Specifications

ANSI X12 4010 and 4020 standards  

Alliance EDI Workbench/400 includes ANSI X12 4010 and 4020 standards. These are the most current, Y2K compliant versions of the ANSI standards. The standards are on-line and are used to build document definitions for ANSI X12 documents. Alliance EDI Workbench/400 also supports user-defined standards for cases where a standard is under development or you need a privately defined standard.

ANSI X12 document standards  

Alliance EDI Workbench/400 includes all of the EDI document standards supported in versions 4010 and 4020.  If you need to create an 810 invoice document you will find a complete listing of the segments used by the 810 invoice document and data structures needed for translation. You can also create user-defined documents for translations that are not included in the ANSI X12 standard set. [top]

Automatically create ANSI X12 document definitions

When you start to work on a new translation project you can create a full ANSI X12 document definition using EDI Workbench/400. This  creates a full set of the data structures needed for translating the document and sets up your work environment. You can then start modifying the structures for your own needs and creating the program for translation. EDI Workbench/400 keeps track of your EDI document definitions and provides an entry point for managing the project.  [top]

AS/400 to ANSI X12 translation

Once a document definition has been created you can start to develop your RPG or Cobol application to perform EDI translation. You bind the EDI Workbench/400 service program to your own application, and call the APIs to do translation. A simple call to an API will convet your AS/400 data to the ANSI X12 format. All AS/400 numeric data (zoned, packed, binary, etc.) is automatically converted to ANSI X12 standard formats. All character data is formatted as blank truncated strings. Field separators and segment terminators are inserted at the appropriate places. One call to an API will generate a fully formed ANSI X12 segment that you can write to a database file .[top]

ANSI X12 to AS/400 data translation

When you receive an ANSI X12 document you need to translate the data to AS/400 formats. Numeric strings must be mapped to zoned, packed, or binary AS/400 data. Character strings must be mapped to AS/400 DB2/400 character fields. And field separators and segment terminators must be removed from the data. Alliance EDI Workbench/400 does all of this for you. By binding the EDI Workbench/400 service program to your RPG or Cobol program you can automatically convert ANSI X12 data to AS/400 formats. One call to the  EDI Workbench/400 API will convert the data for you. Once converted you can update your AS/400 database.    [top] 

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

Alliance EDI Workbench/400 has a full development environment to support the AS/400 programmer.  You can create edit EDI definitions, generate ILE RPG source code, edit the source, compile programs, and test translation programs without leaving EDI Workbench/400.  By providing the tools AS/400 programmers need projects are completed faster and with fewer errors. [top] 

EDI translation tutorials

To assist the developer in getting started, and to reduce the learning curve for EDI development, EDI Workbench/400 includes tutorials that show you, step-by-step, how to do EDI translation with EDI Workbench/400. For translating ANSI X12 data to AS/400 format, a tutorial provides a sample 810 document, a sample AS/400 invoice database, and an ILE RPG program that translates the data. For creating ANSI X12 documents from AS/400 data a sample purchase order database is provided. A sample ILE RPG program shows how to read the AS/400 database and create an ANSI X12 850 document. Both tutorials provide source code that can be copied to user projects as a starting point. [top] 

Sample ILE RPG source code

Sample ILE RPG programs are provided that show how to create EDI documents and how to import EDI documents into the AS/400 database. The sample source code can be used as a starting point for your own applications and demonstrate the key components of an EDI translation. [top] 

Error detection and management

When you call the EDI Workbench/400 API to perform a translation you always receive a return code that describes the  success or failure of the translation. If there is bad data in an ANSI X12 document, or the API cannot translate the data for any reason, you will receive an error code that describes the problem. During development you can also turn on application logging which provides a detail log of translation activity. Whenever there is a problem translating data information is written to the log that shows the cause of the translation error. [top]

 

Email notification

Alliance EDI Workbench/400 contains a full SMTP email client application that you can use for email notification. You might want to send an email notification to a trading partner when you’ve created a document, or you might want to send an email notification to yourself when an error occurs. You can even use the email API to send an ANSI X12 document to your trading partner. [top]

SNMP error  notification

Alliance EDI Workbench/400 provides a full API for generating SNMP trap error messages. You can integrate your AS/400 applications into HP OpenView or any other network management application that can receive SNMP trap messages. You can send error messages using text strings that you create, or you can send SNMP messages using a message identifier in a message file .  [top]

Web applications

Since EDI Workbench/400 functions are provided in a service program, you can integrate these functions into your CGI web applications on the AS/400. ILE RPG, C/400, Cobol and other applications can use the EDI translation services of EDI Workbench/400 to EDI-enable your web applications. You can also invoke AS/400 applications from Java programs to perform EDI translation from Java. EDI  Workbench/400 gives you the flexibility you need to support your AS/400 legacy and web applications. [top]

FTP automation with FTP Manager

If you use Alliance FTP Manager with Alliance EDI Workbench/400 you can deploy fully automated eCommerce solutions on the AS/400. With FTP Manager you can automatically process received EDI files into your AS/400 applications. You can also automatically transmit EDI files to your trading partners over the Internet or via private network connections. FTP Manager is fully compatible with the IBM Global Network (Advantis), AllTel, and other EDI networks. [top]

Application monitoring