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Hello,
On 8/4/2011 1:08 PM, Steve Richter wrote:
EDI is kind of interesting. A lot of noise when I search the web for EDI
specs. Like every site I clicked on is looking to sell something.
Is there a site from which I can download the official EDI spec? Two I am
working with now are the 945 and 846.
There's more than one "official EDI spec". I'm guessing (from the
examples in your messages) that you are working with ASC X12 documents
-- which are the dominant type in the USA.
The standards body responsible for those has a page, here:
http://www.x12.org/
I suspect that they will sell you the standards documentation (rather
than providing it as a free download) if you contact them. Indeed, a
quick Google finds that they have an online store:
http://store.x12.org/
However, the international standard for EDI (recommended by the United
Nations) is EDIFACT. It's the dominant standard worldwide.
http://live.unece.org/trade/untdid/texts/unredi.htm
There are a few other "EDI standards" out there besides these two, but
these two are the dominant ones.
Within each EDI standard, almost everything is optional... so just
because two of your trading partners might be using the same standard
and transaction set doesn't necessarily mean that their documents will
be similar! (But this is just me griping...)
And what is the great value of an EDI translator? I was able to parse the
846 ( inventory snapshot ) pretty quickly with RPG procedures. I can see
using a translator when sending a properly formatted document.
I agree, but... not everyone has your (or my) skills as a programmer.
Plus, what you find is that you need a separate "map" for almost every
trading partner, since they tend to all use slightly different optional
elements. (At least, that's what I found.) So having software that
lets you just create a map, rather than coding a whole program, can be
advantageous.
Of course, that depends heavily on how many different documents you use
from how many different trading partners.
Plus, when you buy the package, there's typically a database in the
package (used by the software) that describes the EDI standards, so you
don't have to buy the official docs from ASC X12/EDIFACT. :-)
midrange.com
