Quoted text is from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
rzoon.com>, by John Nadvornik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I work with a company that is about to begin an EDIFACT
> implementation. We are trying to get an idea of what the "standard"
> use is of the UNA, UNB/UNZ and UNG/UNE segments. I have seen a few
> examples of EDIFACT in my research and I have yet to see a use of
> the UNA or UNG/UNE segments. In anyone's experience, do companies
> generally just utilize the UNB/UNZ segments in conjunction with the
> individual messages or do they include the Functional Group level
> as well?
>
The functional equivalence of syntax segments for 3 major EDI standards
is:
edisegs[]={"UNA#UNB#UNG#UNH#UNT#UNE#UNZ#"};
tdisegs[]={"SCH#STX#BAT#MHD#MTR#EOB#END#"};
x12segs[]={"####ISA#GS*#ST*#SE*#GE*#IEA#"};
Hopefully these will still be lined up when you see them. You can see
that the UNB/UNZ segments serve the same function as the X12 ISA/IEA.
In X12 you can define your delimiters within the ISA - what you use
there is what you intend to use throughout the interchange. EDIFACT is a
little more complicated. The first composite data element after the UNB
segment tag defines the syntax level (UNOx) and the version of EDIFACT
being used (1 through 4).
If the syntax version is less than 4 then UNOA means you are using a
restricted character set (no lower case letters, for example) and
readable syntax delimiters +:' . For anything other than UNOA you are
allowed to use lower case, and the letter after the O defines the
character set, but the syntax separators are horrible (seg term is
IS4(FS) x1c. Data sep is IS3(GS) x1d. Comp sep is IS1(US) x1f).
If the syntax version is 4 then the 'UNOA' type separators are used
whatever the value of UNOx.
UNA is the mechanism used to specify which syntax characters you want to
use, and overrides the defaults mentioned above. For example, if I want
to use a mixed case Swedish alphabet but have the normal +:' separators
I will start my UNB with a +UNOC:3 but precede it by a UNA:+.? ' to
force use of the readable separators.
The reason you do not see as many UNA's around as you ought to is that
people often use UNOA and then break the restricted character set rules.
We deliver our converters with character set checking off by default,
because if we didn't the only thanks we would get would be accusations
of being ivory-tower smart asses (which is probably true, but still
hurtful).
EDIFACT Functional Groups (UNG/UNE) do not seem to be used in practice.
If people want to group messages they send them in separate
interchanges. Since 1988 I can only remember doing one mapping (out of
many hundreds) which included them.
In general you will enhance your popularity with trading partners if you
avoid the unprintable level 2 syntax separators, and avoid Functional
Groups.
Regards
Chris
--
Chris Johnson +44 (0)20 8501 1490 (home)
EDIMatrix Ltd +44 (0)20 8559 2454 (work)
+44 (0)20 8559 2497 (fax)
http://www.edimatrix.co.uk
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