta-object: UNA and UNB.

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:
  • On Windows systems
    • X12 documents: \r\n
    • EDIFACT documents: \n
  • On UNIX systems: \n
~ (tilde)
ObjectEventId Not used by the data handler but required by the business integration system. None

The "Delivered default value" column in Table 28 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.

Note:
Use Business Object Designer Express to modify business object definitions.

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.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003