EDI Envelope Segment Maintenance

Envelope Segments refers to the segments which are automatically inserted before and after messages, these segments do not ordinarily contain transaction data, they serve as envelope segments to the data segments. These segments are generally known as Service Segments or Envelope Segments. Envelope segments are responsible for containing Interchange & message reference numbers, count of contents (such as; Segments within Message and Messages within Interchange), Identification values and control data. 

Envelope Segment definitions are assigned to each Trading Partner Event and are used for Inbound and Outbound transactions: 

Outbound

The configuration of Interchange and Message Envelope Header/Trailer Segments is mandatory for Outbound Trading Partner Events. The Envelope Segment values are automatically inserted by the ECS/EDI Processor when the Interchange is created (Message Pack). The Message Envelopes Segment Header is retrieved and inserted at the beginning of each Message. The Message Trailer is added to the end of each Message data. 

Functional Groups can be used to group together messages of the same type, the use of functional groups is optional (and rarely used with EDIFACT). If functional groups are used the grouping is performed by Trading Partner Event.     

The Interchange Header and Trailer Segments serve as an envelope around the messages/functional groups. The interchange header contains the addressing information used to transmit the EDI Interchange to the relevant Trading Partner and for the Trading Partner to identify who the interchange is from.  

The Syntax Set Envelope Header/Trailer Segment values are automatically copied on the creation of a new Outbound EDI Trading Partner Event. The Syntax Set default Envelope Segment values can be maintained using Syntax Set Maintenance.   

Inbound

The configuration of Envelope Header/Trailer Segments is important for Inbound Trading Partner Events. The values configured within Envelope Segments is used as comparison data to associate inbound interchanges and messages with EDI Trading Partner Events. A value must be entered that matches the Interchange/Message header to ensure the Interchanges and messages are associated with the correct Trading Partner Event. 

Partial matching of Inbound Interchanges and Messages is acceptable, so if your Trading Partner Id is "5469852697521" and this value is unique then it is possible to define this value as the Interchange Header Envelope value. Likewise, for Message Envelope header values, "ORDERS" would be allowed if the EDI Message header segment contained this value. 

The Message Envelope Header Segment values are automatically populated with the EDI Message Id on the creation of a new Inbound EDI Trading Partner Event.  

Inbound interchanges can only be processed if there is a positive match against a defined Trading Partner Event. Matching is performed using the Interchange Envelope Header values defined within the EDI Trading Partner Events. If an Unknown Interchange is received then it is placed in the folder defined as the “unknown interchange” Folder (Default value is  C:\ECSIE\EDI_UNKNOWN\) and an Error report sent to the System administrator stating that an Interchange has been received from an Unknown Trading Partner.

Note: The email that is sent to the Administrator on the receipt of unknown Interchanges can be disabled to allow the receipt of unknown interchanges to be ignored (but still placed in the EDI_UNKNOWN Folder). This Error email can be disabled by changing the system Parameter "ECSEDI_Send_Unmatched_TP_Error_Messages" from “1” (the default) to “0”.  

If an EDI Message is being unpacked for a known Trading Partner that does not have a Trading Partner Event defined for the message type being processed then the Status of the Control record is changed to "ERR", the Event Id set to "*UNKNOWN" and an Error message sent to the system Administrator. The matching of the Message to the Trading Partner Event is performed using the Message Envelope Header values defined within the Trading Partner Events.

EDI Control records that have been assigned *UNKNOWN Trading Partner Events can be later re-assigned to a valid Event using the "Reset" function within the "EDI Transaction Control" Panel.

Note: The email that is sent to the Administrator on the receipt of unknown messages for known Trading Partners can be disabled to allow un support ed message types to be ignored. This Error email can be disabled by changing the  system Parameter "ECSEDI_Send_Unmatched_TPE_Error_Messages" from “1”  (the default) to “0”.   

Configuration of Inbound & Outbound Events

Outbound Header and Trailer Envelope Segments can contain specific volatile information, such as Date, Time and retrieve certain key values from the ECS/EDI Processor Control file. The insertion of these values is controlled by using the following special values which will be automatically replaced by the ECS/EDI Processor when the outbound EDI Interchange is generated:

Note: Special Values &SYSINTCOUNT to &MSGSEGCOUNT can be configured to write a value with a fixed length of between 3 and 12 positions. The values should be defined by suffixing the Special value with the required number of positions. The following example shows how the Special values can be written with a fixed length of 7 positions: 

To configure EDI Envelope Segment values, perform the following:

• From the main "ECS/integrated email" panel click on the drop down menu "e-commerce",  select "EDI" then select "EDI Trading Partner Events"

• The "EDI Trading Partner Event Maintenance" window will now be displayed, listing any previously defined EDI Events.

• "Edit" the required Outbound EDI Trading Partner Event and click on the "Interchange" Command button. 

• A panel resembling the following window should be displayed, containing the default values retrieved from the EDI Syntax Set: 

       

Note: Sequence number 1 refers to Header Envelope Segments and Sequence number 2 refers to Trailer Envelope Segments.

• Select the required record and click "Edit" command button to edit the Envelope Value. 

• The "EDI Header/Trailer Maintenance" window will now be displayed ready to maintain the EDI Envelope Segment values. 

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