Comments on: EDI in Good Form http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/edi-in-good-form/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=edi-in-good-form When it just has to work. Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:48:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Roy http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/edi-in-good-form/comment-page-1/#comment-187 Roy Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:57:46 +0000 http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/?p=22#comment-187 Sean, Yes, in a well formed EDI document, the entire contents is one line of data is viewed that way. This is a cumbersome way for humans to read EDI, (especially if said humans are new to the EDI format), and so un-wrapping the EDI file is a useful thing when looking for errors and such. I have another post that deals with how to wrap and un-wrap EDI, and you can find it here. http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/edi-wrapped-and-unwrapped/ So your observation is also correct in that there is no point in having a carriage return or line feed. As I said, "some systems pre process files and remove carriage returns and line feeds" and when those systems are encountered, EDI that is CRLF delimited fails. The rules of good form are not like the rules of the standard. Violating the standard, and you have a corrupt file. But violating the rules of good form, and you may get away with it. These are more like guidelines to keep integration engineers from falling into common mistakes, and to recognize them when they see them. I hope this helps clarify, please let me know if it does not. Sean,

Yes, in a well formed EDI document, the entire contents is one line of data is viewed that way. This is a cumbersome way for humans to read EDI, (especially if said humans are new to the EDI format), and so un-wrapping the EDI file is a useful thing when looking for errors and such. I have another post that deals with how to wrap and un-wrap EDI, and you can find it here. http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/edi-wrapped-and-unwrapped/

So your observation is also correct in that there is no point in having a carriage return or line feed. As I said, “some systems pre process files and remove carriage returns and line feeds” and when those systems are encountered, EDI that is CRLF delimited fails.

The rules of good form are not like the rules of the standard. Violating the standard, and you have a corrupt file. But violating the rules of good form, and you may get away with it. These are more like guidelines to keep integration engineers from falling into common mistakes, and to recognize them when they see them.

I hope this helps clarify, please let me know if it does not.

]]> By: Sean http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/edi-in-good-form/comment-page-1/#comment-185 Sean Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:15:21 +0000 http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/?p=22#comment-185 If EDI in good form is wrapped, then at what point would there be a carriage return? If there should never be a carriage return, don't we end up having to deal with a reading in a file that potentially has the entire file on the first line? If EDI in good form is wrapped, then at what point would there be a carriage return? If there should never be a carriage return, don’t we end up having to deal with a reading in a file that potentially has the entire file on the first line?

]]> By: Convertabase http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/edi-in-good-form/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Convertabase Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:34:16 +0000 http://www.theintegrationengineer.com/?p=22#comment-6 There are many kinds of "bad form" in data, I once worked on a database with 1,500 columns of data in a single table. CRLF as a delimiter is just as bad. Nice Blog. There are many kinds of “bad form” in data, I once worked on a database with 1,500 columns of data in a single table. CRLF as a delimiter is just as bad.

Nice Blog.

]]>