Features of the iWay Integration Solution for EDI X12

The standards-based iWay Integration Solution for EDI X12 reduces the amount of effort it takes to integrate Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) documents with your internal enterprise applications and third-party trading partners. It includes conversion and validation of documents from EDI to XML format, making it easy to include EDI documents in your XML-based integration projects.

EDI X12 Transmission Envelope Structure

The following image illustrates a typical EDI X12 envelope structure that is used during a purchase order transmission. Syntax for an EDI X12 document containing two purchase orders is shown on the left and a graphical representation of the hierarchy is provided on the right.

An EDI X12 document must contain the following segments in its structure:

Interchange Control Header (ISA). Indicates the start of the interchange. The ISA segment has a fixed length and consists of 106 characters. The fourth character, for example, an asterisk (*), is the segment delimiter that is used throughout the document.
Functional Group Header (GS). Indicates the start of a group, which contains one or more transaction sets. The GS segment contains various sender and receiver codes for identification and control purposes.
Transaction Set Header (ST). Indicates the start of a transaction set. The transaction set contains segments that make up the message data. All of the details that are required to process the transaction are available within the transaction set. A transaction set can contain one or more loops, which are required to repeat a collection of related segments.
Transaction Set Trailer (SE). Indicates the end of a transaction set. The SE segment provides a count of the data segments that includes the header and trailer segments.
Functional Group Trailer (GE). Indicates the end of the group. The GE segment contains an element that indicates the number of transaction sets within the group.
Interchange Control Trailer (IEA). Indicates the end of the interchange. The IEA segment contains an element that indicates the number of groups within the interchange.