How are you using WebMethods for EDI

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1

I’m trying to figure out how do EDI in WM. I would really appreciate it if you could tell me: 1) What WM apps you’re using for EDI. 2) How do you connect to your partners? VAN? 3) Are there any Best practices or templates for EDI? 4) Is WM working well for EDI? 5) Does WM have the transactions defined?

I know I’m asking a lot of Q’s, but if you can even answer one please chime in.

Thanks in advance
Andrew

2

Hi Andrew,

Good Questions! A great place to start is here and at advantage.webmethods.com

There are 3 components EDI
WM EDI Package
WM EDI TN Package
WM EDIINT Package

EDIINT can be done over the internet-
It includes: Content handler, send/rec services doc type rules, registered and delivery services, etc…

webM is a great tool for EDI?
wM does have defined transactions. x12&Edifact

ProSoft has templatized a lot of the processes&mappings with their uBquity2B toolkit.

Bill Vita
wvita@prosoftgroup.com

3

We are currently doing EDI with webMethods. I’ll answer your questions as you asked them.

  1. What WM apps you’re using for EDI. - We use Trading Networks, the Integraion Server of course and the Partner Manager as well as the SAP adapter. Partner Manager is used to interface from/to our SAP system much like Trading Networks is used to interface to the outside world.

  2. How do you connect to your partners? VAN? We have two communications channels to our partners, a) we use the ICC VAN which is a low cost/high value Internet VAN. We connect to them via FTP. Wm has scripts to connect to ICC directly. Wm also with version 4.6 has implemented encryption over FTP and has tested it with ICC. b) We also have an FTP server on the firewall that we use to send and receive info from partners.

  3. Are there any Best practices or templates for EDI? I’m not sure if I have seen any best practices for EDI from Wm. There is a samples package that you can review. In terms of templates, Wm provides all EDI X.12 templates for you that you install as you need them. You don’t have to worry about the EDI structures, wM has done everything for you here.

  4. Is WM working well for EDI? We are outsourced to a large EDI service provider and are near competion in bringing our EDI infrastructure in-house. wM is great!!! It’s powerfull and very flexible. We are able to do things in wM that were very difficult to do in traditional mapping tools. You do need to have a developer type person on staff and Java wouldn’t hurt either. I’m very pleased with wM. I do know a good EDI/wM consultant if you need one.

  5. Does WM have the transactions defined? As I indicated before, templates are available for all the EDI X12 standards which build the record structures and schema in wM. They do have samples and a good users guide that helps build the flow services required to process the transactions. Once you build one service, you can copy it to create other services with modification of course.

Since wM offers a flow programming language as well as software utility, you really need to architect the environment as to how transactions are processed. FA reconcilliation for example is one thing you will want to focus on so that the status of outbound documents can be updated when an inbound 997 is received.

It is a little more difficult to implement than traditional EDI products but it’s well worth the effort. I’ve been involved with EDI for about six years now and love wM. EDI is true e-commerce and wM really extends EDI and gives you more options and flexibility.

4

If you’re in the Denver area, or can get there, there is a Rocky Mountain User Group meeting there this Friday (Jul 19). I’ll be giving a 30 minute session on using EDI with TN which includes an overview (quicky tutorial), mapping tips, enveloping techniques and how to generate tset level FAs generically.([url=“wmusers.com”]wmusers.com).

5

Are there any User Group Meetings on the East Coast (Philadelphia). I would be interested in attending since I am new to the product.

6

Ray,

How many trading partners do you have in production with wM?

Hom many unique transactions are you integrating per trading partner?

How many resources were required to do EDI with wM?

Thanks,
Joe

7

>>How many trading partners do you have in production with wM?

We have about 45 trading partners in production. We process about 6,000 transactions per week.

>> Hom many unique transactions are you integrating per trading
partner?

We have approximately 60 transactions on both the customer and supplier side. Some Trading Partners only trade one document, others up to six or so. i850, o810, o856, o855, i816, i820, i812, o850, i810, i210, i858, i997, o997

>> How many resources were required to do EDI with wM?

We have one architect/developer and two coordinators. I would though try to keep the day to day coordination of the EDI separate from the technical. Doing this would allow you to utilize the technical resource not only for EDI but also other integration activities relative to B2B.

8

Can any one knows where we can get sample workflows for EDI (VAN to SAP) transactions in wmMethods

Thanks in advance

9

Does anyone know if Version 6.0 is having problems creating 997 FA’s correctly ?

Also, is webMethods as “Robust” in X12 Validation as compared to a “Gentran” , “Mercator”, “Geis” etc. ?

10

Ray, do you have an example available of an X12 document (any kind 810, 850, whatever) and how to convert to I guess it would be flat file and then an IDOC or the reverse – or even just an X12 document to a flat file. I have read all documentation available and find it not very intuitive – I am an applications EDI specialist and not a developer but If I have an example to follow: package structure with flows, services, etc. – I will understand and can do the next one myself. Visuals are much easier to understand the first time around. Hope you would agree. Let me know if you can help. I am new to WebM and have read all of the EDI documentation and find it is a lot of information with no structure for a novice. Please help!

11

How do I output my value to a Text File from webMethods.

12

Hi,

Oce you get the outout into a string variable then use writeToFile service provided in WmSamples package to write to a file.

Kalyan

13

Hi,
do we have any guidelines for doing EDI Migrations ? What all are the key focus areas ? What are major activities/task and time to accomplish them.

14

HOW to exchange EDI with out TN

15

The EDI Module comes with a User Guide that describes quite nicely how to process EDI documents without using TN.

16

Anyone using webMethods and Sterling commerce as a VAN? If so how do you connect with them? FTP, connect:direct?

17

Mike,

WM can connect Sterling VAN mailbox using FTP,this will work.

HTH,
RMG.

18

I am in the process of setting up AS2 with Sterling.

19

I’m leaning towards AS2 becuase secure transport with AS2 seems more “out-of-the-box” in webMethods than FTP.

With FTP I’ve done custom PGP scripts, etc. So everyone’s implementation looks a little different.

20

Two “gotcha’s” that we found, that caused us to have to use a modified version of VAN.VANConnectivity:putToVAN :

  1. Change the pub.client.ftp:put to use transferMode = ascii. Our ftp connection to sterling won’t work in binary mode.
  2. They won’t accept data with over 512 bytes per “line”. We had to write a java service to insert \n every 512 bytes.

I would be interested if anyone else had those issues.