tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5035544395068273222008-07-22T00:20:36.732+01:00EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-46318194804059384022008-07-17T23:46:00.007+01:002008-07-20T22:25:04.988+01:00

I have been meaning to make this post for a long time, then Google came along with Protocol Buffers and the world moves on. So in this post I am going to outline how CSV files are used and how I thought JSON would be an improvement. In another post I will write about what I think can be learnt from Protocol Buffers. A lot of data is communicated from machine to machine by CSV file format. It

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-3148954962033245562008-07-09T22:59:00.003+01:002008-07-20T22:43:19.929+01:00

I am not kidding (pdf). Some might think this is great. Some might think is shows how wonderful XML is. I don't. To me it represents a lot of what is mixed up about EDI. I want to make 2 points... What is so special about Green Coffee that it needs it's own schema? Well reading the docs it seems coffee dealers are a bit fussy about defining when ownership of the product and ownership of the

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-65747417444908291672008-06-28T16:26:00.005+01:002008-06-28T16:50:50.404+01:00

2 CDs with 7 million names addresses of children and parents, some with bank details, are put in the post and go missing. When I heard about this story I worried about the little guy. Well now the UK Independent Police Complaints Commission have investigated and released their report. It is well worth a read (pdf). All 61 pages and 282 paragraphs. At the time the Minister was quick to publicly

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-84084553119619177452008-04-02T20:51:00.008+01:002008-04-02T23:51:49.118+01:00

EDI really should be less difficult than it is. If I am a start-up company and I want to purchase timber, metal, paper, widgets or some other commodity item, EDI is just too hard. The overhead on establishing a relationship, agreeing a standard, and testing communications is huge. EDI is supposed to reduce cost but if it results in a supplier tie-in then it will produce unwelcome influences. If

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-36149904149247690322008-03-31T23:29:00.006+01:002008-04-01T00:10:33.252+01:00

It is so easy to list what is wrong with XML for EDI. It produces large filesIt is very processor intensive to parseNeeds another new standardOr can be used/abused without a standardIt isn't even very human readable (despite what some say)And yet... a lot of people find it very compelling. To understand why, imagine you are talking to a developer who knows nothing about EDI. Show them an EbizXML

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-7674723277663924302008-03-09T22:49:00.003Z2008-07-22T00:14:21.305+01:00

Part I - Message Control Part II - Export Mapping Part III - Import Mapping Part IV - Transaction Processing

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-72143326078846567462007-12-21T00:00:00.001Z2008-03-09T22:55:33.291Z

Part I - Formats Part II - Communication Part III - Why

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-65591915268380617802007-12-09T23:52:00.000Z2007-12-10T00:02:33.563Z

I have mentioned before that this is the "Elephant in the room" no one likes to talk about. It is hard to talk in abstract terms about something so involved so I am going to take a specific example and use that of a customer sending their Purchase Order. We would want to turn this into a Sales Order. So we get hold of a copy of the message format definition (Edifact, X12, Tradacom etc.), blow

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-35169354840807105502007-12-03T23:38:00.000Z2007-12-05T00:02:15.491Z

OK, I know I've missed something out. Between EDI Exporting and EDI Importing is Communicating. But to understand that, it's best to first have an understanding of both the inputs and outputs. Besides, it's my Blog. What are we going to do with these EDI messages? Possibilities include,Print them out in human readable formCovert them into an email alertStore them for querying and reportingStore

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-36476929697654532252007-11-27T23:34:00.000Z2007-11-27T23:46:40.027Z

Electronic Data transfer in the news. I think it is called pigeon protocol. No, you can't ridicule it because it is too serious. Unfortunately I suspect this "behind the mailbox" infrastructure is all too common. I hope the little I.T. guy archives his email.

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-48071177747160303432007-11-17T08:22:00.000Z2007-11-20T00:31:28.347Z

I'm not going to go into the details of creating the text of EDI messages in certain formats. Well not in this post anyway. It is a big subject and the last post was long enough. What I am trying to do is lay out the System Design and APIs. So you have a routine in your ERP system that created a document or a transaction e.g. a Sales Invoice. The options you have are, Edit the routine to -

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-24577498366685517052007-11-13T23:40:00.000Z2007-11-19T23:39:47.367Z

Assuming you have an ERP system that processes sales orders, invoices, remittances, stock balances etc. how do add EDI capabilities? The first thing we need is to decide what is going to whom, in what format, by what means. Let us suppose we want to start sending Sales Invoices to a key customer. The routine that will create the EDI invoice could be called from the ERP routine that does the

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-15006419274680285172007-11-08T21:50:00.000Z2007-11-29T23:48:04.647Z

I was starting to sketch out my next post. It was going to be on EDI System design and I started with "Assuming you have an ERP system that processes sales orders, invoices, remittances, stock balances etc. how do add EDI capabilities?" Then I thought wait!!! Important EDI life experience lesson - assume nothing!!! EDI has a wide reach. It is used in all sorts of areas. While I am most familiar

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-14490932757328911552007-11-07T20:46:00.000Z2007-11-08T22:07:38.248Z

I'm working at this company. No one wanted to be responsible for EDI. It was seen as a problem (not a solution), so it gets dumped on the new guy - me. With a lot of patience and time I slowly train myself and begin to understand. I had inherited a third party communication and translation software. It used 1 of only 2 modems in the entire company - it was along time ago. Users hated it. Apart

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-12505744409131912352007-11-06T21:26:00.000Z2007-11-17T08:13:05.565Z

How is all this beneficial? How is it better than faxing or emailing a word attachment? In a human sense it isn't. The EDI formats are often not human readable (e.g. Edifact, Tradacom). The point is, it is meant to be machine readable. Eh? So what? These days we have grown used to unstructured information but it wasn't always the way. The triumph of HTML (and the Internet) is the organising of

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-15899869287883317532007-11-05T23:43:00.000Z2007-11-17T08:18:09.646Z

Communicating... sending and receiving electronic messages... ummm... sounds like email! We all understand email and are familiar and comfortable with the concept of email. Then why is EDI more complicated? Well I think part of the answer lies in its age. EDI has been in wide spread use in business longer than email. The other reason may be down to security concerns, but it is certainly

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-24910129231261277652007-11-04T23:46:00.000Z2007-11-17T08:16:54.752Z

There are 4 elements to EDI.Composing a message Sending a message Receiving a message Processing a messageSteps 1 & 4 are sometimes refered to as "translating" or "mapping". Steps 2 & 3 are the communication.By translating you take a document on your computer system, say an order or an invoice, and convert it into another format. Or you take a document that someone has sent you from their

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-503554439506827322.post-88168225643616722402007-11-04T23:43:00.001Z2007-11-10T09:05:23.800Z

EDI - Electronic Data Interchange. Do those letters fill you with dread? They seem to frighten a lot of people I know and they really shouldn't. After too long learning much more than I ever wanted, I now realise what I wish I'd known at the start. However the information just wasn't out there. I am going to try and bring things together on this site.I hope you find it informative.

EDI Eddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10667733779073828630noreply@blogger.com