The Integration Engineer
When it just has to work.

One of the basic tasks Integration Engineers do is to compare files that we use or receive.  There are some interesting and useful tools that people can get out there to DIFF files.  But on Linux and Unix machines around the world there is a native tool that is almost always present.  Amazingly it is called DIFF.

Like some other command-line tools, its interface is not really intuitive.  Lets walk through the basics of how to get use out of this handy file comparing tool.  (If you are working with and comparing EDI files, you might want to look at the post on how to unwrap your EDI file so that our line by line comparison is more meaningful.)

(more…)

There are job or task specific tools that will have a high importance to each integration task.  When working on an SAP system, your SAP tools will be very important.  But there are tools and skills that are also important regardless of the systems and technologies that you are working on.  For me, these are the top 5 tools that an Integration Engineer should be able to use proficiently.  Do you use any of these?  Do you have others? (more…)

What is a “Character Set?”

A character set is a collection or library of characters, (letters and symbols), and their identifying number.  Included with the printable characters, (letters and punctuation) are some unprintable yet important characters.  Characters are used to form messages.

Characters are not fonts.  Characters exist under the font that represent the definition of the character the  font is attempting to display.  When you change the font on a document the A is changed to an A, but the underlying character that identifies its meaning remains the same.  The font identifies how the character is displayed.  You can even convert to Wing Dings and the underlying character remains the same. (more…)

What is a flat file?

Files are called “Flat Files” when they contain a single data structure.  Generally this structure is the column and row structure like a spreadsheet or table, but a file in binary or encrypted with a single encryption key could also be called a flat file.  Files that are not flat; marked up files like XML or HTML, EDI files, other formats like HL7 or SEF files and others.  Here I am going to briefly discuss two flat file types; Delimited Files, and Fixed Width Files. (more…)