White Paper. Composite Data Elements. Last revised: August 2017

Transcription

1 White Paper Composite Data Elements Last revised: August 2017 Licensed Materials - Property of IBM IBM Sterling Gentran:Server for Microsoft Windows Copyright IBM Corp. 1990, All Rights Reserved. US Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Page 1 of 6

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Purpose... 3 Background... 3 Composite Data Elements... 4 Example... 5 Page 2 of 6

3 Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain composite data elements in EDI data and how they are used in Application Integration and Forms Integration. Background Composite data elements in EDI data are sub-elements within an EDI element. However, before composite data elements can be covered, let s review EDI elements. An EDI segment is made up of units of data called elements. For example: This is the BEG segment from an 850 Purchase Order. In EDI, the element delimiters appear at the end of each element. The first * in the above segment is the tag delimiter, not the delimiter for element 1. The second * is the element delimiter for element 1. The third * is the element delimiter for element 2 and so on. The BEG segment above contains data for elements 1, 2, 3, and 5; element 4 contains no data. In Application Integration and Forms Integration, this particular segment would be represented as follows: Elements 1, 2, 3, and 5 are activated in the map for this segment. Element 4 is not activated because there is no data for it. Elements should be activated in a record if data could possibly be sent in the EDI file for the element. Page 3 of 6

4 Composite Data Elements Just as segments are made up of elements, composite data elements are an element made up of even smaller units of data called sub-elements. All of the sub-elements of a given composite as a whole are treated as one element. Example of EDI segment: Everything in this segment looks like any other EDI segment except when it comes to the fourth element. In the MEA segment, the fourth element is actually a composite data element. Remember that a composite data element is one element made up of several sub-elements. The sub-element delimiter identifies the sub-elements in a composite just like the element delimiter identifies elements in a segment. In this example, the sub-element delimiter is a colon (:). In the MEA segment, everything after the element delimiter for element 3 and before the element delimiter for element 4 is data for element 4. In the EDI Standards Definition for the MEA segment you can see that the MEA segment contains 10 elements; notice how element 4 (Composite Unit of Mea) is a composite. Each piece of data within this composite data element is a sub-element. Here is the EDI Standards Definition for this composite data element: Page 4 of 6

5 This composite is actually made up of 15 sub-elements. In the sample data segment (MEA*OG*PPS*100*FT::1000:YD:3*1*900~), the composite is using sub-elements 1, 3, 4, and 5. Sub-element 2 contains no data. The delimiter indicating the end of element 4 appears after the data for the fifth sub-element. Note: No matter how many sub-elements are used in a composite data element, the entire composite data element is considered to be one element. Example Now elements and composite data elements in the EDI Standard have been reviewed, lets review how they are defined in Application Integration and Forms Integration. Consider once again the sample MEA segment: A composite data element is represented in Application Integration and Forms Integration with the following icon. Below is how the MEA segment is defined in Application Integration and Forms Integration; notice that element 4 is a composite data element. After the composite data element there appears to be a discrepancy in the element numbering; according to the EDI standards, Range Minimum is element 5. However, in Application Integration and Forms Integration Range Minimum is listed as element 19. This is due to how the numbering schema in the mapper tool is designed. Page 5 of 6

6 Expanding the composite will show all the sub-elements. Notice that icon used to signify an element is also used to signify a sub-element in a composite. The composite icon is merely a visual clue to indicate that the elements contained within it make up one entire element in the segment. In the map editor, Range Minimum appears as element 19 because the element numbering starts at 1 for the first element and increases by 1 for each subsequent element and sub-element in the segment. In the MEA data segment (MEA*OG*PPS*100*FT::1000:YD:3*1*900~) element 5 is the value 1 because it follows the fourth element delimiter. When mapping this element in the map editor, look for the element that immediately follows the composite structure. Page 6 of 6