Blogs @ EDI Sourcing Inc

The evolution of “Binary XML”

Using a binary XML format generally reduces the size of XML documents and cost of parsing. It aims to provide more efficient serialization than the text-based XML format. One of the popular opensource platforms “GlassFish” by Sun uses a variation of Binary XML called “Fast Infoset”, which is often described as “gzip” for xml with the additional benefit of processing performance.  The Fast Infoset standard is made available here in pdf from ITU – X.891 Specification.

Some of the advantages of using a Binary XML notation are:

• enabling random access
• indexing of XML documents
• efficient storage and processing functionality

Some of the dis-advantages are:

• hinders the use of ordinary text editors to view and edit the document

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What is UBL?

Universal Business Language (UBL) is a library of standard electronic XML business documents such as purchase orders and invoices. UBL was developed by OASIS Technical Committee with participation from a variety of industry data standards organizations. UBL is designed to plug directly into existing business, legal, auditing, and records management practices. It is designed to eliminate the re-keying of data in existing fax- and paper-based business correspondence and provide an entry point into electronic commerce for small and medium-sized businesses.

Please find more information about UBL in the following links below:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Business_Language
2. http://www.unimaze.com/on+ubl.aspx
3. http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=ubl
4. http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0/UBL-2.0.pdf

Source: Wikipedia

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The Evolution of standards in the Transportation Sector

The Transportation Industry recognized the need for industry standards early on and formed the Transportation Data Coordinating Committee (TDCC) in 1968. The TDCC was formed as a non-profit organization in Washington DC and organizes data standards, formats codes, and protocols for the transportation industry. The ground rules the TDCC began its standards development with were:

* The EDI interface must be insensitive to computer equipment internal architecture.
* The EDI interface should be responsive to end users needs.
* EDI should leave the choice of communication speeds and services to the using parties.

Several hundred people worked in teams to develop these standards. These teams consisted of shippers, railroads, motor carriers, forwarders, ocean carriers, air carriers, and banks. The end product was the publication of the TDCC Electronic Data Interchange Standards. These Standards were first used in the rail lines and later across motor carriers. TDCC estimates that 90% of all rail waybills were electronically interchanged between railroads by 1985. Today, the usage of TDCC’s EDI standards include:

* Export/import information for international shipments carrier-to-carrier waybill exchange.
* Reservation or pickup request.
* Shipment information from shipper to carrier.
* Freight bill data, carrier to payer.
* Shipment tracing information.
* Payment data, payer to bank, bank to bank, bank to payee.

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Maps with XML files that have empty tags fail with a post delimiter error

When an xml file is run through an XML map without using otxmlcanon pre-processor, the map fails if the xml file has empty tags, so it is very important to use the XML pre-processor.

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FILE_STAT function has some useful information about files

FILE_STAT function can be useful at times for debugging:

VAR->OTType which is usually a “file”
VAR->OTInputFileSize: which has the file size

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Error when the square brackets are missed at the start of an element or a group

When the square brackets are missing or commented out at the start of an element or a group as shown below, one gets an error
‘Access obj “VAR” for dm “DUMMYGROUP” not found’

;[]
VAR->OTTargetSuccessful = “Yes”
PERFORM(“OTTrgEnd”)

}*0 .. 1 ;; |– end DUMMYGROUP –|

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Tips for Searching Trace Logs

Application data: Start at the bottom. Search up for “| DM:”
Outbound EDI: Search down from the top for “errcode (number)”
Inbound EDI: Start at the top. Search down for “Error# ”

Other trace log items to look for:
Map Component filename or data model name
“ARRAY VAL”
“get_source”
“put_target”
“VALUE STACK” or “vstk”
Last error at the bottom of the trace log.

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Look for VAR->OTTmpErr or OTCodeErr in the trace to find out if there are any errors

Look for VAR->OTTmpErr or ARRAY->OTCodeErr in the trace log to find out if there are any errors during the translations when the get_source and put_target doesn’t find the maps that should be called and doesn’t produce the output.
For example when the trading partner doesn’t exist in the Trade Partner Database, one would get a 303 error in variable VAR->OTTmpErr.

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The environment variable GC_LOCALEDIR is important for AI3.2 control server to run

The environment variable GC_LOCALEDIR is important for AI3.2 control server to run. If this environment variable is missing, then AI3.2 will not start.

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AI Error – 184

One might get a 184 Error when PERFORM(“OTTrgInit”, “”, “”) is not put in a flat file translation on the target or the environment variable OUTPUT_FILE is not defined either in the attachment or in the models.

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