Positional Flat or Fixed Length Payloads Support

B2B for Oracle Integration can consume positional flat or fixed length payloads (also called data files in native format) for inbound and outbound message translations. These files can be of fixed length for various fields, CSV, delimited, and other formats. B2B for Oracle Integration enables you to define a B2B schema and document from these various formats and include the document in a trading partner agreement.

The following example describes how B2B for Oracle Integration handles a positional flat payload.

A positional flat payload includes segments (for this example, BGM and NAS). Each segment includes a row that consists of multiple elements. Each element is defined by its length. For example, the BGM segment includes the element 04366170969 that can be a length of up to 35 characters, the element ZZ that can be a length of up to 4 characters, and so on.

The segment shows BGM and NAS, which both consist of elements of various character lengths.

After translation by the B2B action in an integration, the XML format looks as follows. Each segment consists of child elements corresponding to a unique row in the payload.

The XML format shows the segments BGM and NAS. Both segments consist of elements, each on their own row.

Let's look at another example. Assume your positional flat payload file consists of the following segments and rows.

BGM94366179969                         ZZ               006836700988                       ZZ                 ORDERS51631
NAB568                92 Ritorazione e XXXXXXX Per XXXXXXX Srl presso Scuola XXXXXXX XXXXXXP.zza Vittorio Veneto 1 XXXXXXXX MI,
NAJ568                92 Ritorazione e XXXXXXX Per XXXXXXX Srl presso Scuola XXXXXXX XXXXXXP.zza Vittorio Veneto 1 XXXXXXXX MI,
NAI04366170969        VA Ritorazione e XXXXXXX Per XXXXXXX Srl                             Via Roma, 19

You drag the positional flat payload file into the user interface when creating a B2B schema and specify the number of characters to scan to identify the segments. For this example, 3 is specified to create the schema segments from the first three characters in each row.

From this payload, four segments are created with default position and requirement options.

The schema page shows a table with columns for Segment/Element, Position, Name, Requirement, Usage, and Element type. In the upper right are the Generate list, Edit info button, and Save button. At the top are the Identifier and Updated on labels.

You can select Actions to add child elements, new child elements, additional segments, and loops.