The Integration Engineer
When it just has to work.

If you are installing a Magento as a web store for yourself or for someone else, you will want to track how many visitors you have and how many of them convert into customers. Magento makes this really easy if you are using Google Analytic. Here is how it works.

First you will need to have a Google Analytics account.  If you don’t have one, you might want to check it out.  Its free and you can sign up at http://www.google.com/analytics

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For those who may be unfamiliar with the EDI standard, and those who may have used EDI but have encountered a new, unfamiliar question.

This introduction aims at addressing the basic questions of convention and implementation of the EDI technology.  I have a list of topics, and hope that over time I can cover all of them.  I also hope that people reading here may have questions that I haven’t thought to write about.  Please let  me know what your questions are and I will see what I can do about providing answers. (more…)

As with most strategies, we start out defining the goal, or the place we want to end up. With an EDI strategy roll out, our destination is a reliable bidirectional communication between our organization and one or more trading partners.

With this as the abstract version of our goal. We break the task into three sections. Data types that we will exchange both outbound and inbound. What transport or connectivity solutions we will used to ensure a robust and reliable transmission and reception of the data. And what data translation, storage and processing solutions we will employ.

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EDI and other data that is part of an e-commerce transaction needs to get to where it needs to go in a reliable way.  It needs to get there.  Get there once.  And be able to let the sender know if there was a problem with it, either not getting there, or being corrupted, in either case triggering a resend or some other remediation.

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What is a line item?

A line item is a group of data and its structure that is or can be repeated multiple times in its document.  It holds the data that is the focus of the document, and a part of a document or transaction that contains distinct part that can stand alone.  For instance, an order that has two line items could be split into two orders that would be able to be filled separately.  It does not necessarily contain information that can be applied to a group of items, although sometimes this information is included.  This feeds into what type of data that a line item contains.

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Starting off work on my On-line Status Repository, one of the things that I will be starting with is uploading and downloading SEF file from a data repository.  SEF stand for Standards Exchange Format.  SEF files are repositories of standards information that can then be exchanged between people and applications to define the format of EDI documents.

If you have used a standards editor, you probably know what an SEF file is, or have used it.  Some applications and EAI even use SEF files as part of their document creation and validation processes.  It becomes useful to describe briefly what SEF files look like, and what type of information they contain.

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When two trading partners agree to send each other electronic documents.  And they begin to describe what EDI documents they will exchange and how the documents will flow, they should also exchange EDI specification documents.  EDI usage or specification documents describe what fields and what segments a trading partner will send or expect to convey the information necessary to complete a transaction.  It doesn’t matter if we are ordering widgets, or invoicing, or transmitting catalog data, or checking insurance claims eligibility, the EDI needs to contain the data that the two parties need to communicate.  To explain this, and document it to that both trading partners know what is expected, we create an EDI usage specification.

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I started thinking that I would create a comprehensive integration guide and framework. A document that would guide a person from the beginning to end of an integration, covering all the bases, and addressing all the issues. Then I ditched the idea. No one would ever want to read it. (not even me.) Instead here are 7 simple steps that should get your going, and that you should follow in each integration project. The rest of the plan is largely, and subjectively up to you. (more…)

ACK is an Acknowledgment segment. It is commonly found on response transactions to Purchase Orders or 855. It is one of the lines found in the PO1 loop or group.  As this line modifies the PO1 line data from the Purchase Order, what it can contain and how that data is handled is important for the stability of the supply chain integration.  For clarity, we are going to use the 4010 x12 standard.

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Like the PO1 segment, IT1 is another line item segment used in the supply chain.  This is the line item segment found in invoices.  And since invoices make up an important part of a supply chain, I wanted to spend another article on this segment.  (IT1 is a group or loop so it is more than just a segment.)  In this article we will discuss what data is found on the IT1 segment, and how it should be handled on both inbound and outbound document.  For clarity, we are going to use the 4010 x12 standard.

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When we are dealing with supply chain or e-commerce related EDI, we probably will deal with line item data.  On a Purchase Order, (PO) or 850, the line item data is contained on the PO1 segment or the PO1 group.  (PO1 is a group or loop so it is more than just a segment.)  In this article we will discuss what data is found on the PO1 segment, and how it should be handled on both inbound and outbound document.  For clarity, we are going to use the 4010 x12 standard.  The PO1 hasn’t changed in content for a while, but it has gotten longer, (you will see how this works when we talk about the PO1 elements). (more…)

After you have created your usage specification, it can be useful to use a validation tool to check to verify that new trading partners comply during your boarding process. I have used Foresight’s EDI Analyzer for this many times, and it lets be quickly see where the EDI file departs from the specification.

There is a temptation to use this same validation in the production integration. But this would be a mistake. I’m not saying, “Don’t validate.” I highly encourage validation on both standard compliance and required data validation in mapping and integration. But to use the usage specification has a side effect that I witnessed once. (Only once.) (more…)

Sometimes we hear and then use industry jargon without having a clear definition of what they are.  I think all of us are guilty of this from time to time.  This post clarifies what a SKU is, and discusses how SKUs are used in the supply chain, and in EDI.

Definition:  SKU stands for “Stock keeping Unit” initially used for identifying items that a company keeps in stock so that they can track how many they have and such.  Now also used for services, and for contracts or warranties. (more…)

I have sitting on my desk, a very expensive book published by the ASC that contain the guidelines for the X12 3010 EDI standard.  I have rarely used them.  The EDI standards tool that I have used the most and can highly recommend is EDISIM from Foresight.  The last version that I used was version 5.0 and they are on version 6.8 as I write this post.  But for a long time, Foresight has nailed the conceptualization of working with EDI standards.

One of the things that in invaluable is the ability to share your standard documentation both internally and externally.  EDISIM is a tool that has allowed me to do that.  They produce a very professional looking document for external consumption and the standard is exportable so that everyone using EDISIM can share the same standards file in a format called SEF.

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I was reading an article on Spend Matters, by Jason Busch, and I had an idea. Jason was writing about Twitter entering the B2B Mainstream. Now to be honest I had heard about Southwest’s proactive use of twitter to monitor and shape how their customer experience was being perceived.  And like many things with Southwest’s business, I find it to be touched with brilliance.  So as I read about it, I was suddenly struck with a much deeper way that twitter and twitter like technologies could be used. (more…)

When setting up a supply chain integration, there is a lot of information that is exchanged. One thing that should be explored is what the supplier will do if they can’t process the order. This should be explored by making a list of all the errors that you can conceive of. This is the beginning of your test plan. Then having the Vendor respond with what they will do. (this doesn’t have to be actual transfer of erroring files, it can just be filing out a form with what will happen when said error is sent.  But of course, actually sending bad files to and from your test systems is a good idea when possible.) In the end you will have an idea of what will happen and what to expect when something goes wrong. However, sometimes this doesn’t cover all the bases.

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In EDI there is a construct called a Loop.  But this is not like you think of a loop using an while  statement.  EDI is a file format, not a programming language.  When we speak of Loops in EDI, what we are really talking about is repeated structures, or segments.

EDI is not a flat file, but it does have repeated lines or segments.  Some times this repetition comes in groups and sometimes its just a line that get repeated in part of the document.  Repeating structured data is fundamental to EDI, but can become difficult to interpret at times.  Understanding the types of repeating structures and when and where they may occur can save a lot of time. (more…)

The 3rd layer of the EDI envelope is the ST segment.  The ST segment contains a Document Identifier, and a control number. The ST and its partner the SE segment define the beginning and ending of the Document.  The SE segment contains a counter of segments within the document, and the corresponding control number to the ST.  Relatively simple compared to the ISA and the GS. (more…)

EDI in its proper form is wrapped.  This means that there is nothing between the segment terminator and the beginning of the next segment.  Sometimes this is hard to read, for humans anyway.  And at those times people will unwrap the EDI so that it looks more like a flat file.  This is not hard to do, and is useful for debugging and trouble shooting processes.  A good parser or validator should be able to read either file. (more…)