EDI newbie needs advice on selecting a translator

Question

I am trying to import EDI 210 feeds into my web application. The application is installed on Ubuntu linux, so whatever my solution, it can't be some hokey Windoze-only solution.

Since my data is flowing in just one direction, I'm looking for a simple translator that will handle the translation of the EDI file into an XML file that I can easily import. Also, since I'm using standard EDI formats like 210 and 215, it seems like this translation should be something off the shelf versus my needing to write my own import script.

I've looked at several solutions including Extol and the BOTS open source solution, but I'm hoping that someone can guide me in the right direction. My ideal solution would be an inexpensive, hosted translator that handles the FTP function and simply pushes the translated files to my server. Does such a beast exist? If not, or if it is prohibitively expensive, what other solutions should I be looking at?

Answer 1

Take a look at MirthConnect, its free; open source and speaks almost every format and protocol you can think of including EDI and XML. It runs on all platforms.

Essentially you create channels that massage your data into different formats as your application needs. I have used it to make EDI talk to a web service.

It definitely can write to an FTP server as well.

http://www.mirthcorp.com

Answer 2

Hello,

You wrote:

My ideal solution would be an inexpensive, hosted translator that handles the FTP function and simply pushes the translated files to my server.

This is exactly what Babelabout is about ;-) For instance, You can get an FTP access to a folder structure that contains an "incoming" and an "outgoing" folder. You will upload your your X12 instance into your "incoming" folder, and then be able to download the translated XML version from your "outgoing" folder ;-) And, many other scenari, including synchronous HTTP, are possible!

You did not mention how you receive your EDI 210, but be aware, that we can also help you in handling the AS2 connectivity, see http://blogs.jetdelivery.com/comments/?idx=38 as a reference ;-)

Finally, regarding the price, I have to admit that it is currently for free ;-) Babelabout is not yet a "company", it's just my personal project (for now). And, when people ask me about the "stability" of such an entity, I always reply that I am supporting areal business since April 2009 - time flights :-/

From a practical point of view, just send me a (nice) instance of your 210, and I will make you a (very nice) proposal...

/Patrice - http://babelabout.blogspot.com/

Answer 3

How expensive is expensive?

Delta / ECS runs on Windows but would integrate with your Ubuntu. Can be found at www.softshare.com and it's probably the slickest mapper I've ever seen / used.

You could also check out Boomi. www.boomi.com - I believe that would meet your "Linux" requirement, as I believe it is pure Java.

Lastly, Jitterbit (www.jitterbit.com) provides a nice mapper, is open source, etc.