The inbound process converts an EDI-X12 formatted document to an XML document.

In a basic message flow, inbound processing consists of the following components and steps. For an illustration of the components available in the construction of a message flow, see Using a Channel to Construct a Message Flow. You will define the components in the configuration instructions in Sample Configuration for Inbound Processing: EDI to XML.

Inlet

• The listener picks up the incoming EDI document.
• The preparser obtains the message type and version from the EDI document, in order to select the appropriate transformation template name. The transformation template converts the original EDI document to an XML representation of that document.

  The preparser ensures that the document is converted to a structurally correct EDI XML document. The transformation templates that are provided in the Ebix are used to transform the structure of the document.

  The iWay Integration Solution for EDI supports one preparser (EDIX12SplitterPreParser), which is described in Preparsers.

Validation

• The inbound EDI document is validated for structure and content. The published EDI standards and user implementation guides define element types (for example, numeric, alpha, or date) and describe business rules to apply for validation.

  For example, here is a typical date segment in an inbound EDI document:

  DTM*001*20080701

  The value in DTM01 ("001") is validated against an allowed code list. The value in DTM02 ("20080701") is validated as a properly formatted date.

  In addition, the following business rule is applied: DTM02 is required if DTM01 is present (if there is a qualifier, there must be data).

Route

• In our basic message flow example, the route will redirect the transformed document to a designated folder that is dependent on rules validation. After validation, you can apply any additional business logic to the document. You can use a single service or multiple services, passing the output of one service as the input of the next.

  For details on available services, see the iWay Service Manager User's Guide.

• The acknowledgement service creates a functional acknowledgement (997) for the inbound document. The acknowledgement indicates that the document was received and validated for structure.
• The validation report service creates a validation report in XML format, which is routed to a reports folder. This validation report indicates a success or failure result based on X12 validation rules.

Outlets

Outlets define how messages leave a channel at the end of a process. In our basic example, two outlets are configured in the route and one outlet is configured in the channel.

• The two outputs defined in the route will be XML documents. Documents will be placed into their appropriate folders dependent on the results of the EDI X12 rules validation.
• The report outlet contains the validation report in XML format. This document contains the inbound data as well as the output transformed XML.
• The output defined in the channel is the functional acknowledgement. A functional acknowledgement is typically returned to the sender of the document.