Tzeweng Foong is looking for "an element by element comparison between
the X12 PO(850) and the EDIFACT ORDERS, the X12 Invoice(810) and the
EDIFACT INVOIC and the X12 ASN 856 to EDIFACT DESADV."
Michael C. Mattias then wrote that he is less than enamored of such
cross-references or matrices. I would tend to agree with Michael that
there is probably no such cookie-cutter approach to X12 - EDIFACT
conversion. It requires extracting the semantic knowledge embedded in
the X12 guideline and attempting to represent the same in an EDIFACT
MIG, a formidable analysis task. Otherwise, it would have been a
no-brainer to have added such a conversion feature to FORESIGHT's
EDISIM. Considering the difficulty of putting together such a system -
probably requiring a good deal of artificial intelligence - we thought
our resources would be better spent putting together XML solutions to
beef us up for our IPO.
Of course, having the EDISIM product available when you attempt this
conversion is an absolute necessity. If you don't already have your X12
implementation guides built, it's a simple matter to take gobs of your
existing X12 transactions, put them through our DocStarter feature, and
have the guidelines built for you auto-magically! For more information
on EDISIM, the World's leading EDI productivity tool suite, please see
our web site at http://www.foresightcorp.com/. Further, you may find it
useful to see the World's most complete set of links to EDI web pages,
where samples of X12 ICs and EDIFACT MIGs abound; see FORESIGHT's
Resources page and select "Guidelines, Maps, and Documents."
Migrating to EDIFACT from X12 may be a dead issue for the time being,
owing to XML hysteria. But clearly Tzeweng Foong wants to do it, just
as GM did recently. Various subcommittees of ASC X12 have over the last
couple of years been going through "recasting" efforts between X12 and
EDIFACT, mostly for the purpose of ensuring that EDIFACT had appropriate
codes added for accommodating American needs. Spreadsheets and matrices
for particular transaction sets and messages may have resulted from the
exercises, though they are not available at DISA.
An ancient document, ca. 1996 - the "X12 to UN/EDIFACT Recast Manual" -
is available from the X12 CEFACT Forum Task Group (CFTG) at
http://www.disa.org/x12/dltg/. CFTG's predecessor, DLTG, was tasked
with "[establishing] and [maintaining] a recasting matrix from X12 to
UN/EDIFACT," but I don't know if the successor organization takes that
seriously. The Recast Manual is more of a cookbook for the people
building DMRs for upgrading EDIFACT, and is not really intended to help
real people effect the conversion.
Also, LMI (Logistics Management Institute) put together an analysis of
mapping from X12 to UN/EDIFACT. It's available at the DCN/ICN site at
http://www.dcnicn.com/XMLEDICentral/; see especially the "EDI (X12 to
UN/EDIFACT) Mapping Concept Paper" (June 16, 1997) on LMI's XML and EDI
White Papers and Miscellaneous Research page.
William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Memorial Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
(614) 791-1600
Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
"Commerce for a New World"
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