Processing EDIFACT documents in Oracle B2B

In my previous blogpost I already showed you how to process custom xml documents in Oracle B2B and pass it to the Oracle SOA Suite. In part two we will try to process an EDIFACT document. This time we need to use the Oracle Document Editor where we change the EDIFACT guideline, analyze the EDI documents against this guideline and do an export which we can import into Oracle B2B.

Here is an example of an EDIFACT document which is used in the dutch energy world (an EDIFACT dialect called EDINE). It is an acknowledgement document called APERAK.

UNA:+,? '
UNB+UNOC:3+8712423009097:14+8716867999990:14+080928:1347+1001'
UNH+1001+APERAK:D:96A:UN:EDINE1'
BGM+12E::9+A_200508030000603782+27'
DTM+137:200508031112:203'
DTM+178:200508031113:203'
DTM+735:2:805'
RFF+AAN:T200508031110N002'
NAD+GRP+8716867999990::9'
NAD+GRU+8712423009097::9'
ERC+00023::60'
FTX+AAO+++In period 199904112015 199904112030 your changes are not yet approved: because of inconsistency between other PRCs in the given period'
UNT+11+1001'
UNZ+1+1001'

Before we can start we need to have the Message Implementation Guide ( MIG ) of this APERAK message and off course study the general EDIFACT Guidelines which explains the UNA,UNB,UNT and UNZ segments.

First we need to identify the message. For this we need to analyze the UNH segment.

UNH+1001+APERAK:D:96A:UN:EDINE1'

The Message type is APERAK and version pluis release is D96A. These values are important for the Oracle Document Editor, this way we can detect and select the right EDIFACT APERAK definition and register it in Oracle B2B.

Now we can startup the Oracle Document Editor ( this can be downloaded in the Prerequisites & Recommended Install Process of the SOA Suite download on OTN, for EDIFACT we only need B2B Document Editor Part 1 )

Create a new guideline where we open the EDIFACT part and go to D96A node and select the APERAK message

This is the default implementation of the Aperak Message.

Because we are using an EDIFACT dialect we need to study the message implementation guide and change this guideline so it matches with the MIG. Delete Segments , Element Groups , Elements and add your own values in the element standard lists.

When we are finished with the modifying part we can export this guideline. Click on Export ( File menu )  and select Oracle 2.0

Select Show advanced options.

 Provide your own namespace

Suppress Enumeration in XSD

Then finish the export.

Next step is to use the Analyzer so we can test the created guideline on our EDIFACT test message.

Select the test message and select Show Advanced options ( else we can't generate a xml output based on this test message).

Choose From a guideline file and select your created guideline.

Our test message does not contain a functional group segment so choose for Syntax 3 - no functional group.

Oracle Document Editor can also generate a XML output but we need to enable this option.

The guideline and test message does not have any errors so we are ready to use it in Oracle B2B

To see the generated XML based on this test message we can press the XDATA button. This is the XML which can be processed by Oracle SOA Suite.

The next step is to register the APERAK guideline in Oracle B2B. For this we need go to the Administration part of the B2B application.

Go to the Document Tab and create a new version under EDI_EDIFACT. This version should be called D96A.
Also when we look at this line of our test EDIFACT message UNB+UNOC:3+8712423009097:14+8716867999990:14+080928:1347+1001'
Then we should use UNOC as syntax identifier and the version is 3. 

Also we don't use a functional group and UN is the Controlling Agency.

Create the APERAK Document Type and use FA as Function Group Identifier Code.
When we take a look at the UNH record of the test message we see that UN is our Controlling Agency and EDINE1 is the Transaction Association. UNH+1001+APERAK:D:96A:UN:EDINE1'

Create the APERAK Document Definition and upload the XSD definition and ECS file.

Next step is to add the EDI identifiers to all the involved Parties. This will be used to identify the agreement.
To know your sender or receiver identifications we can look at the UNB record.

Add the EDI Interchange ID and Qualifier identifiers to all the involved Parties.

Create the Aperak agreement between two parties where we add the EDI identifiers and select Validate and Translate options.

Add a listening channel, so B2B will listen for new EDIFACT files.

We should see the APERAK messages in the Business Messages

And at last this is how the translated XML message looks like.