Re: is edi translator software difficult to write? was: edi vendor complaining

On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 3:30 PM, jde iSeries <jde.iseries@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Steve Richter,
Why write your own EDI X12 translator? My gentle recommendation is that you
and your organization should focus on being the best widget builder that you
can be (or whatever it is that you sell to your customers), not get
side-tracked.

just curious to understand how shops get locked into their EDI
package. The VP at my current account explained to me that EDI
packages are built to not require a programmer to interface to them.
Typically a user or admin configs the rules within the EDI package to
map to the database from which you will be sending and receiving EDI
transactions. To replace an EDI package you have to redo all of those
mappings from/to the database. I guess none, or not all, EDI packages
allow you to export those mapping rules and import them into another
vendor's EDI application.

If this is accurate, are the Innovis mapping rules stored in database
tables? The idea being to journal all the Innovis files, use the
package to config some mapping rules, then examine the journal to see
which files were written to. Next, use this new knowledge of how the
rules are stored to export them and import into a replacement EDI app.
Another approach, using the same concept, is to use EHLLAPI to
screen scrape from the Innovis config screens and capture the configs
that way.

-Steve