X9 Segment Creation

The Distribution engine’s IZL Segment listener port listens for internal build segment request. On receipt of an internal build segment request, the engine builds a physical file on the hard disk drive that contains the structure of the segment. The system segment properties in the Distribution user interface control the root directory where the segment files are written. The business day date, category, and endpoint ID control the rest of the directory structure where the segment files are written. For instance, if the root segment location is c:\temp and a segment was being built for business day 2008–05–19, category 1, and endpoint ENDPT-01, the segment files would be written to the path: 
c:\temp\2008-05-19\1\ENDPT-01
The segment files are written as soon as a segment is full; therefore, when it is time to build and send the transmission, the images have already been fetched from the Transaction Server. The Distribution engine must build any currently open segments and must also build the batch (ICL) and transmission header and control records to encapsulate the segments. This allows the institution to build segments throughout the day; therefore, when it is time to present a transmission to a trading partner, the majority of the processing has already been done and the transmission creation takes a minimal amount of time.

Segments are built using the building options defined in Partner Profiles for the endpoint associated with the segment or the options defined in Distribution, if the endpoint defines a product code. The building options control whether images are added to the transaction, what addenda are created for each transaction and which addenda are retrieved from the Transaction Server, the image views to include, and other indicators located in the Type 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33 and 35 records. Any addendum records created by the Distribution engine are stored back in the database for historical reference. The user may also specify a missing image percent threshold in the transmission definition. This value controls how many transactions in the transmission can have missing images before the transmission is put into an error state. When a segment is processed, the transmission’s missing image percent is applied to the segment. If the segment exceeds the missing image percent, it is still built but it is built with warnings. When the transmission is built that contains the segment, the missing image percent is applied across all transactions in the transmission. If the transmission exceeds the missing image percent, the transmission is put into the error status. The missing image percent can be a value between 0 (no missing images are allowed) and 100 (all transactions could be missing images).

Control how many threads are used to concurrently work on building segments by adjusting the maximum sessions parameter in the segment listener port. This parameter is changed using the WebSphere® Application Server administrative console.