EDI document properties

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The following tables list the document properties based on whether the element you select is a composite, record, or field.

Any inbound document that deviates from the properties you set for each of the elements generates appropriate validation errors in the Course of transaction. For information on how to set the validate option, see the webMethods Integration documentation for the Electronic Data Interchange application. The errors that appear in the Course of transaction depend on how the orchestration you define on webMethods Integration handles and returns the errors.
Note: For inbound EDI documents, if an attribute is not mandatory and an error occurs during its extraction, the status is set to error instead of a warning.

Record Properties

Property Name Description
Name Name of the selected node.
Alternate name Another name for the record definition.
Description Description of the record definition.
Mandatory An instance of this record must exist in the inbound document.
  • Enabled. A record is required.
  • Disabled. The record is optional.
Ordered Child records in the inbound document must appear in the same order as they appear in the record definition. This property applies only to records that are children of this record.
  • Enabled. Records in the inbound document must appear in the order as in the record definition.
  • Disabled. Records to appear in any order.
Max repeat Maximum number of times this record definition can repeat in the inbound document. Specify a positive integer. The maximum limit is 999,999,999. The following values are interpreted in a specific manner:
  • 0. The record can appear once but cannot repeat.
  • 1. The record can appear once and repeat once.
Area The area that is assigned to this record definition. The property determines the possible values that you can assign to a record.
  • Transaction-header
  • Heading
  • Details
  • Summary
  • Transaction-trailer
  • Not used
Position The position of the record in an inbound document. Select the checkbox to specify the position of the record. The maximum limit is 9999.
Allow undefined data The record definition is considered valid despite having undefined data. A record definition allows undefined data only if the inbound document is configured to do so.
  • Enabled. Instances of this record definition to contain undefined data when the Max repeat property is set to a value greater than 1. This option applies to all the record instances.
  • Disabled. Prohibits instances of this record definition from containing undefined data.
Check fields Indicates whether extra fields in the record instance must be treated as errors.
  • Enabled. Does not allow record instances to contain more fields than the fields specified in the record definition.
  • Disabled. Allows extra fields at the end of the record instance.
Validator The type of validator to use to validate instances of this record definition.
  • None. No validations are required for this record.
  • Conditional Validator. Used with all other validation attributes and are run when the document is processed. Conditional validators apply only to records and composites. For more information, see Conditional validators.

Composite Properties

Property Name Description
Name Name of the selected node.
Alternate name Another name for the composite definition.
Description A description of the composite definition.
Mandatory The field must exist as a composite in the document.
  • Enabled. Indicates that the composite is required.
  • Disabled. Indicates that the composite is optional.
ID code The ID code of the composite definition. The composite definition in the referenced record definition defines the value of the ID code..
Check fields Indicates whether extra fields in the composite instance are treated as errors.
  • Enabled. Does not allow composite instances to contain more fields than those fields specified in the composite definition.
  • Disabled. Allows extra fields at the end of the composite instance.
Validator Type of validator to use to validate instances of this composite definition.
  • None. No validations are required for this composite.
  • Conditional Validator. Used with all other validation attributes and are run when the document is processed. Conditional validators apply only to records and composites. For more information, see Conditional validators
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Extractor Field number in the record that contains the composite you want to extract. It extracts the field or composite data from the record or extracts the sub-field data from the composite. If this property is empty, the composite is not extracted.
Note: The extractor works for a composite only if the field delimiters and sub-field delimiters are defined for the inbound document.

Field Properties

Property Name Description
Name Name of the selected node.
Alternate name Another name for the field definition. The alternate name is used as the name of the String field that corresponds to this field definition in an inbound document.
Description The field definition in a composite reference or a record reference at the specified location in the inbound document.
Mandatory An instance of this field definition must exist in the inbound document.
  • Enabled. Indicates that the field is required.
  • Disabled. Indicates that the field is optional.
Data type The data type of the field that accepts inputs in (data type, minimum length, maximum length) format. The maximum character length limit is 9999. Modifying Data type updates the Format service. The following data types are supported
  • Alphabetic. Alphabetic string that contains at least one nonspace character.
  • Alphanumeric. Alphanumeric string that contains at least one nonspace character.
  • Binary. Binary values with 0's and 1's.
  • Date. Indicates date format.
    Note: Configuring the Min and Max values for Date, updates the Format service. It supports the following combinations of minimum and maximum values:
    • Min 6 and Max 6
    • Min 8 and Max 8.
  • Decimal number. A numeric value that contains a decimal point.
  • Identifier. Values are from a predefined list of values. The ASC X12 Committee and other standards that set bodies maintains the values..
  • Number. Positive integer. The number indicates the decimal precision.
  • Time. Indicates time format.
    Note: Configuring the Min and Max values for Time, updates the Format service. It supports the following combinations of minimum and maximum values:
    • Min 4 and Max 4
    • Min 4 and Max 6
    • Min 4 and Max 8
    • Min 6 and Max 6

    The Min and Max fields indicate the minimum and maximum character length for Length, Byte length, and Code list validators.
ID code The ID code for the field definition. The EDI standards define an ID code.
Format service Format type that is applied to the field definition. The format service validates either the content in a field or converts the content in an associated field to an appropriate format. For example, a format service can validate if the content associated with a node is of numeric type. Another format service might convert a timestamp from HH:mm:ss.SS format to HHmmssSS. The following list describes the properties of the Format service:
  • Name. Name of the format service.
  • Internal format. The format required by an internal application.
  • External format. The format for EDI ANSI standard format.
Validator The type of validator to use to validate the field. The following list lists the supported types:
  • Length validator. For a length validator, specify the maximum and minimum number of characters this field can contain to be considered valid.
  • Minimum length. The minimum number of characters in this field for it to be valid. Type zero (0).
  • Maximum length. The maximum number of characters in this field for it to be valid.
  • Code list validator. Specify a comma-separated list of valid custom codes if they are not available with the standard schema.

    Click Look up to view the list of codes that the standard schema provides.

    Note: webMethods B2B Integration does not support the Look up functions for TRADACOM documents.
  • If an inbound EDI document was reset before the 1.4 release, then extraction of the validator node of the code list fails. As a work around, you must reset the business document again.
  • The Code list validator is available only when you select the Identifier for Data type property.
  • Byte length validator. Specify the maximum and minimum number of bytes that this field can contain for it to be valid.
  • Minimum length. The minimum number of bytes that this field can contain for it to be valid.
  • Maximum length. The maximum number of bytes that this field can contain for the field to be valid.
Extractor Location of the data to extract for this field. The extractor works for a field only if the field delimiters are defined for the inbound document.
  • Nth field. Displays the position of the field to extract.
  • ID node. Displays the ID of the field to extract.
  • Fixed position. Displays the start and end positions of the bytes to extract.