Oracle EDI Gateway

WHY USE THE ORACLE EDI

GATEWAY
An Oracle White Paper
July 26, 1998

Oracle EDI Gateway

The Oracle EDI Gateway product enables Oracle Applications to communicate electronically
between trading partners using standard EDI transaction sets. Oracle EDI Gateway interacts
with external EDI translation and data mapping products.
In order to discuss the value of the Oracle EDI Gateway, there needs to be a distinction about the
functions of the Oracle EDI Gateway and the functions supported by the Oracle application and
the Application Open Interface.
The Oracle EDI Gateway has the following features to streamline the EDI process:

Trading partner definitions

Code conversions
Customizable interface flat files
Loads inbound transaction data into Oracle Application Open Interface
tables.
Extracts outbound transaction data from the Oracle application
Extension tables for non-Oracle application data to be include on the outbound
transaction files
Other advantages for using the Oracle EDI Gateway include the following:
You can add custom transactions to be processed via the Oracle EDI Gateway to
take advantage of all the Oracle EDI Gateway features.
The Oracle EDI Gateway allows the management of the EDI transaction interfaces
for standard product transaction and custom transactions using a consistent set up
procedures.
You are positioned for other transactions as they become available in the
EDI Gateway without continuous development of your own application interfaces.
In release 11, the outbound shipment notice and outbound payment transactions are
event driven with the base Oracle application.
(The Oracle application initiates the Oracle EDI Gateway program to process the
transaction expeditiously.)
All user definable descriptive flex fields from the base Oracle applications are
defined to the transaction interface files.
Production data can be extracted as 'test' transactions from a 'production'
application environment.
Legacy and other system data may be loaded into Oracle applications as the initial
load or on-going loading of data, if the data is formatted to the associated
transactions records defined in the Oracle EDI Gateway.
Oracle EDI Gateway Features:
Trading Partner definitions in the Oracle EDI Gateway provide a link between your customer/
supplier sites (and banks for financial transactions) in the base Oracle application and it provides
a second link to the Trading Partner definition in the Oracle EDI Gateway and its definition in
the your chosen EDI Translator. A trading partner is defined as an address site in the Oracle
application, such as ship to location, bill to location, or supplier site. Transactions, e.g., inbound
and outbound purchase orders or invoices, are enabled per trading partner definition in the
Oracle EDI Gateway.

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The transaction testing process is also facilitated by the Oracle EDI Gateway. Transaction data
from any environment (test or production) can be extracted and flagged as 'test' for the EDI
translator to process.
In Oracle Receiving, the Receiving Open Interface even allows 'test' transactions into a
'production' environment. The test transactions can process through the Oracle application open
interface data derivation and data validation, but never go into the base Oracle application for
further processing.
Code conversions are needed to cross reference specific codes between Oracle application codes
and the transaction standard codes or Trading Partner specific codes. Oracle applications only
recognize codes defined within that Oracle application. (If Oracle application codes are defined
by the user using codes from the X12 or EDIFACT standards, then code conversion may not be
necessary.)
The converted codes may apply to all trading partners or apply to specific trading partner sites.
You define one to five keys to associate to a code conversion table entry to be used as a search
criteria during the code conversion value table look up process. These keys may represent a
customer or customer site to limit the table entry to belong to that customer and/or customer site
only. You define which data elements will be used for all five search keys. (The logic is similar
for supplier codes to be converted.)
Enabling code conversion is an optional feature. You determine which data fields you want the
Oracle EDI Gateway to perform code conversion.
The Oracle defined (internal) data may have one to five external values associated with it. For
example, the Oracle internal code for the carrier can be cross referenced to the trading partner's
carrier code and the transportation method (air, land, sea) by placing codes in the first two of the
five external code fields.
The interface file defined by the Oracle EDI Gateway can easily be modified in a form. This is
especially helpful to remove many descriptive flex fields, if they are not defined by the user for
inbound or outbound transactions.
The Oracle EDI Gateway has the ability to read auxiliary extension tables outside of the Oracle
base application for those who wish to add their own data to the outbound transaction. Using
these tables requires three one time setups to 1) define the new columns for your specific data to
the predefined tables, 2) updating a table to define where the data goes on the interface file, and
3) updating a provided procedure to move the data from your auxiliary table to the extension
tables within the Oracle EDI Gateway.
Transaction Processing:
For outbound transactions, the Oracle EDI Gateway extracts the data, performs code conversion,
retrieves data from extension table (if enabled), and writes the consolidated data to the interface
files. The EDI Translator will format that data into the chosen standard for each trading partner.
All the data must reside in base Oracle applications, the extension tables with the auxiliary
tables, or the Oracle EDI Gateway tables.
The logic to extract outbound transactions from base Oracle applications resides totally in the
Oracle EDI Gateway.

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For inbound transactions, two steps are performed:

The Oracle EDI Gateway performs code conversion on the data in the interface file
(from the EDI Translator), then write all the data to base Oracle application open
interface tables.
The second step is to execute the base Oracle application open interface to do the
data derivation and data validation of the business data. Acceptable transactions are
written to the base Oracle application tables, such as Oracle Order Entry or Oracle
Purchasing. Unacceptable transactions are processed by that application's error
handling procedures.
Transaction Customization:
Custom transaction interfaces, which are not supported by a particular release of the Oracle EDI
Gateway, can be added to the Oracle EDI Gateway to take advantage of the features stated above.
Even if the Oracle EDI Gateway is not used for your custom transaction interfaces, all its features
are needed by some interface process, which you may have to additionally customize. Let the
Oracle EDI Gateway do the work and avoid reinventing the code.
Application Customization:
Customization may be needed to the base Oracle application or the Oracle Application Open
Interface to meet all your business requirements. The Oracle EDI Gateway can only process
transactions according to the functions available in the Oracle application open interface. If you
desire more data into the application or support another function of the transaction, the Oracle
application open interface may need changes.
Consequently, you will need to modify the Oracle EDI Gateway files (via code changes) to
capture the data from the standard transaction to move it to your enhanced application open
interface.
For some transactions you may need to totally write the application open interface. The need to
change the base Oracle application or its application open interface should be viewed separately
of the Oracle EDI Gateway functions. The Oracle EDI Gateway can only process transaction
data as accepted by the Oracle application open interface tables. The real effort to get a
transaction implemented may be designing, coding, and implementing a new or enhanced
application open interface. The incorporation of the transaction into the Oracle EDI Gateway
may be minimal coding.
Loading Legacy Data:
The Oracle EDI Gateway can be used to load legacy and other system data into Oracle
applications, if the data is formatted to the associated transactions records defined in the Oracle
EDI Gateway. The data may be for the initial or on-going loading of the transaction data.

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Facilitating Implementation:
The implementation of the Oracle EDI Gateway is facilitated, if the following is done:
1.

Understand what functions are supported by the Oracle application open interfaces
(to assure they meet your business needs).

2.

Understand the functions and set up within the Oracle EDI Gateway. (Attendance at
the Oracle Customer Education course on the Oracle EDI Gateway is
recommended.)
Understand the code conversion and trading partner set up
Understand the interface flat file architecture.

3.

Have an Oracle EDI Gateway User's Manual. *

4.

Have printed transaction record layouts to define accurate record layouts to the EDI
Translators. #

5.

Obtain and install all patches.

* A hard copy users manual for Release 10.7 is being discussed. In the meanwhile the
Release 11 EDI Gateway User manual can be used since the functions are the same.
There is one new form to group trading partner definitions, and minor changes to a
couple of other forms which just moved the placement of a table name.
# Printed record layouts are available by running provided report scripts, which prints
the most up to date transaction record layouts directly from the transaction tables.

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Oracle EDI Gateway

July 1998
Author: Bonnie Shebat Williams
Contributing Author: Janet Hong Lee
Copyright Oracle Corporation 1995
All Rights Reserved Printed in the U.S.A.
This document is provided for informational purposes only and
the information herein is subject to change without notice.
Please report any errors herein to Oracle Corporation. Oracle
Corporation does not provide any warranties covering and
specifically disclaims any liability in connection with this
document.
Oracle is a registered trademark and Enabling the
Information Age, Oracel EDI Gateway are trademarks of
Oracle Corporation.

Oracle Corporation
World Headquarters
500 Oracle Parkway
Redwood Shores, CA 94065
U.S.A.
Worldwide Inquiries:
415.506.7000
Fax 415.506.7200
Copyright Oracle Corporation 1995
All Rights Reserved

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