BizTalk EDI: Building a reliable EDI solution with BizTalk Server

This article describes the following:

Developing EDI Architecture

corresponding EDI documents

Transferring documents through the firewall

To process a failed document

This article uses the following techniques:

BizTalk Server 2006 R2

Directory

Developing EDI Architecture

EDI Correspondence

Trading partner Configuration

Transferring EDI Documents

Transferring documents through the firewall

To process a failed document

EDI and SOA

Electronic document exchange (EDI) is a technical standard that has been in the history of several decades. Therefore, this standard does not seem to be used in conjunction with today's service-oriented architecture (SOA) and the latest release of Biztalk®server. However, in the real business enterprise business, EDI accounted for the largest share, close to the current market share of 90%, but also the rapid increase in the year. As the IT architecture of companies that rely on EDI continues to evolve, the reliability, stability, scalability, scalability, and visibility of the approach to leveraging the capabilities of BizTalk Server 2006 R2 to meet both SOA and EDI infrastructure requirements are proven.

Prior to the release of BizTalk Server 2006 R2, there was limited support for EDI in BizTalk. While there are some adapters and accelerators that provide the basic infrastructure to implement the EDI solution, their functionality is limited, such as the way documents are validated. The use of BizTalk Server 2006 R2,edi functionality is normalized. Now, it not only allows you to validate a large number of documents, but it also provides a number of ways to transfer documents, including all the reporting features commonly used to implement enterprise-class EDI.

BizTalk Server now offers the same service levels as many value-added networks (VAN), as well as other advantages of the underlying BizTalk components that are critical to enterprise integration solutions and SOA. These advantages include the development of business workflows through business processes, access to the business Rules engine, extended document tracking capabilities, administrative status, and other similar features.

To implement EDI in BizTalk Server 2006 R2, first develop the architecture associated with the transaction document. After the document is defined, the trading partner is created as a BizTalk collaboration object, and then the partner's specifications are configured to ensure proper processing and routing of the EDI document. Next, set up the details of how to transfer documents through a combination of cooperative object configuration and BizTalk adapters. Once the solution is set up, you can use the EDI report to monitor the flow of the document in real time. All of these features are based on BizTalk infrastructure and benefit from all standard components such as MessageBox, business processes, ports, and pipelines.

The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the EDI features in BizTalk Server 2006 R2, and to demonstrate that you can use this feature to more easily integrate the EDI process with the rest of the enterprise. I will describe several important aspects of using the new BizTalk Server EDI component, which illustrate the various aspects of schema creation, document alignment, EDI transmission and transmission, and exception handling.

Developing EDI Architecture

To understand EDI architecture development, you first need to be aware of the details of the document structure itself. The most accurate description of an EDI document is a simple text file that contains three parts: headers, details, and footers. The header defines the source of the document, the target audience, the document type, and some date information. Details contain all business information that is meaningful to the document. For example, in the case of invoices, details include details such as itemized items, descriptions of products sold, pricing, quantities, and totals. The footer contains summary information about the detail row, such as the total number of rows that the document contains.

EDI documents are formatted into segments, and each row of data contains many named segments. The formats and components of these paragraphs comply with standards such as X12 and electronic Data Interchange (EDIFACT) for Administration, commerce and transport. In the X12 document, the ISA and GS segments are considered details (see Figure 1) for all lines between the header, GE, and IEA segments that correspond to the footer, header, and footer.

Figure 1 X12 EDI document (810-invoice)