EDI Concepts

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards such as X12 and EDIFACT predate XML standards. EDI data is not self-descriptive like XML; it was designed to be machine-readable and compact because networks had very low data bandwidth at the time of their inception. There was no scope to expand the message by adding extra tags or metadata.

To decipher EDI data, you must have a separate schema definition available. B2B for Oracle Integration provides X12 and EDIFACT standard schemas and hides some EDI native format intricacies by translating them to (or from) a canonical XML format. You design the backend integrations and largely work with the canonical format only. However, the logical structure and schema of the canonical XML format closely resembles the EDI structure of segments and elements. That is why you need knowledge of the EDI envelope and data segment structures. You may also need knowledge of the EDI schema if you and your trading partner mutually decide to customize the standard schemas.

This section provides EDI standard-specific reference information, such as envelope structures and code lists for specific elements.

There are standard envelopes used commonly within all X12 document types and within all UN/EDIFACT document types. The envelope structures are also briefly described in the following sections for each standard.