EDI
The purpose of this page is to discuss EDI usage in iDempiere.
EDI DIY (Do it Yourself)
While you can create your own interface directly into the EDI ecosystem, I highly advise you against it. Doing so will quickly turn you into an EDI expert, consume copious amounts of your time in seemingly needless maintenance, and consume money in the form of non-conformant fines . This is my painful experience.
EDI VAN
An EDI VAN is a provider/company that helps you interface into the EDI network. EDI VANs are experts in EDI and communication technologies. The provide many ways to interact with EDI data. The biggest benefits include:
- You choose the communication that best fits your skills (web, csv, web service, etc...)
- You only learn as much about EDI as you desire - as opposed to you being forced to become an expert
- You have a support resource when things go wrong
- Integration with iDempiere can occur gradually
- The EDI VAN integrates with all your EDI trading partners; you integrate iDempiere with just one (the EDI VAN)
- EDI VAN help ensure you do not incur EDI related penalties from your trading partners
There is a cost to using an EDI VAN. Costs include:
- Setup fees
- Transaction fees
EDI Baby Steps
Please note that EDI VANs allow you to claim EDI capabilities even though you have not integrated anything with iDempiere. EDI VANs provide a web interface that allows you to see and interact with EDI documents. Their interface is designed around this sole task.
Your first implementation might be described in the following way:
- Sign up with EDI provider
- They map EDI documents for you
- You log into EDI VAN website
- You copy and paste relevant information into iDempiere.
While this implementation quickly breaks down with volume, it does give you an almost instant EDI success. It also gives you the opportunity to integrate EDI into iDempiere one piece/document at a time while providing continuous support to your EDI training partners.
CSV Communication Default
Unless there is a compelling reason to change, CSV (comma separated value) communication is the best option for interacting with your EDI VAN. Here are the benefits:
- EDI VAN provider hosts an SFTP server for you
- SFTP is probably the most simple communication to program
- SFTP allows you to perform batch processing, which in turn gives you:
- the least lines of code to write
- the easiest option for error handling
- the ability to handle high volume with the least effort/resources
Details about CSV integration:
- There are a couple of directories in your root SFTP directory
- Inbound - where all inbound documents arrive from your VAN
- Outbound - where you place all outgoing documents to your VAN
- Communication is simply
- You read files via SFTP from inbound directory
- You write files via SFTP to outbound directory
What Touches iDempiere
When setting up your account with your EDI VAN, you determine what will be passed to iDempiere. You do not want everything being passed to iDempiere because it creates too much implementation work. The alternative to 'everything in iDempiere' is to instruct your users to interact with the EDI VAN webpage for some topics. An example include Order Acknowledgement.
How to choose what goes to iDempiere:
- If there is an impact to AP, AR or inventory levels, send it to iDempiere
- If there is a decision to be made based information in iDempiere, send it to iDempiere
- If you are simply acknowledging the existence of a document, leave it in the EDI VAN website.
How to Choose an EDI VAN
Some EDI VANs are general purpose. Some have vertical market expertise. Start with asking "how many of your customers interact with X, Y and Z?" where X, Y and Z are your target EDI training partners. If you wish to integrate with Amazon (Vendor Central) and your EDI claims that they have over 2000 vendors interacting with Amazon on a daily basis, this statement helps create confidence. It also means that they (EDI VAN) has already created an integration with your target customer before.
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