Handling Proprietary EDI Formats

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DataDirect XML Converters™ supports the Standard Exchange Format (SEF). SEF allows you to specify an EDI structure, typically one that differs from one of the EDI standards like EDIFACT or X12, for example. You save this structure definition in a SEF file, which you can then instruct the EDI XML Converter to use when converting proprietary EDI to XML.

Creating a SEF File

You can create SEF files manually, based on the SEF specification. This process, however, can be difficult and error-prone. An easier way is to use the Stylus Studio EDI to XML Module, which provides a visual editor to help you build SEF files based on standard EDI dialects.

When using the EDI to XML Module, you can choose as your starting point an EDI document (from which an EDI dialect is inferred) or an EDI dialect. From there, you use the EDI to XML Module editor’s tools to define the ways in which your proprietary EDI structure differs from the EDI standard.

The SEF Specification

You can find a copy of the SEF specification on the DataDirect XML Converters web site:

http://www.datadirect.com/docs/sef161.pdf

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Example: Using a SEF File

See Example 7 for an example of using an SEF extension file to define an XML Schema. See also Loading SEF Files Programmatically.