EDI Mapping

[Former Member]

Hi,

As my client is implementing EDI through a trusted link, they had asked me to take care of the mapping section along with the development of interfaces.

As generally the middleware or translator people would do the mapping processes, it is totally new for me.

Please advise me in this regard where to start and what is the my job into this.

Do i have to map the incoming or outgoing edi standards to idoc segments.

If so, what are the all things i need to know and do.

As i have ample time, it would be nice for a quick start into it.

Please help me in this regard.

Thanks in advance,

Anandh.B

Points would be awarded for everyone ............

[Former Member]

Anandha,

As you mentioned, EDI mapping is typically done using a middleware tool or EDI Translator. Are they asking you to do mapping in ABAP or is there another tool you are going to use?

If you are going to write ABAP programs to do your mapping you have a big challenge ahead of you. You will need to become familiar with whatever EDI standards you will be mapping from. These standards will have the layout of the messages that you will receive.

If you are going to code all of this in ABAP you don't necessarily have to go to IDOCs however it can be very helpful when loading data. By using SAP's IDOC technology and processing you have better traceability into the transaction posting in your system.

In general this is what you will probably need to know:

1. Which EDI messages you will need to translate

2. Which IDOC types those messages correspond with

3. The structures of both the EDI messages and IDOCs

4. Setup of SAP IDOC system. (Execute area menu WEDI from the main screen in SAP)

5. Set up of the application data for IDOC processing - particularly in the outbound - which partners will be recieving which messages

I am sure there is a lot more but this will hopefully get you started.

Chris

[Former Member]

Hello Christopher,

I am new to this forums. I would like to get some information on 824 and 816 what Message/Idoc types have to be used for these particular EDI messages. IPlease let me know if you have any information in this regard.

Thanks,

Karthik Mandava

[Former Member]

Hi Chris,

I am sure that they are using some trusted link transalator, i believe it will take care of translating the edi messages.

We are gonna use IDOC, in that case what would be my role, is it like i need to map the adjacent fields of EDI standards to my IDOC segment or as you said i need to write some program to convert the flat file and directly post it. In that cas, i agree idoc is not necessary, just like message conversion,

In my previous projects, i would get the mapping from the middleware team and i need to take the concerned idoc segments only.

As they asked me to take care of mapping, i believe that i need to find the correct idoc segment to that of edi standards.

Please advise me in this regard.

[Former Member]

I don't understand what a trusted link translator is.

If they are giving you data in ANSI X12 or EDIFACT standards, then you will need to become familiar with these standards and figure out how to map those standards to IDOC. That is correct.

I would highly suggest against doing this in ABAP if at all possible. I know that ANSI X12 standards are quite difficult to understand and translate. Thus the advantage of some type of middleware. Plus you have to be particulary careful with ANSI X12 version differences. Each message can have multiple versions so you have to account for the differences. Plus I have also seen different customers adapt the ANSI X12 standards to their own use. So the variations on the EDI documents you are receiving could get quite complex.

Chris

[Former Member]

Hi Anandha,

First of all you or client has to decide which Middle ware you have to use and what is the feasibility of them.

There were many Middle ware tools available in market as WebMethods,Tibco,Mercator,Gentran and SAP's own tool XI .

Please go thru this links so that you will get some idea.

<a href="http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/edi/0306sec1.cfm">EDI GUIDE</a>

<a href="http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/context/521550/0">EDI flow</a>

<a href="http://www.sapgenie.com/sapedi/index.htm">SAPGENIE</a>

<a href="http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/35/26b594afab52b9e10000009b38f974/content.htm">SAP HELP</a>

<i>Hope This Info Helps YOU.

</i>

Regards,

Raghav

[Former Member]

Hi chris,

The trusted link is nothing but the translator software iSeries version 6.1.1 from Inovis, which currently runs on an AS/400.

As from sap side, i need to take care of the mapping process, so should i get an mapping document from them and to identify with IDOC, i mean generally they would specify field name in any middleware, in addition if my client ask me to do the mapping work for iseries, i should be able to know all edi standards and segregate accordingly.

Am i right chris?

[Former Member]

Anandha,

I am still confused as to what exactly the are asking you to do when you say from the SAP Side.

Regardless of where the mapping takes place you will need to understand your source document. If they are giving you an EDI document you will need to understand the EDI standards. If they are giving you flat file type of data then you will simply need to understand the layout and how it maps to the IDOC.

If the middleware tool is not doing any mapping and just giving you the EDI data, chances are that whoever you are working with may not know the mapping details.

Chris

[Former Member]

Hi Anandha Krishnan and All,

This time I am also doing the mapping stuff for my client related to EDI 820, 824, 831, MT 103. I have few questions to ask about their mapping with SAP system.

Regards,

Sim

[Former Member]

Hi,

EDI scenario:

Customer sends his raw file (either X12, Odette, VDA, EDIFACT) and Inovis translates this file into IDOC structure. Raw file contains the sender and receiver information and version of the file and map name ( which is used to convert the flat file data into IDOC structure) and message type.

Here for the inovis, there shud be two mandatory requirements:

1. Setup between the corresponding sender and receiver which consists of connection type, sender and receiver IDs and message type and map name and Version of file and port and part func etc.

2. developed map. this map converts the raw file into IDOC structure.

This IDOC file will be pushed into the corresponding R/3 Clients using FTP/ SMTP.

Here once the idoc file is converted to the corresponding R/3 file, from there corresponding IDOC and application document are generated.

Check with ur collegues in which part u need to work.

Regards

Kannaiah

[Former Member]

Hello Kannaiah,

I will be developing the Map , I have worked earlier in 856 and 810 . I wanted to know the Idoc type that is used for 824 and 816.Please let me know if you have any information regarding the same.

Thanks,

Karthik Mandava

[Former Member]

Hi,

For EDI 824, u can use PEXR2001 r PEXR2002, for EDI 816 i 2 dunno.

Regards

Kannaiah

[Former Member]

Thanks Kannaiah,

I was thinking the same with process code either REMADV/RECADV. But was not sure. For 816 I think I may end up creating a custom structure.

Thanks,

Karthik Mandava