1. Problem
You need to configure BizTalk to populate the header and footer segments in outbound documents.
2. Solution
Sending an EDI document
from BizTalk requires more configuration than a standard XML or flat
file document. In addition to the standard adapter and port setup, and
mapping, you also have to configure a BizTalk party and set up an
agreement and related artifacts. Before we look at the steps involved in
configuring an EDI envelope, let's look at what the envelope is. Listing 8-1 shows the document envelope of an 837 Professional file.
Example 1. 837 Professional Envelope
ISA*00* *00* *ZZ*PROF123 *ZZ*Merc123USA *091028*1300*U*00401*000000701*0*P*<~
GS*HC* PROF123* Merc123USA *20091028*1300*701*X*004010X098A1~
ST*837*0001
[BODY CONTENT]
SE*32*0001~
GE*1*701~
IEA*1*000000701~
|
The envelope identifies a
number of things about the document, most importantly, who the receiver
and sender are. These values are stored in the sixth and eight positions
of the ISA segment (ISA06 and ISA08). In the instance shown in Listing 1, these values are PROF123 (the sender identifier) and Merc123USA (the receiver identifier).
To set this up, take the
following steps. This solution assumes that parties, a business profile,
and an agreement have already been configured.
Open an agreement, and click one of the two tabs allowing for configuration of interchange information.
Click the Identifiers tab, and set the ISA properties as required (see Figure 1).
Click the Envelopes tab, and set the identifiers, version, and usage ISA properties (ISA11, ISA12, and ISA15), as shown in Figure 2.
Click
the Character set and separators tab. The character sets and separators
define how an envelope (and the entire body of the document) is laid
out. For example, setting the "Data element" field to an asterisk (*)
ensures that each element of a segment is separated with this character
(see Figure 3).
Once
all of the properties have been configured as desired, click the OK
button. Properties can be changed at any time and will immediately take
effect.
3. How It Works
A large number of
properties can be set on an agreement. Often, these properties will be
common to all trading partners that you will do business with. Once you
have worked through the configuration of a few agreements, you may
decide that you don't want to set these up from scratch each time. If
you have a configuration that is common, and you want to use as a
starting point for other trading partners, simply export the settings as
a template by clicking the Save As Template button at the bottom of the
Agreement Properties window (see Figure 4). This template can be loaded and used when configuring future agreements.
