EDI Converter Tool 850 to 940

Question

I need to convert an x12 850 v4010 to a x12 940 v4010. Most of the tools convert from x12 to xml then I would need to map the xml to a 940. I am hoping there is a tool that could convert from one edi document to another.

EDIT FOR INFORMATION:

Quick Background

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is classically defined as the application-to-application exchange of structured business data between organizations. X12 is an ANSI standard that supplies that structure. There are many good books concerned with the business benefits of EDI, implementation considerations, and operational aspects

Answer 1

Mapping from one doc to another nearly always involves making a number of assumptions that are only probably true, and probably isn't usually good enough when you're talking about moving money around.

Answer 2

Going to give Altova MapForce and Stylus Studio® a try.

http://www.altova.com/downloadtrialmapforce3.html

http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_product_index.html

Answer 3

Servingxml library is also worth looking at, compared to Altova and Stylus it is FOC.

It is able to parse EDI to XML and back, by chaining the steps together. Can be called from command line or embedded (written in Java).

There is a lot of examples how to convert plain text to XML and back.

The con compared to Altova and Stylus is probably lack of development GUI, you must declare the mapping by hand in XML-based configuration file.

Answer 4

Also look at Symphonia software by Orion. It is commercial software but does what you want.

Answer 5

I was project manager for something called EdiMatch when I worked for adra match asa (Norwegian company, I think it's at http://adramatch.com) which could read EDI files and then you would get "concrete objects" (COM, Windows only though) back which you could serialize into "whatever" you wish later...

I know they licensed it out to at least Agresso (Norwegian ERP vendor) back when I worked for them. I think they would be interested in licensing it out still to others, but not sure...

Answer 6

I think the problem may be that the 850 won't have all the information necessary to correctly complete a 940. I never used a 940, but did use 856's (Advanced Ship Notice) a lot, which look to be similar to the 940. The 850 will contain information about the order (SKUs, quantities, ship to addresses, etc), but not information about how it was shipped (carrier, tracking ids, ship date, weights, packaging, etc). This information usually needs to be provided at the time of shipment, and combined with the information from the 850 to create a 940.

There are some documents (like the 997) which can be created from a document with no 'outside assistance'. But I would be surprised if the 940 is one of them.

Answer 7

Is this a one time conversion or part of a process?

there are a few enterprise integration tools you can use like BizTalk.

Otherwise, If you can get a hold of the BizTalk 2006 R2 EDI schemas then you could have the XML representation of both documents. Then you could read the nodes for the segments that are common and copy those. I have not used a 940 before, but i am familiar with 810, 309 and its related documents, and 997; but you might have to fill in some of the data yourself to complete the 940 document.

Answer 8

If you are willing to use a software package to do your EDI to EDI conversion, I would recommend using Softshare Delta. It is actually a great product that I've used for several years. It will take care of your translation needs, but it isn't free.

Answer 9

I see three issues here. First, mapping between the purchase order and a warehouse shipping order. The data doesn't match up exactly, but if you assume a one-to-one relationship between a purchase order and a shipping order, then that can be overcome. I assume you can hard-code data like the warehouse id, hazardous materials codes, etc.

The second problem is do you need one-time, or occasional transformation which you will do manually, or runtime translation that you set up once and integrate into a translation system?

Third is based on that, what tool to use? Either way, I would take a good look at Stylus Studio. It has both an IDE for local testing or manual conversion, and a runtime component that you install on a server. My former company used it extensively, and it's cheaper than almost any other real-time translator (Mercator, Gentran, etc.)

To use Stylus, you'll import the source file (the 850) and create a reusable schema which can be used to parse the file into XML. Then, import an example of the output format (the 940) to create a schema which can be used to serialize the document back into X12.

From there, you can use the mapping tools to get you close, then hand-edit the XSLT for complicated logic which may need to be tweaked (loops aren't perfectly handled, for instance). Stylus Studio even allows you to create "pipelines" which can be used to chain multiple XSLT maps in a row, or pull in data from outside sources into the middle of a translation.

Then, you can wrap all that up and export it to your realtime environment. Better yet, if you're doing this manually, you can just run your files through the pipeline as you get them, and you'll be done.

Answer 10

I would like to try out ALTOVA's mapforce tool to convert EDI 850 X12 to Oracle Apps. Is this a good choice. I hear that the most popular is http://www.sterlingcommerce.com/, but it is very costly..

Please advice Shashi