Re: Translating CSV to Data Structure (or iterating through a data structure)

Since a package like Gentran keeps up with the changing standards (which are revised on nearly an annual basis), manages communications with various ISV's and direct communication partners, and provides API's for automation. I would suspect that a single developer could likely support no more than a half dozen active trading partners at a time with a home grown EDI solution. Unless of course they are large enough to dictate the specifics of the EDI. There is a lot involved, even after the mapping of the data, to get that data from the staging tables into your database. Fortunately you should be able to devise a single set of staging tables for each transaction set that you are sending or receiving. Then from there a single standard way to get the data from the staging tables into your database. I have used an exit program scheme to deal with the vagaries of various trading partners. It goes something like this:
1. Perform generic mapping of data from staging tables into the database header format.
2. If specified, call an exit program to make trading partner specific modifications to the formatted data.
3. Write the record to the database.

I have a single driver program to do all of my generic mapping for a specific transaction set (e.g. 210 shipping invoices). Embedded in the driver program between populating the record and actually doing the write or update I place a call to a trading partner specific exit retrieved from a configuration file. This works for both inbound and outbound EDI. So I can now integrate virtually any trading partner with all of their warts and gimmicks by creating an exit to massage the data before writing it to the database or staging table (for outbound EDI). Even adjustments that require additional segments to be mapped or additional staging tables to be created can be handled easily as long as the basic looping remains compatible with the existing map.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: -----
To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Nathan Andelin
Sent by: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 05/11/2011 11:46AM
Subject: Re: Translating CSV to Data Structure (or iterating through a data structure)

From: Charles Wilt
Biggest complaint about any of the i EDI products is licensing....
some of the big EDI companies don't tend to be very friendly to the
point of more $$$ to move to a new box than the hardware is going to
cost (look in the archives for rants).

I'm not familiar enough with EDI packages to have an opinion about their cost,
nor have I followed the rants about that, but the annual cost of an in-house
developer is often a lot more than the cost of a new Power server. So I wonder
if this is just a case of the pot on the stove calling the kettle black? Would
it be more cost effective to develop and support an EDI package in-house?

-Nathan