Envelope Structure

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Sterling B2B Integrator supports the use of many EDI protocols, including EDIFACT. The EDIFACT protocol has three levels of envelopes:

  • Interchange (outermost) – Contains an interchange header and trailer, and all the data sent from one sender to one receiver in the same transmission.
  • Functional group (middle) – Contains a group header and trailer that surrounds a group of transaction sets of the same type.
  • Transaction set (innermost) – Contains the standard message surrounded by a header and trailer record.

Base Envelopes

Sterling B2B Integrator uses a concept of a base envelope as a starting point to create a new envelope. The base envelope maintains a link to the new envelope that inherited its properties. If you modify the base envelope, all related envelopes (that is, ones that inherited the base envelope properties) change, as well.

Note: If you plan to create many envelopes using base envelopes, it is recommended that you do not use the base envelopes in production. You may want to document how your base envelopes are linked to other envelopes.

The default envelope is the version of the document envelope that the Sterling B2B Integrator uses. You can specify a default envelope only if there are two or more versions of the same envelope. One version must be selected as the default.

Types of Envelopes

There are many types of envelopes provided in the Sterling B2B Integrator. Each envelope is defined by its envelope properties. These predefined enveloping and deenveloping business processes are available for you to incorporate into your own business processes. Envelope parameters specify whether the document is inbound or outbound:

  • Inbound envelopes identify documents that come into the Sterling B2B Integrator so they can be properly routed. Inbound envelopes also give you the option to translate documents when you choose to check documents for compliance. By choosing to translate documents from within the envelope, you can reduce document processing time because you do not need to specify a separate Translation service step in the business process.
  • Outbound envelopes identify documents so that they can be sent to and received by trading partners.