Monitoring EDI Processing

This chapter provides an overview of Electric Data Interchange (EDI) agents and discusses how to:

• Prepare outbound maps for EDI agents.

• Schedule inbound EDI agents.

• Schedule outbound EDI agents.

• Review errors and summary data.

Note. You must run the outbound map preparation process before you can process any outgoing EDI transactions.

See Also

Defining Outbound Maps

Understanding EDI Agents

EDI agents copy EDI transaction data between PeopleSoft business documents and the PeopleSoft database, using the maps that you defined in the previous chapter. Two types of EDI agents are available:

• Inbound EDI agents, which process incoming transactions by copying data from PeopleSoft business documents into the database.

• Outbound EDI agents, which create PeopleSoft business documents from transaction data in the EDI staging tables.

If your system processes EDI transactions, you will usually want to have two EDI agents running on a regular schedule: one inbound agent and one outbound agent. You can also start other EDI agent instances for special purposes, such as processing the corrected version of a PeopleSoft business document that failed the first time.

Preparing Outbound Maps for EDI Agents

This section provides an overview of preparing outbound maps for EDI agents and discusses how to prepare outbound maps.

Understanding Preparing Outbound Maps for EDI Agents

When you create an outbound map definition, you define what data the EDI agent needs to extract from the staging tables. In order to select data from the tables, the EDI agent needs to run SQL statements whose details depend on the map definition.

Whenever you create or modify an outbound map definition, you need to run a preparation process that generates the appropriate SQL statements and compiles them into a format that the EDI agent can use. This process creates an SQC file.

Note. You must run the Outbound EDI Agent Preparer process before you can process any outbound EDI transactions. PeopleSoft does not deliver a compiled version of the drivers; you have to compile them for your system.

Page Used to Prepare Outbound Maps for EDI Agents

Preparing Outbound Maps

Access the Prepare Outbound Driver - Run Parameters page.

To prepare outbound maps for the EDI agent:

1. Specify where to put the SQC that contains the outbound map definitions.

   In the ECOUTMAP.SQC Directory field, enter the directory where you want PeopleSoft Process Scheduler to put the SQC. The directory needs to be in the SQR search path of the workstation or server that will run the outbound EDI agent.

2. Click the Run button.

   The Process Scheduler Request page appears.

3. Specify the server where you want the SQR compiler to run.

4. Specify when you want the process to run.

   You will probably want to run the preparation process just once (then run it again after changing or adding maps).

5. Click the OK button to run (or schedule to run) the outbound map preparation.

See Also

Submitting and Scheduling Process Requests

Scheduling Inbound EDI Agents

Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, Monitor EDI Processing, Schedule Inbound EC Agent to access the Run Control Parameters page.

To schedule the inbound EDI agent to run:

1. Select the run option that the EDI agent uses to determine the documents or transactions to process.

   File List Driven	Select to process all the PeopleSoft business documents whose filenames appear in a list file that the EDI translator software creates. The filenames must include their complete paths. Enter the directory that contains the PeopleSoft business document files and the list file in the File List Path field, and the filename of the list file in the File List Name field.
   Single File	Select to process all the transactions in a specified PeopleSoft business document. Enter the directory that contains the file in the Single File Path field and the PeopleSoft business document file name in the Single File Name field.
   Single Instance	Select to process a single transaction. Select the business document ID, transaction ID, and queue instance ID of the transaction that you want to process, in that order.

   Note. The Single Instance option is available only for transactions that the EDI agent has already attempted to process. The transaction must have an EC queue instance ID.

   Note. If the EDI agent runs on a server under MVS, it ignores the File List Path or Single File Path setting. Instead, it looks in the Job Control Language (JCL) for a DDNAME matching the specified file name. The File List Path option is not useful for MVS platforms because each file in the list must have a DDNAME..

2. Specify how the inbound agent determines which map definition to use.

   By default, the inbound agent looks for records with the row ID 999 to determine what type of transaction it is processing and, therefore, which map definition to use. However, you can also specify a transaction map or trading partner for all transactions that this inbound EDI agent processes, so the inbound EDI agent can process files that do not include control records.

   If you select the Do Not Force option, the inbound EDI agent looks for a control record at the beginning of each transaction in the incoming data file. You do not need to complete any other parameters.

   If you select Force with Map Information, the Inbound Agent Forced Parameters box displays lists from which to select the transaction map to use for all transactions in the incoming file.

   If you select Force with Partner Information, you can select the partner information to use for all transactions in the incoming file.

3. Select the file option that the EDI agent uses to display file data.

   Suppress Rowid:	Select to map homogeneous files to the same table. A row ID of 000 must be specified in the map definition; however, the flat file need not have a record identifier.
   Comma Separated Format:	Select to import files of variable length fields into PeopleSoft tables. This option is only available when the profile is forced with either 999 or 998 information.

   Note. The separator should appear between each field in the file. The delimiter surrounds each field.

4. Click the Run button.

   The Process Scheduler Request page appears.

5. Specify on what server you want the agent to run.

   Note. In a production workflow, you will usually want to run the EDI agent on a dedicated server.

6. Specify when and how often you want the agent to run.

   If you are running the EDI agent once, enter the date and time when you want to run it.

   If you are running the agents on a server, PeopleSoft Process Scheduler can run them once or periodically on a specified schedule.

   Note. The Run Output option is not relevant for the EDI agent.

7. Click the OK button to run (or schedule to run) the EDI agent.

See Also

Submitting and Scheduling Process Requests

Scheduling Outbound EDI Agents

Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, Monitor EDI Processing, Schedule Outbound EC Agent to access the Outbound EC Agent - Run Parameters page.

To schedule the outbound EDI agent to run:

1. Specify the transactions that you want the EDI agent to process.

   To have the EDI agent process all pending transactions, clear all three check boxes. A pending transaction is one that an application extract process has added to the staging tables, and it has a status of L (Loaded).

   To process all transactions of a particular type, select the EC Trans ID check box, and then select the transaction ID from the drop-down list that appears.

   To process all transactions from a particular business unit, select the Business Unit check box and enter the business unit ID in the drop-down list that appears.

   To process all transactions for a particular trading partner, select the Vendor/Customer check box, and then enter the vendor ID, customer ID, or other internal ID for the desired partner.

   You can select multiple check boxes. For example, you could process all outgoing invoices for a particular vendor by selecting both the EC Trans ID and Vendor/Customer check boxes.

2. Specify how you want to format the outgoing transaction file.

   By default, the outbound EDI agent adds a record with the row ID 999 at the beginning of each transaction. This record identifies the transaction type in a way that is recognized by the PeopleSoft inbound EDI agent. If you select the Suppress EC 999 Record check box, the outbound EDI agent does not include this record in the outgoing file.

   If you do not want to include the row ID for each record in the outgoing file, select the Suppress Rowid check box.

   By default, the outbound EDI agent creates outbound transaction files in which the data for each field appears in the fixed column position specified in the outbound map definition. If you select the Comma Separated Format check box, the outbound EDI agent instead creates transaction files in which the fields are separated by a comma or other character rather than always appearing in a specified column position. The comma-separated option enables you to select the file options to read in flat file data that is comma-delimited.

   Note. The Comma Separated Format option is only available if you used forced agent mapping. Selecting the Suppress Rowid option enables you to load data without requiring a row ID. However, your map definition must contain a row ID even if you are suppressing it in the run control setup. The row ID must be 000.

   The CSV separator is the character that the EDI agent uses to separate the fields in a record. The CSV delimiter is the character that the EDI agent uses to mark the beginning and end of a data value. In the following example, the separator is a comma, and the delimiter is a single quotation mark:

   'WOW','23.23','Big Deal'

   Note. When you use comma-separated format, the outbound EDI agent ignores the column positions specified in the outbound map definition. It adds data to the outbound file in the exact order in which the fields appear in the map definition. You must make sure that the order of rows map definition specifies the fields in the order that you want them to appear in the file.

   Select Single Document File to allow the results of the EDI to be written to a single output file. The business document ID is increased incrementally as though multiple documents were created. The file may contain multiple 999 records.

   Select Keep Queue Status to not update the ECQUEUE.ECQUEUSTATUS field at the completion of processing. This action allows the record in ECQUEUE to be processed multiple times.

   Select Message Header/Footer to process header and footer information before and following each business document. Header and footer information is stored with the trading partner definition.

3. Click the Run button.

4. Specify on which server you want the agent to run.

5. Specify when and how often you want the agent to run.

   If you are running the EDI agent once, enter the date and time when you want to run it.

   If you are running the agents on a server, Process Scheduler can run them once or periodically on a specified schedule.

6. Click the OK button to run, or schedule to run, the EDI agent.

See Also

Submitting and Scheduling Process Requests

Reviewing Errors and Summary Data

This section discusses how to:

• Review and correct errors.

• Review packages and transaction groups.

Reviewing and Correcting Errors

A predefined business process named Manage EDI, which is delivered with the application, routes information about any processing errors it encounters to the EDI Coordinator’s worklist. The coordinator can select an item from the worklist to review the error.

To review and correct EDI processing errors:

1. Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, View EDI Audit Trail, Business Document Errors.

   The Business Document Detail page appears. This page gives detailed information about the processing of each line in a PeopleSoft business document.

    

2. Review the processing details for the document.

   When you first open the page, the first row shows the processing information for the first record in the file, which is a 999 record. Browse the rows to view the other file records. The status of each row appears in the Status field.

3. (Optional) Correct the erroneous data in the PeopleSoft business document.

   Complete the remaining steps only if you correct errors.

   Note. Because this page enables you to change transaction data, you will want to carefully control access to it. In Operator Security, give only the EDI coordinator rights to edit this page.

4. Save the page.

5. Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, View EDI Audit Trail, Transaction Maintenance.

6. Reset the EC queue status for the corrected transactions to L.

   When the EDI agent encounters an error while processing a transaction, it sets the status field in the pending transaction queue (ECQUEUE) to E. Resetting the status of a transaction to L makes the outbound EDI agent try to process it again.

Reviewing Packages and Transaction Groups

The EDI transaction set file that you receive over the network from an external trading partner might include any number of transactions bound for any number of internal trading partners. To manage all this transaction data, the file organizes it into several levels:

• The top level of organization is the package level. The package is the entire transaction set file, addressed to your company much as a mail package would be.

• The package can contain one or more transaction groups. Each transaction group is a set of transactions of the same type, with the same trading partners involved.

• Each transaction group includes one or more individual units of work. A unit of work is a single transaction that you commit or roll back as a whole.

When third-party-supplied EDI translation software creates PeopleSoft business documents, it divides the transaction set file at approximately the transaction group level. A PeopleSoft business document typically includes multiple units of work, and it may include multiple transaction groups, depending how the translation software is set up.

PeopleSoft business documents do not contain information about what packages or transaction groups their transactions come from. However, the EDI translation software can provide this information in a separate audit file, and the EDI agent can copy the information into audit tables in your database.

Note. For the auditing information to be available, the EDI translation software must write the package and transaction group information to an audit file, and the EDI agent must process this file using the predefined Audit inbound map.

To view summary information about a PeopleSoft business document:

1. Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, View EDI Audit Trail, Business Document Summary.

2. Enter the business document ID of the document that you want to review.

   This page displays information about how the EDI agent processed the specified PeopleSoft business document. If the document included multiple transactions, browse the rows on the lower part of the page to see the information about each individual transaction.

3. Review the packages and transaction groups that this document is part of.

To view summary information about an EDI package:

1. Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, View EDI Audit Trail, Package Log Summary.

2. Enter the package control ID for the package whose status you want to review.

   Browse the rows on the lower part of the page to view the transaction groups that were inside the package and the PeopleSoft business documents that were created from the data in the package.

To view summary information about an EDI transaction group:

1. Select PeopleTools, EDI Manager, View EDI Audit Trail, Transaction Group Log Summary.

2. Enter the transaction group control ID for the group whose status you want to review, or press Enter to select from a list of the groups.