Routing outbound EDI to multiple partners from internal system

[clemper]

Hi,

I am new to Bots and EDI in general, so my question might be obvious.  I apologize if it is obvious or already covered somewhere.

I am looking at using Bots to allow multiple trading partners to send purchase orders to our internal ERP system.  I think I understand fairly well how I woud configure the inbound purchase order documents (EDIFACT ORDERS or X12 850) to handle the trading partner specific communication channel, grammer, and mapping.  

What is not clear to me is how best to configure Bots to send back purchase order responses and/or invoices from our ERP system, without the ERP system needing to know too much regarding the EDI details.   For example, if we use Bots to map trading partner specific inbound EDI to a common inbound file format (CSV, JSON, or XML) to be processed by the ERP system, and then have the ERP system write a common outbound file format (CSV, JSON, or XML) to be mapped in Bots to the trading partner specific outbound EDI, how would this best be handled in Bots?  Ideally, the ERP system could write a single file format into a single location (even perhaps into a single file) including at most (in regards to EDI specific information) the trading partner identifier, and then have Bots determine from just the trading partner identifier and generic message type what mapping, grammer, and communication channel to use.  

To put it another way, I see how inbound many-to-one (many trading partner channels to one ERP system channel) is handled, but I do not see how outbound one-to-many (one ERP system channel to many trading partner channels) is handled.

Thanks,

Chris Lemper

[BikeMike]

On May 3, 3:15 am, clemper <chris.lem...@gmail.com> wrote:
> including at most (in regards to EDI specific information) the trading
> partner identifier, and then have Bots determine from just the trading
> partner identifier and generic message type what mapping, grammer, and
> communication channel to use.

Hi Chris,
Welcome to the Bots mailing list. Yes this will work exactly as you
describe. You can create a route with multiple steps (seq); the first
step receives the file(s) from your ERP and a query in the input
grammar extracts the "topartner" for each message. This can be used to
determine the mapping to use (translate configuration) and the output
channel to use (multiple route steps configuration with outchannel
filtering).

Kind Regards,
Mike

[BikeMike]

http://code.google.com/p/bots/wiki/RoutesComposite

[clemper]

Thanks for your help.  I think I understand how this works now.  However, I am leaning towards just handling it at the channel level and having the integration layer write files for different trading partners to different directories due to the complexity of setting up the grammer.

- Chris

[henk-jan ebbers]

??
this all standard in bots.
you do not have to 'write' anything (if I understand you question right).
grammars are downloadable from bots website for x12 and edifact.

kind regards,
henk-jan

[clemper]

It is definitely handled quite nicely in Bots for incoming EDI messages.  What I am having difficulty with is reading from an outgoing internal file format read from a single location (or channel) and having Bots route the messages to the appropriate trading partner specific mapping, grammer, and out channel.  

For various reasons, I am wanting to use Bots mainly to handle the routing of messages and just do a one to one mapping from EDI to/from the "jsonnocheck" grammer.   I guess what I really want is the "jsonnocheck" grammer to handle the EDI envelope (i.e. read and write the information stored in the UNB segment/inn.ta_info record) much as it is done on the incoming EDI message.

I am sure much of my difficulty and confusion is due to the fact that I am so new to Bots and EDI in general.  

Thanks for the great software.

- Chris

[jeffk]

The way I do this is by creating Partner 'activity' groups like 'ReceivesX12-IN810-4030s' or 'SendsX12-PO850-4010s'.  Then, I associate each partner with the group that describes it behaviors (i.e. which EDI docs the partner sends and receives).

In defining routes like 'ProcessIncomingEDI' I add 'links', with different seq numbers, corresponding to the 'activity' groups defined earlier.

I also define translations for each of the incoming route 'links', associating the translation with the EDI/message type (i.e.X12/8104030) and the partner 'activity' group.

In the case of the 'common' incoming data files from the ERP/MRP system, I define a single grammar for each of my Incoming XML types (OrderConfirmation, PackingSlip, ShippingNotice, Invoice) and associate these incoming types with both the route's activity specific link and the translation to be applied (i.e. the incoming EDI/message type).

I hope this helps.

Jeff K