Practice Areas > EDI > EDIFACT:
The EDIFACT standard provides a set of syntax rules to structure data, interactive exchange protocol (I-EDI) and standard messages which allow multi-industry exchange. XML/EDIFACT is used in B2B scenarios as listed below.
1) Newer EAI or B2B systems, e.g. SAP XI, often cannot handle EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) syntax directly. Simple syntax converters do a 1:1 conversion before. Their input is an EDIFACT transaction file, their output an XML/EDIFACT instance file.
2) XML/EDIFACT keeps XML B2B transactions relatively small. XML element names derived from EDIFACT tags are much shorter and more formal than those derived from natural language. Such formal tags, taken from the “EDIFACT modeling language”, are readable by B2B experts worldwide.
3) A company does not want to invest into new vocabularies from scratch. XML/EDIFACT reuses business content defined in UN/EDIFACT. Since 1987, the UN/EDIFACT library was enriched by global business needs for all sectors of industry, transport and public services. For XML, there is no such comprehensive vocabulary available.
4) Large companies can order goods from small companies via XML/EDIFACT. The small companies use XSL style sheets to browse the message content in human readable forms.
EDI > Communications:
We can help you achieve complete platform independence by integrating disparate systems and easily migrating data between application databases regardless of the format. TIE solutions also enable you to exchange data using virtually any communications protocol:
– AS2 The AS2 protocol is based on HTTP and SMIME. It was the second AS protocol developed and uses the same signing, encryption and MDN conventions used in the original AS1 protocol. In other words:
Like any other AS file transfer, AS2 file transfers typically require both sides of the exchange to trade SSL certificates and specific “trading partner” names before any transfers can take place. AS2 trading partner names can usually be any valid phrase.
– FTP File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol for copying a file from one host to another over a TCP/IP-based network. FTP is used with user-based password authentication or with anonymous user access. FTP has no encryption tools meaning all transmissions are in clear text; user names, passwords, FTP commands and transferred files
– HTTP/S HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. It is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.
– FTP/S FTPS (also known as FTP Secure and FTP-SSL) is an extension to the commonly used File Transfer Protocol (FTP) that adds support for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) cryptographic protocols.