Anvaigo EDI Connect Features

UN/EDIFACT – United Nations Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport

A commonly used format to exchange data between business partners, especially in Europe, is UN/EDIFACT.

There are a lot of systems that support data interchange via EDIFACT. With Anvaigo EDI Connect you can exchange data with any entity supporting an EDIFACT messages. There are a lot of different versions of the standard. Each version is named, for example, D96A. Anvaigo EDI Connect supports all versions of the EDIFACT standard.

The standard is grouped by Message Types. Commonly used Message Types are Orders (ORDERS), Order Responses (ORDRSP), Despatch Advices (DESADV), Commercial Invoices (INVOIC), and many more. Anvaigo EDI Connect supports all Message Types incoming and outgoing. For example, our customers are using remittance advises (REMADV), warenhouse shipments (INSDES), freight data (IFTMIN), sales reports (SLSRPT) and inventory reports (INVRPT).

There are also a lot of subsets. Like EANCOM, EDIELEKTRO, EDIGAS, EDI@Energy, EDITEC, ODETTE and many more. With Anvaigo EDI Connect you are able to process also all subsets of EDIFACT.

The following example will show you the beginning of a typical EDIFACT file:

UNB+UNOC:3+1234567890123:14+0987654321098:14+120501:1324+1'
UNH+777+ORDERS:D:96A:UN:EAN008'
BGM+220+ORD111111+9'
DTM+137:120501:102'

The data is structured into segments like in this example UNB, UNH, BGM and DTM. The actual data is stored in so called data elements, which are usually separated by the + and : characters. The data elements can be children of the segment in which case they are separated by the + character or they can be children of composites, separated by the : character. It is also possible to use different separation characters.

ASC/X12 – Accredited Standards Committee X12

The Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC X12) is responsible for maintaining a set of EDI standards. The X12 standards are mostly used in the US and by international companies. There are a lot of message types for different applications.

Standard message types are, for example, 850 – Purchase Order, 857 – Shipping and Billing Notice.

The data format is very similar to UN/EDIFACT, but X12 uses variable separation characters, which are defined in the ISA segment at the begin of the message. Anvaigo EDI Connect supports every message type of X12. The functionality of the assistant varies depending on the message type, but it is always possible to import the file, create the structure out of the example file and map the fields to Microsoft Dynamics NAV tables

ISA*00*          *00*          *01*0123456789     *12*1123456789     *100325*1113*U*00403*000011436*0*T*>~
GS*PO*1234567890*1234567890*20140411*1354*1704*X*004010~
ST*850*00001234~

XML – Extensible Markup Language

XML files are supported by a lot of systems. In XML you can specify the data in a structured way. XML is very flexible and allows a variety of different file formats. With Anvaigo EDI Connect you can import and Export XML in Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC / Dynamics NAV. Anvaigo EDI Connect gives you are flexible way of handling your XML files with a lot more options than the build in XML-Ports of Microsoft Dynamics.

Example of an XML-File:

<?xml>

<Root xmlns="https://www.anvaigo.com/2014/examples/communication">
<Item No="IX3241">
<Description>
Item description with <b>Formated</b> Text
</Description>
</Item>
</Root>

XML uses elements, like <Item>, attributes like No=”IX3241″ and content nodes to structure the data. It is possible to define validation rules. XML supports namespaces and prefixes for more complex formats.

There are a lot of XML based data formats, like IDOC used by SAP, cXML, OpenTrans and many more.

IDOC – Intermediate Document

XML based data format used by SAP. XML is fully supported by Anvaigo EDI Connect, but this data format is quite difficult to setup due to the amount of transferred data.

cXML – Commerce XML

XML based data format used, for example, by Ariba. XML is fully supported by Anvaigo EDI Connect. But cXML also specifies the communication channel, which might require additional software.

OpenTrans

XML based data format. XML is fully supported by Anvaigo EDI Connect.

VDA – Verband der Automobilindustrie

The VDA is an organisation that released some standards used in the automotive sector. The original file format is a fixed-length Plain-Text/CSV file format. The files are often times mainframe coded. The file format is in general supported by Anvaigo EDI Connect. The different messages types, like shipments, invoices etc. have names like VDA4906, VDA4913 etc. Newer versions also encode the data as UN/EDIFACT.

FTPS – FTP over TLS

FTPS is an encrypted version of the FTP protocol. Like FTP it is file based. There are several options for the encryption of the communication channel. The implicit mode establishes the secured channel before sending any other data, whereas the explicit mode establishes the encryption explicitly by calling a command on the server.

Anvaigo EDI Connect supports FTPS over an optional add-in that can act as an FTPS client.

SSH – Secure Shell

SSH is an encrypted network protocol that allows the execution of commands on the remote server. One can use SSH to tunnel other protocols like SFTP over a secured channel. Another possibility is to use SCP for the encrypted transmission of data.

SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol

SFTP is a file based, encrypted network protocol that provides functionality for transferring and managing files over a secure data channel. For this it uses the FTP protocol over an SSH secured connection.

SCP – Secure Copy

Allows a file-based, encrypted data transfer. For this It uses the SSH protocol.

Anvaigo EDI Connect can support SCP via an optional add-in. If you required this feature please contact us.

X.400 – Message Handling System

Is a message-based, encrypted data exchange system. X.400 is a mailbox system and is used for file sharing of Anvaigo EDI Connect messages.

Anvaigo EDI Connect allows the connection of external communication components. For the X.400 data transfer you’ll need a X.400 client software or a service provider. In general, we recommend a service provider which can be accessed directly by the Anvaigo EDI Connect add-in to allow a complete error monitoring inside of Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC / Dynamics NAV.

AS/2 – Applicability Statement 2

Allows secured message based data exchange via the Internet. It generates envelopes for messages that can request the confirmation of the transmission. AS/2 is designed primarily for business use, features like MDNs provide evidence of the transmission of data.

Anvaigo EDI Connect supports AS / 2 currently only via external software or service. This is mainly for technical reasons, since a server must listen for responses of the remote site and it is not recommended to host such servers from inside NAV. A complete integration of external software, including error monitoring is possible.

OFTP – Odette File Transfer Protocol

OFTP is primarly used in the automotive sector. It is a message based transfer protocol that supports various data channels. It can encrypt and compress messages before sending them. Unlike the name suggests it is technically very different from FTP. OFTP can handle very large files, can resume a failed message transfer and supports integrity checks.

Anvaigo EDI Connect can work with external OFTP software. It is possible to integrate the software into the communication architecture of Anvaigo EDI Connect to ensure that the user is able to monitor the file transfer from inside Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC / Dynamics NAV.

POP3 – Post Office Protocol 3

POP3 is a message based communication protocol. It allows to retrieve e-mails from a mail server. It is very limited in functionality because it only allows listing, fetching and deleting e-mails on the server. SMTP is the counterpart to send messages. POP3 can be used in an encrypted or unencrypted mode.

Anvaigo EDI Connect supports POP3 via an optional add-in.

SMTP – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SMTP is used to send e-mails. Thus it is a message based protocol. It is possible to encrypt the communication channel before sending data. To retrieve messages POP3 or IMAP is used.

Anvaigo EDI Connect Anvaigo EDI Connect supports SMTP via an optional add-in.

MDN – Message Disposition Notification

Delivery notification, for example for AS/2 transmissions.

IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol

Network protocol for retrieving email messages.