EDI Tools
Link: http://www.stylusstudio.com/edi/
Source Author or Organization: Stylus Studio
New EDI tools in Stylus Studio provide powerful utilities for simplifying working with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in legacy data integration projects, including support for both X12 and EDIFACT technologies. Stylus Studio's EDI tools are more then just design-time tools - through integration with XML Deployment Adapters , they provide a highly scalable and easy way to deploy advanced EDI-XML data integration based on industry standard XSLT or XQuery technologies in just minutes. The following is an overview of the new EDI tools support in Stylus Studio 2006 XML Enterprise Edition:
- Converting EDIFACT to XML : It's easy to load an EDIFACT document, click your mouse and produce a fully-commented XML file. The EDI/XML comments can be disabled when you're sure the data transformation is just perfect.
- Converting XML to EDIFACT : Going from EDIFACT to XML is one thing, but Stylus Studio can write XML data back to EDI files! The EDI adapter is transparent to your use, so you can change the text in the XML editor, save it back to disk - your changes will automatically have been persisted to the original EDIFACT file.
- Converting X12 to XML : The X12 adapter, just like the EDIFACT adapter, can go from XML to X12 EDI. Instead of using the X12 URL itself as the destination, simply prefix it with adapter:EDI? and the output will happen through the X12 adapter. The syntax and transaction set and even release will be detected from the XML stream, and the details will be automatically handled.
- Converting XML to X12 : Instead of spending time on trying to de-cypher syntactic idiosyncracies of X12, concentrate on your data. The bidirectional nature of the EDI adapter will handle the details of creating a syntactically correct X12 file from the XML editor, or even from your XQuery or XSLT transforms.
- Generate XML Schema from EDIFACT : How do you know if the EDIFACT data you are working with is valid? How do you map from a copy of some document to your ERP system's inputs? XML Schemas are a useful mechanism for informing disparate applications of an XML document's structure. Stylus Studio allows you to generate an XML Schema for any message type and any version that the EDIFACT standard supports. This can be used for validation , mapping or integration.
- Generate XML Schema from X12 : The DISA X12 standards are constantly being updated. How can you insure that your data stream is valid against what's coming down the pike? Being able to create XML Schemas for any transaction set or release , and then being able to build maps or do validation against said schemas can ease your burden.
- Transform EDI to EDI : Since Stylus Studio can do XML to EDI and EDI to XML and XML to XML , there is no reason why it shouldn't be able to do EDI to EDI . And the same XSLT and XQuery tools historically used for XML mapping and transforming can now be used for working with EDIFACT , X12, flat files , relational databases , or any combination.
- Access EDI from XSLT or XQuery : XSLT and XQuery are excellent tools for dealing with tree-structured data like XML. Up to this point, EDI has missed out, but the transparent URL-based adapter library of Stylus Studio can build your EDI bridge. Use EDI as if it were XML -- for input, for output, or even for both (to translate from EDIFACT to X12 for example).
- Create Custom EDI to XML Conversions : For your home-grown or proprietary EDI vocabularies, the Convert to XML tool within Stylus Studio can design your own XML adapter, which can then be used like any other adapter to go from EDI to XML.
