Understanding Flat Files
Flat files (also known as user-defined formats) are usually text files that are stored on your workstation or server and typically use the ASCII character set. Because data in a flat file is stored as one continuous string of information, flat files do not have relationships defined for them as relational database tables do. Flat files can be used to import or export data from applications that have no other means of interaction. For example, you might want to share information between JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and another system. If the non-JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system does not support the same databases that JD Edwards EnterpriseOne supports, then flat files might be the only way to transfer data between the two systems.
When you use flat files to transfer data to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, the data must be converted to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne format before it can be updated to the live database. You can use JD Edwards EnterpriseOne interface tables along with a conversion program, electronic data interface (EDI), or table conversion to format the flat file data. You can use EDI or table conversion to retrieve JD Edwards EnterpriseOne data for input to a flat file.
Some JD Edwards EnterpriseOne batch interfaces, such as the batch extraction programs, can accept flat files and parse the information to data format.