It is a matter of personal preference, I suppose. Much as one would prefer
ISAM over RDBMS, or vice versa. Or COBOL over VB or C++ for that matter.
Having worked with both "batch" load flat files and ODBC, I prefer ODBC
hands down.
I am using PaperFree presently and have found using ODBC gives me much more
control over my data and Trading Partner info. Although there is some
overhead, I find it a small price to pay for the flexibility I have with
this powerful capability. (Especially with 6 Transactions, 10+ Trading
Partners, all in both a Test and Production environment).
A flat file can be imported to Access using "Get External Data"/ "Import" or
"File/Open" into Excel, but it is a manual extra step. Without ODBC I do
not know of another way to Map it easily into those Apps without using API.
Jasper, give me a call or email. I had to do just that with Gentran and
Excel for one of the salespeople I worked with some time ago.
Mary :-)
>From: Anthony Beecher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: Anthony Beecher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: Mapping to/from Access and/or Excel
>Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 15:18:41 -0800
>
>What is EDITALK?
>
>I know that Gentran NT and St. Paul do not support ODBC,
>PaperFree does ODBC, EDITalk does ODBC,
>Mercator supports ODBC and MS SQL Server /Oracle/DB2 native connections.
>
>When I met with St. Paul, they said it was better to use a flat file and a
>bulk load rather than ODBC. Can anyone speak to this statement?
>
>Anthony Beecher
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark T. Kennedy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2000 2:06 PM
>To: Subject: Re: Mapping to/from Access and/or Excel
>
>
>Dan is correct here. Products having ODBC and/or native drivers to access
>database applications directly allows seamless message implementations.
>Eliminating all flat file integration.
>
>EDITALK has this functionality also a simplified "drag and drop" mapping
>tool.
>
>
>Mark Kennedy
>
>
>Dan Kazzaz wrote:
>
>
>I saw the original posting and did not have time to answer it.
>
>
>It certainly is possible to map to Access or Excel.However, it is product
>dependent.If the mapping tool you are using has ODBC capability you can do
>it.Without ODBC capability, it is difficult.
>
>
>
>Some mapping tools have ODBC capability by generating source code, others
>achieve it in more efficient methods.
>
>
>
>If your software vendor cannot support this capability, then you will need
>to write additional programs to parse the EDI message and post it into your
>database.There are several products on the market (including PaperFree's)
>that do not require this additional programming effort.
>
>
>
>Dan Kazzaz
>
>
>PaperFree Systems, Inc.
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jasper Abeyta [ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
><mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ]
>Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2000 3:14 PM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Mapping to/from Access and/or Excel
>
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>
>Several weeks someone asked the group if were possible to map to/from
>either
>Access or Excel. I suspect that most responses were sent directly to the
>individual since very few were posted for the groups benefit.
>
>
>
>I know how to do this with SPS, but is it possible to do this with
>Sterling's Gentran: Integrator? I called Tech Support and was told that I
>could not. In SPS when defining the flat file you can define it as a
>variable length. How would I do this with Gentran? Any and all
>suggestions
>would be appreciated.
>
>
>
>Thanks
>
>
>
>Jasper
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
=======================================================================
To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/
