EDIFACT Tutorial from GXS

EDIFACT StandardsOverview TutorialLearn About Key e-Commerce Trends and Technologies at Your Own Pace

A GXS Tutorial for the Active Business

Welcome!....................................................................................................................................... 3

How.To.Use.This.Tutorial............................................................................................................... 3

Tutorial.Objectives......................................................................................................................... 3

Part.1:.Why.use.EDI.Standards?.................................................................................................... 4

Part.2:.What.is.EDIFACT?............................................................................................................... 4

Part.3:.Message.Definition............................................................................................................ 6

Part.4:.Message.Structure:.Segment.Tables................................................................................. 6

Part.5:.Message.Structure:.Segment.Groups................................................................................ 8

Part.6:.Segments........................................................................................................................... 9

Part.7:.Segment.Terminators.and.Delimiters...............................................................................10

Part.8:.What.is.Mapping?.............................................................................................................10

Part.9:.Data.Elements:.Simple.and.Composite........................................................................... 11

Part.10:.Composite.Data.Elements:.Qualifier.and.Value.............................................................13

Part.11:.Message.Structure.and.Electronic.Enveloping................................................................14

Part.12:.Envelope.Architecture.....................................................................................................14

Part.13:.Electronic.Enveloping......................................................................................................15

Part.14:.The.Message.Envelope...................................................................................................15

Part.15:.The.Functional.Group.Envelope......................................................................................17

Part.16:.The.Interchange.Envelope..............................................................................................17

Part.17:.The.CONTRL.Message.....................................................................................................18

EDIFACT.Wrap-up..........................................................................................................................19

EDIFACT.Glossary..........................................................................................................................19

EDIFACT.Self-Test.I:.After.Completion.of.Part.5...........................................................................21

EDIFACT.Self-Test.II:.After.Completion.of.Part.10....................................................................... 22

EDIFACT.Self-Test.III:.After.Completion.of.Part.17...................................................................... 23

EDIFACT Standards Overview Tutorial • 2GXS Proprietary and Confidential Information

Welcome!

This tutorial is an overview of the EDIFACT Standard format.

The topics covered in this tutorial are: • Objectivesofthistutorialandhowtouseit • EDIFACT101—somebasicinformationaboutEDIFACTStandardsdevelopment •Messages—structure,segments,types,loops,etc. • Segments—structure,interpretations,conditions,etc. • DataElements—whattheyareandhowtousethem •MessageStructureandEnveloping—packagingitall • FunctionalAcknowledgements—whoneedsthem?

TermsmarkedinredaredefinedintheEDIFACTGlossary.

How To Use This Tutorial

ThistutorialprovidesinformationaboutthedevelopmentofEDIFACTandbasicEDIFACTconcepts.ItshouldbeusedasaprerequisitetounderstandingwhatEDIFACTis,andhowEDI-FACTisdevelopingtomeettheneedsofelectroniccommercesolutions.

Itisonlythebeginning.Thistutorialwillintroducetermsandconceptsthatyouwillfindneces-sarytoformanawarenessofEDIFACT.

Thebestwaytousethistutorialistoreadthroughamoduleanditssub-topics,thoughnotnecessarilyatonesitting.Eachmoduleinthistutorialbuildsoninformationpresentedinearliermodules,butindividualsub-topicscanbeusedasreferenceoutsideofthelinearprogressionofthe course. You will find summaries at the end of each module and self tests at the end of the documentsoyoucanevaluateyourunderstandingofthematerial.

[email protected].

Tutorial Objectives

Aftercompletingthistutorial,youshouldbeabletodiscuss: •WhatareEDIFACTandEDIFACTStandards • HowandwhytheEDIFACTStandardwasdeveloped •WhatisthebasicstructureoftheEDIFACTformat • HowtheEDIFACTdocumentsareread •WhatareFunctionalAcknowledgementsandwhyaretheyused • HowtheEDIFACTStandardmaybeusedinprovidingelectroniccommercesolutions


Part 1: Why use EDI Standards?

EDIstandardsfacilitateelectronicdatainterchange(EDI)byproviding: • Rulesofsyntax • Definitionofthedataorganization • Editingrulesandconventions • Publishedpublicdocumentation

EDI standards: • Allowan‘open’system • Reduceimplementationeffort • Provide‘third-partyinterfaces’

Part 2: What is EDIFACT?

EDIFACTisanacronymforEDI For Administration,Commerce and Transport. It coordinates internationalstandardizationbyworkingthroughtheUN/ECE(UnitedNations/Economic CommissionforEurope).Itprovides: • aninternationalEDIstandard • asetofsyntaxrules • dataelements,segmentsandcodes • messages

Asshowninthefollowingdiagram,EDIFACTistheproductoftheevolutioninbringing theProprietaryStandardsoftheUSandEuropetogethertoformasingleinternational EDI standard.


Proprietary (U.S.)

TDCC

ANSI X.12

EDIFACT UN/EDIFACT

GTDI

Proprietary (Europe)

Industry Specificand National Versions

InternationalStandards

InordertobringabouttheevolutionoftheEDIFACTstandard,theUNhascreatedUN/ECEtocoordinatethiseffort.TheorganizationalstructureoftheUN/ECEismadeupofthefollow-ingboardmembers:

Theorganizationalstructureoftheregionalboardsareallstructuredinasimilarfashion.HereistheorganizationalstructureofthePanAmericanBoard:


United Nations Africa EDIFACT Board

General Assembly Asia EDIFACT Board

Economic andSocial Council

Australia/New ZealandEDIFACT Board

Regioanl EconomicCommission

UN/ECE Eastern EuropeEDIFACT Board

Western EuropeEDIFACT Board

Committee on Trade Pan AmericanEDIFACT Board

RAPPORTEURS

WP.4 GE.1

Standards Approved Here Standards Developed Here

United Nations ECE/WP.4

Rapporteur/Vice Rapporteur

Chair/Vice Chair

Steering Committee

Delegate Liason Task Group

Business ModelingAd-Hoc Work Group

Secretariat (D.I.S.A.)

Management Work Group

Technical AdvisoryWork Group (ETAG)

Pan AmericanEDIFACT Board

Part 3: Message Definition

Amessageisasinglebusinessdocument.Eachmessageisidentifiedbyasixcharactername.Fromthebuyer-sidetheseinclude: • ORDERS—PurchaseOrders • CUSDEC—Customs Declaration • IFTMIN—InstructionMessage • REMADV—RemittanceAdvice • PAYORD—PaymentOrder

Seller-sidemessagesinclude: • IFTMAN—ArrivalNotice • CUSRES—CustomResponse • INVOIC—Invoices

Messagesaremadeupofacollectionofsequencedsegments within defined areas.Someseg-mentsmaybeusedinmorethanonearea.ThesegmentsthatcanbeusedineachareaaredefinedbytheEDIFACTdocumentation.EDIFACTprovidesahierarchicalstructureformessages.

MessagesbeginwiththeMessageHeader(UNH)SegmentandendwiththeMessageTrailer(UNT)Segment.Thesetwosegmentsarethefirst,andinnermost,levelofthethreelevelsof“electronicenvelopes”withinEDIFACT.HereisanexampleofanExtendedPaymentOrder(PAYEXT)messagethatillustratesthisstructure:

Part 4: Message Structure: Segment Tables

Themessagestructureisdefinedinsegment tables.Thesegivethe‘rules’ofthemessage.Theyalsoshowwhichsegmentsareusedinaparticularmessageandtheorderinwhichthesegmentsmust appear.


HereisanexampleofasegmenttablefortheExtendedPaymentOrder(PAYEXT):

Segmenttablesspecifyifasegmentmustappearinamessage.Thisisdoneusingthe‘Require-

ments Designator’field.EachsegmentinthetableisdesignatedaseitherMandatory(M)orConditional(C).Mandatorymeansthatatleastoneoccurrenceofthesegmentmustappearinthemessage.Conditionalmeansasegmentmaybeused,ifneeded,butitisnotrequired.

Segmenttablesalsospecifyhowmanytimesaparticularsegmentmayrepeat.Thisiscalledthe‘Repetition’field.HerearetherequirementsdesignatorsandrepetitionasdisplayedinthetablefortheExtendedPaymentOrder(PAYEXT)message:


Part 5: Message Structure: Segment Groups

Whencollectionsofsegmentsrepeatasagroup,theyarecalledsegment groups.Ifyouarefamil-iarwithANSIX.12,thesearetheequivalentsofloops.

HereisanexampleofsegmentgroupsfortheExtendedPaymentOrder(PAYEXT):

Segmentgroupsmaybe‘nested’.Thismeansthatasegmentgroupisfullycontainedwithinanothersegmentgroup.

HereisanexampleofaNested Segment Group:


BothSegmentGroup7segments(CUX,DTM)andSegmentGroup8segments(AJT,MOA,RFF)arewithinSegmentGroup6(DocumentDetails).

• Take Self Test I to check your understanding at this point. Self Test I can be found at the end

of this tutorial.

Part 6: Segments

A segmentisacollectionoflogically-relateddata elementsinafixed,definedsequence.Seg-ments contain: • Athree-characteralphanumericcodethatidentifiesthesegment.Thisiscalledthesegment tag. • Variable length data elements.Thesecanbeeithersimple or composite.

Segmentsmustbeseparatedbyadataelementseparator(dataelementdelimeter),whichisnor-mally+and:,andterminatedbyasegmentterminator,normally‘.

AllsegmentsarefullydocumentedintheUnitedNationsTradeDataInterchangeDirectory(UNTDID).Thesetableslistthesegmentposition,segmenttagandsegmentname.SegmenttablesalsospecifyifasegmentmustappearinamessageusingtherequirementsdesignatorM(Mandatory)orC(Conditional),andhowmanytimesaparticularsegmentmayrepeat(repeti-tionfield).

InEDIFACT,therearetwokindsofsegments: • Service Segments • Generic Segments

ServiceSegmentsare: • Envelopes(UNB-UNZ,UNG-UNE,UNH-UNT) • DelimiterStringAdvice(UNA) • SectionSeparator(UNS)

GenericSegmentsare: • DOCtoidentifyandspecifydocuments •MOAformonetaryamounts • DTMfordatesandtimes • NADfornameandaddressdata

Hereisasamplesegment:


Part 7: Segment Terminators and Delimiters

TheendofeachsegmentisdeterminedbytheDataSegmentTerminator.InEDIFACTthestan-darddatasegmentterminatoris‘.

Optionalorconditionaldataelementsthatarenotusedmustbeaccountedforbytheirpositionwithinthesegment.Hereisanexample:

However,optionalorconditionaldataelementswithoutdatathatappearattheendofadatasegmentdonotneedadditionaldataelementseparatorstocorrectlypositionthedata.Hereisanexample:

Part 8: What is Mapping?

Therearealmostasmanybusinessapplicationsastherearebusinesses.Intheearlydays,eachbusinesshaditsownapplicationsfortrackingmerchandise,ordering,invoicing,accountspay-able,receivable,andotherbusinessneeds.Wesoonrealizedthat: 1.Thecomputerapplicationsofonebusinesscouldn’ttalktothoseofanother.Thismeant

re-enteringalldatathatwasreceived.

2.Theapplicationsinonedepartmentofabusinesscouldn’ttalktothoseofanotherinthesamebusiness—orderentrycouldn’ttalktoinvoicingwhichcouldn’ttalktoaccountsreceivable.

Thismeantre-enteringrequireddatamultipletimes.

Thesolutionwastostandardizethedatathatwasreadbyacomputerprogramsothatthedatacouldbereadbyallprogramswiththatstandard.Canyoureadthepurchaseorderbelow?


Humanreadablepurchaseorder:

Standardstranslatethe‘humanreadable’invoicetoa‘machinereadable’format:

Part 9: Data Elements: Simple and Composite

A simple data element contains one piece of information. The composite data element contains morethanonepieceofinformation,usuallycontainingqualifiers.

InEDIFACT,allmandatorydataelementsmustcontaindata.Conditionaldataelementsmayormaynotcontaindata,dependingontherequirementsoftheparticulartransmission.

Sincedataelementsmustbeaccountedforbytheirpositioninthesegment,ifanoptionalorconditionaldataelementdoesnothavedata,thatdataelementmuststillbeaccountedforinitspositionwithinthesegmentbyusingtheappropriatenumberofdataelementseparatorsto‘skipover’theemptyfield.Forexample:


Hereisalistofdataelementtypesandtherulesthatapplytothem:

NumericAnumericsegmentmaycontainonlydigits,adecimalpointand,ifnegative,aminussign.

Ifthenumericisagivenasadecimal,thenumbermusthaveadigitbeforeandafterthedecimalpoint.Forexample:2.0iscorrect(asis2),however,2.iswrong.0.50iscorrect(asis0.5),.50iswrong.

AlphabeticAnalphabeticsegmentcontainsthespecifiednumberofalphacharacters,includingembeddedblanks.Leadingspacesmustbepreserved.

AlphanumericAlphanumericsegmentscontainthespecifiednumberofalphanumericcharacters(includingembeddedblanks).Leadingspacesmustbepreserved.

Differenttypesofdataelementsalsohavespecificrulestheymustfollow.Thedataelement dictionaryusuallyspecifiesthecodes(identifiers)byusingthewords‘coded’or‘qualifier’in the data element name:


Part 10: Composite Data Elements: Qualifier and Value

InEDIFACT,thecompositedataelementismadeupoftwoormorepiecesofdata(knownascomponents)whichformasingledataunit.Typicallythefirstdataelementisthevalue,whichisbeingqualified.Theseconddataelementistypicallythequalifier.ThesearetypicallyID(codevalues)fields.Thequalifiergivesadditionaldefinitiontothevalue.

Hereisanexampleofacompositedataelement.Thisdataelementisinregardtofinancialinsti-tutioninformation.Thisistheinformationprovidedinthesegmentdetail:

ThisishowthePartyQualifierdataelement(3035)isdisplayedinthemessage:

Thecompositedataelements(C078andC088)aremadeupofvariousconditionalcomponentsfromthesegmenttable.Becausetheyareconditional,notallofthedataelementsareused.Allcomponentsareseparatedbyasub-elementqualifier(:).

• Take Self Test II to check your understanding at this point. Self Test II can be found at the

end of this tutorial.


Part 11: Message Structure and Electronic Enveloping

TherearethreesignificantstepsforcreatingandsendingdatausingEDIFACT:

Part 12: Envelope Architecture

Levels and Character SetsInEDIFACTtherearetwolevelsinwhichmessagesmaybetransmitted.Theuseofaparticularleveldesignateswhichcharactersetwillbeused: • LEVELA(UNA):onlyuppercase;onlyprintablecharacters

• LEVELB(UNB):upperandlowercase;includesnon-printingcharactersfordelimiters

TheUNAInterchangeistransmittedasasinglestringof9characterspriortotheUNBInter-changesegment.UNAisoptional,andifnotused,thedefaultsshownbelowapply:Areleasecharacterisusedwhenthereisaneedtotransmitamessageinwhichacharacterisdesignatedasadelimiter,indicatororterminator,butitalsorepresentedinthemessagedata.Forexample:

ThenameofacompanyisDON’S DISTRIBUTION COMPANY.Theapostropheisdesignatedasthesegmentterminator.Question:HowdoyoutransmittheapostropheinDON’Sinyourmessage?


Build.the.document.using.the.EDIFACT.Standard.Format.

Add.the.‘Electronic.Envelope’.as.defined.by.the.EDIFACT.Standard.

Transmit.the.electronic.file.

Solution:Useareleasecharacter(normally?).Sothedatawouldlookasfollows:

DON’S DISTRIBUTION COMPANY

Itisalsopossibletoreleasethereleasecharacter.Thequestion:WHEN WILL YOU SEND THE SHIP-

MENT?wouldbetransmitted:WHEN WILL YOU SEND THE SHIPMENT??

Part 13: Electronic Enveloping

EDIFACThastworequiredlevelsofenvelopes: • Interchange (UNB/UNZ): asetfromonesender’smailboxaddresstoanothersender’smail-

boxaddress

•Message (UNH/UNT):theenvelopearoundoneparticularmessage

Inaddition,thereisoneoptionalenvelopelevel:Functional Group (UNG/UNE).Itisusedtogrouplikemessagestogetherandforsub-addressingwithinanorganization.IntheUSANSIX.12stan-dards,thisgroupleveliswherethemessageformatandversionarespecified.UseoftheUNG/UNEismandatoryto/fromNorthAmerica.

ThefollowingdiagramillustratesElectronicEnveloping:

Part 14: The Message Envelope

Theinnermostenvelopelevelisaroundeachmessage.ItisdefinedbytheUNH/UNTsegments.

TheUNHsegmenthasfourdataelements: •Message Reference Number (M):assignedbythesender’scomputerandispartofthe

CONTROLmechanism.


•Message Identifier (M):Compositewhichidentifiesthemessagebeingenvelopedusingthesixcharactermessagecode(e.g.,PAYEXT,REMADV)andtheVersion/Releasedata.

.

• Common Access Reference Number (C):Relatesmultipletransactionstogether..

• Status of the Transfer (C):Sequencesaseriesofrelatedmessages.

TheUNTsegmenthastwodataelements: • Number of Segments in a Message (M):countofsegmentsinthemessage(including

UNHandUNT).

•Message Reference Number (M):sameonethatwasusedintheUNHforthatparticularmessage.

HereisanexampleofhowtheCONTROLmechanismintheUNHelementisusedtovalidatemessagedata:

The Common Access Reference Number isusedtoidentifyaseriesofrelatedEDIFACT messages.Forexample,onepurchasemayinvolveamessageexchangethatrequiresfourmessagestoaccomplishthecompletebusinesstransactionasgivenhere:

For Message #1: UNH+2348+ORDERS:D:94B:UN+10381+1:C’

For Message #2: UNH+156009+DESADV:D:94B:UN+10381+2’

For Message #3: UNH+156078+INVOIC:D:94B:UN+10381+3’

For Message #4: UNH+2451+REMADV:D:94B:UN+10381+4:F’


1st Message: ORDERS (Purchase Order)

2nd Message: DESADV (Dispatch Advice)

3rd Message: INVOIC (Invoice)

4th Message: REMADV (Remittance Advice)Buyer Seller

Part 15: The Functional Group Envelope

Functional Group EnvelopeThesecond(middle)envelopelevelisaroundeachfunctionalgroup.ItisdefinedbytheUNG/UNEsegments.TheuseoftheUNGandUNEenvelopesismandatoryforEDIto/fromNorthAmerica.

Thisenvelopegroupsliketypesofmessageswithinatransmission.Hereareafewexamplesofthedataelementsinthefunctionalgroupenvelope: • Functional Group (M)

•Message Identifier (M)

• Date/Time Stamp (M): Relatesmultipletransactionstogether. • Status of the Transfer (C): Sequencesaseriesofrelatedmessages. • Group Reference Number (M)

• Controlling Agency (M)

•Message Version (M) • Application Password (C)

TheUNEsegmentincludes: • Number of Segments in a Message (M)

• Message Reference Number (M)

Functional Group Sub-Addressing FunctionalGroupenvelopescontainasub-addressingcapability.Thedatathatissenttoapar-ticularreceiverisaddressedtothemailboxaddressontheUNB.

Manycompanieswanttorouteagroupofdatainternally,sotheUNGsegmenthasaprovisionforuser-definedaddressesintheS006andS007elements.

Hereisadiagramthatillustratesthesub-addressingfunction:

Part 16: The Interchange Envelope

Theoutermostlevelofthemessageenvelopestructureistheinterchangeenvelope.ItisdefinedbytheUNA,UNBandUNZsegements.


EDI data from third-party network

General Electric Company CorporateEDI Clearing House, Schenectady, NY

UNB:UNOA:1+123456789:1+987654321:1+

GE LightingClevelend, OH

UNG+ORDERS+123456789:1+GEL:92+...

GE AppliancesLouisville, KY

UNG+ORDERS+123456789:1+GEAP:92+...

GE Aircraft EnginesCincinnati, OH

UNG+ORDERS+123456789:1+GEAE:92+...

ExternalCommunications

Internal Communications

Thisenvelopeisusedtoidentifydatasentfromonesendertoonereceiver:

TheUNAsegmentcontains: • Delimiter String Advice

• Examples of included data elements

TheUNBsegmentcontains: • Date/Time Stamp (M)

• Interchange Control Numbers (M)

• Password and Application Reference (C)

• Processing Priority Reference (C)

• Acknowledgment Request Indicators (C)

• Communications Agreement ID (C)

• Test Indicators (C)

TheUNZsegmentincludes: • Interchange Control Numbers (M)

• Counts of Messages or Groups in the Interchange (M)

Part 17: The CONTRL Message

Itistheresponsibilityofthereceiver’scomputertocheckthesyntaxandcontrolnumbersofthetransmissionandtobuildandtransmitbacktothesenderthisFunctionalAcknowledgment.The EDIFACT CONTRLmessagewillprovidethisfunctionality.

• Take Self Test III to check your understanding at this point. Self Test III can be found at the

end of this tutorial.


The.sender’s.computer.receives.the.CONTROL.messages.and.they.can.update.the.status.of.the.transmitted.document.in.their.own.control.log.or.document.control.database.

When.the.sender.generates.this.file,.they.have.added.control.and.tracking.information.in.the.“electronic.envelopes”.that.surround.the.document.

When.the.receiver’s.computer.processes.the.incoming.PO’s,.it.verifies.the.“electronic.envelopes’”.control.information.and.generates.a.Functional.Acknowledgement.

EDIFACT Wrap-up

Somethingstokeepinmind: • EDIFACTwasorginallydevelopedfromabaseofUSANSIstandardsandUNGTDI

standards. • Thesyntaxofbothstandardsareremarkablysimilar. •Manysegmentsaresimilarinthetwostandards. • Translationsoftwarecanreadilygenerate/accepteitherEDIFACTorANSIASCX.12data. • Akeyissuewillbetheorganizationalimprovementsneededtodevelop/maintainEDI-

FACTstandardswithintheUSandCanada.

ThankyouforusingtheGXSEDIFACTTutorial.Pleasesendallfeedbacktotraining@gxs.com.

EDIFACT Glossary

Area—Areascontaingroupsofsegmentsthatperformspecificfunctions.Theareas,inturn,makeupamessage.Tobecomplete,amessagemustcontainaheaderarea,detailareaandsummaryarea.

Component—A composite data element made up of two or more pieces of data.

Composite Data Element—Twoormorerelateddataitemsseparatedbyadelimitercharacter,groupedtogethertoformaunitorpieceofinformationasdefinedinthedatadictionaryofasystemofEDIStandards,andcontainedinanEDImessage.

Conditional—Attributethatindicatesthatthedataelementmayormaynotcontaindata,de-pendingonthemessage.

Data Element—Oneormoredataitems,formingaunitorpieceofinformationasdefinedinthedatadictionaryofasystemofEDIStandards,andcontainedinanEDImessageortransactionset.Theterm“dataelement”isoftenabbreviatedas“DE”followedimmediatelybythedataele-mentnumber(i.e.,dataelement128wouldbeabbreviatedasDE128)insometexts.

Data Element Separator (Delimiter)—Character that separates the individual data elements in a segment.

EDIFACT—AlsoknownasUN/EDIFACT,istheacronymforEDIforAdministration,CommerceandTransport.ItistheinternationalmessagestandardforEDIbeingdevelopedthroughthecooperationoftheUnitedNationsandtheEconomicCommissionforEurope(UN/ECE).

Mandatory—Attributethatindicatesthatthedataelementmustcontaindata.NestedSegmentGroup—Segmentgroupsthatresidewithinothersegmentgroups.

Qualifier—TypicallyanID(codevalue)field,itisusedtoqualifyaparticularvalueinasegment.


Repetition Field—Entryinasegmenttablewhichstateshowmanytimesaparticularsegmentmayrepeat.

Requirements Designator—Usageindicatorofsegmentdetail:Mandatory,OptionalorFloating.

Segment—ApartofanEDImessageortransactionset,madeupofanumberoflogically-relateddataelementsinafixed,defined,sequence,separatedbyadelimiter,conveyingapartofthebusinesstransactionbeingmade.

Segment Tables—Themessagestructureisdefinedinalistingknownasa‘segmenttable’.Thesegivethe‘rules’ofthemessage.

Segment Tag—Athreecharacteralphanumericcodethatidentifiesthesegment.

Segment Terminator—Characterattheendofasegmentthatindicatesnomoredatafollows.

Simple Data Element—A data element that contains one piece of information.

Service Segment—ServiceSegmentsareEnvelopes(UNB-UNZ,UNG-UNE,UNH-UNT),DelimiterStringAdvice(UNA),andSectionSeparators(UNS).

UN/ECE—TheUnitedNations/EconomicCommissionforEuropethatoverseesthedevelopmentof the EDIFACT standard.

Value—Typically,thefirstdataelementwhichisbeingqualified.

Variable Length Data Element—Dataelementwhoselengthchangesdependingonthenumberofcharactersintheactualdata.Minimumandmaximumsizeoftheelementisgivenintheelementtable.


EDIFACT Self-Test I: After Completion of Part 5

Select the most appropriate answer to the following questions:

1. A primary benefit of EDIFACT is that...

itisanindustry-to-industryonlystandard. itisfromtheUN. itisbothindustry-to-industryandcountry-to-country. itisaformofdataencryption.

2. Messages:

havealltheofthenextthreefeatures. collectionsofsequencedsegmentswithindefinedareas. beingwiththeUNHsegmentandendwiththeUNTsegment. identifiedbyasixcharactername.

3. Message structure is defined in the:

segmentgroup. segmenttable. segmentrules. segmenttag.

4. Segments contain...

asegmenttag. simpleorcompositevariablelengthdataelements. thedataelementseparators+or:. alloftheabove.


EDIFACT Self-Test II: After Completion of Part 10


1. Which is true of data elements:

Alloptionalorconditionalelementsmustbeaccountedfor. Allconditionalelementsaredependentonmessagerequirements. Allmandatorydataelementsmustcontaindata. Alloftheabove.

2. EDIFACT uses two separate pieces of data in a single element:

ValueandQualifier Simple and Composite NumericandAlphabetic Composite and Component

3. If there is an alphanumeric data element with an attribute of AN5, all of these would be correct

except:

KEND END64 48597 TOM12

4. Optional data elements without data at the end of a segment...

needadditionaldataelementseparatorstocorrectlypositionthedata. mustbeaccountedforbytheirpositionwiththesegment. donotneedadditionaldataelementseparatorstocorrectlypositionthedata. alloftheabove.


EDIFACT Self-Test III: After Completion of Part 17


1. The characteristics of Level A EDIFACT transmissions are:

uppercase,includesnon-printingcharactersfordelimiters. upper and lower case. uppercasewithonlyprintablecharacters. noneoftheabove.

2. A release character...

allows the use of a delimiter or terminator within data. isnormallythe‘?’. can release a release character. alloftheabove.

3. EDIFACT has two required levels of envelopes:

InterchangeandFunctionalGroup MessageandInterchange FunctionalGroupandMessage Sub-AddressingandMessage

4. For an incoming message, it is the responsibility of the receiver’s computer to...

checksyntax,thenbuildandtransmitaContrlmessage. checkcontrolnumbers,thenbuildandtransmitaContrlmessage. buildandtransmitaContrlmessage. checksyntaxandcontrolnumbers,thenbuildandtransmitaContrlmessage.


EDIFACT Tutorial from GXS

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