Transformation

This chapter presents improvements that have been made to EDI Exchange in the area of EDI transformation and trading partner configurations.

Simplified Transformation Service configuration

The Transformation area has been updated to simplify the required configuration. The Message Formats, Message IDs, Publishing Services, and Communications Registry pages have been removed. This improvement reduces the complexity of the Transformation menu and the steps that the configuration of trading partners has to follow.

Automatic distribution of standard transformation style sheets

Transformation has been updated to automatically receive updates of the standard transformation style sheets. The service can now receive updates from the Global Data Service and deploy the updated transformation style sheets to the file system. Customers are automatically synchronized and updated immediately with the new and updated standard transformation style sheets.

Distribution and configurations of field mappings

The configuration of trading partners through standard field mappings and trading partner-specific field mappings has been improved. Application updates and updates of trading partner packages now automatically update the tenant database with the latest standard and trading partner-specific field mapping definitions.

It is no longer required to copy the field mappings to each accounting entity.

Intermediate Message view

Transformation now allows users to view the intermediate files that are created during the EDI transformation process. You can view the file content on the Intermediate Message tab in the detail view of the Manage Messages page. The Transformation Service converts EDI data to XML before applying the XSLT style sheet. Users can now check this data if the style sheet mapping for the message conversion has been changed or new mappings have been created.

This feature supports the development of custom transformation style sheets, because users can now view the actual source input to their EDI transformation style sheets. It eases the process of testing and debugging EDI transformation issues.

View and download of formatted data

Transformation now provides users the ability to format EDI and XML data so that it improves readability of the data. The data is formatted with a segment or record per line. Users can view and download the formatted data in the detail view of the Manage Messages page.

On the tabs Source Message, Target Message, and Intermediate Message, the buttons Format and Original allow users to switch between the formatted and the raw view of the data.

This feature improves the development of custom transformation style sheets, because it is eases the review and validation of both input and output files. It simplifies troubleshooting EDI transformation style sheets and helps to identify issues to a transformation style sheet or the input data.

Trading partner content packages

The content of trading partner packages that are distributed to customers has been enhanced to include code lists and field mappings. This architectural change extends the use of content packages for trading partner updates.

The features provides for the ability to distribute new trading partner packages and updates to existing content packages without down time and service disruption.