I can't speak for St. Paul, but my experience is that just because the
data arrives via EDI does not mean it is accurate, or correct, or data I
want to load into a business application unedited. When I design an
interface program working from a flat file that program does a lot of
validating. Maybe you can do that in mappers that support direct ODBC,
but even if you can - the map created will be sufficiently complex that
it is difficult to maintain.
I recommend to my clients that they use simple maps, and flat file
integration. This way they can use whatever development tool they want
to write the interface program. And they won't have trouble finding
staff to do it. Put it this way: how many people can develop complex
maps using Paperfree or Mercator, or whatever. Now compare that number
to the number of people that can work with C, or Visual Basic, or
whatever.
How many mapping tools support comments to document complex logic? None
that I've seen. I've built complex maps for clients that do things that
the software vendor didn't think was possible and two months later I
can't figure out how I did it without wasting hours. I've never had that
problem using a programming language.
<stuff deleted>
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
<more stuff deleted>
--
Bill Laidley
EDI and Electronic Commerce Consulting
Voice: (604) 434-8576
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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