Customizing Messages and File Layouts

File Layouts and Message definitions have been delivered for each of the X.12 EDI transaction sets. They are named EDI_TXN_xxx where xxx is the EDI transaction set number.

Occasionally, the trading partner's unique implementation will require adding, deleting, or modifying fields or segments for an integration. When this happens, you need to use the PeopleSoft application designer to create trading partner specific copies of the delivered file layouts and messages for the integration, customize them to match the attribute mappings, and generate a schema for the new message.

Customizing messages and file layouts often requires creating new copies of the EDI records and fields to use in place of the delivered ones. To assist in this process, some background on the process and naming standard should be explained. All records required to create the file layouts and messages have been implemented as derived-work records.

Fields are assigned a unique field number in the X.12 EDI specification, and reused throughout the EDI segments. As one segment can contain many occurrences of the same field, and each occurrence of a field in PeopleSoft record must be unique as multiple copies of each field may exist. Fields will be named EDI_FLD_xxx_yyyyyy where xxx is the EDI field number and yyyyyy is a unique occurrence identifier. Field types will be either numeric or string. Dates will be declared as strings.

These types of records support the needs of the file layouts and messages.

  • EDI composites are defined as sub-records and named EDI_SBR_xxx_yyy where xxx is the EDI field number and yyy is a unique occurrence identifier. Similar to fields, composites can occur multiple times in a segment so there may be multiple instances of each composite.

  • EDI segments are defined as work records and named EDI_SEG_xxx where xxx is the segment number.

  • To support the looping structures defined by the X.12 EDI transaction sets, additional work records have been created and named EDILOOP_xxxxxxx where xxxxxxx is a unique lop identifier. PeopleTools requires at least one field, so one field exists on these records (DUMMY_FIELD).

Note:

It is very important that the file layout and the message definition match exactly. If they do not, the transformation process may fail with unpredictable results.