Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is defined as the exchange of business data from one computer to another computer using a public standard format. EDI replaces the traditional processes of preparing data in paper form and sending it by mail or by facsimile. Business communications with EDI is not restricted by software, equipment or computer.

EDI uses structured document formatting through which the platform builds solutions following the specifications provided by the company or trading partner. Typically EDI is independent of a company's internal application systems. EDI format consist of interrelated document components. The core Boomi components are defined below:

Segment - Business document data logically grouped with one or more data Elements
Data Element - Basic units of information containing a set of values that represent a singular fact
Delimiter - Unique character that separates individual data elements
Segment Terminator - Unique character that identifies the end of a segment string
Qualifier - Specific value of an element that can be pre-defined in Boomi to classify key data
Loop - A section or group of segments that can repeat within 1 document instance
Identifier Instance - A flag in the EDI structure that identifies a specific data set based on numeric occurrence, qualifier or both

EDI Profiles represent the structure of the various EDI documents sent through Boomi Processes, including all the segments, data elements, looping, and other configuration information. Similar to the XML Profile, the EDI profile allows you to configure repeating data sets (loops). You can also organize segments in Header, Detail and Summary loop sections.

The EDI profile is included in its own AtomSphere edition. If you would like to have EDI, B2B, and Trading Partner capabilities enabled in your account, please review our EDI Solution Overview and connect with a Boomi Sales Representative.

Available EDI Profile Types

There are various standards available in the Boomi AtomSphere to handle EDI data. Different EDI standards handle the data differently, and provide basic automatic handling of certain EDI functions such as enveloping and segment counts.

EDI Profile Type	Description
User Defined Profile	Defines a document that follows a hierarchial, looping, segment/element structure but does not adhere to any recognized standard. This Profile type provides a great deal of flexibility in handling proprietary file formats. Does not support Document Framework Mapping functions.
ANSI X12 and subsets	Handles the creation of EDI documents that meet the ANSI X12 standards.

ANSI X12 and subsets (X12)

In North America ANSI X12 is the standard primarily used for EDI. ANSI X12 defines specific standards for a multitude of EDI document types and its subsets. Subsets of X12 are intended to serve a particular vertical market. For example, the public warehousing industry usually adheres to the UCS subset of X12. The Boomi IP X12 documents Framework provides preloaded business document standards definitions for ANSI X12.
Using preloaded standards the designer is able to customize documents to the required specifications. The preloaded documents serve as a starting point for customization of implementation specific EDI document definitions.

User Defined

For all other formats that are similar to EDI but do not have a corresponding business standard, users can build the profile as a User Defined EDI. An EDI document consists of the segments, elements and values that are either delimited with a specific value, or data positioned.

Options Tab

This tab identifies the EDI document standards for the type of transaction you are integrating. It is composed of the Standard definition and a series of Sections.

Standard Type	Description
X12	Adheres to ANSI X12 standards.
User Defined	Customizable EDI format that does not adhere to X12 standards

File Options Section

This tab allows you to configure the file structure for each line in the document.

File Type	Description
Delimited	Data Elements are separated by a specific character
Data Positioned	Data Elements are defined by a start column number and character length. Review the Field Size Options below for this file format. Pad Character: Character that separates positioned data sets

File Delimiters
- Star ( * )
- Comma ( , )
- Tab
- Tick Mar ( ` )
- Bar ( | )
- Byte - Manually enter byte character
- Other - Manually enter delimiter character

Segment Termination Characters
- New Line (No End Character)
- Single Quote (')
- Tilde (~)
- Byte - Manually enter byte character
- Other - Manually enter delimiter character

X12 Version Information Section

This section only displays when the X12 standard is defined. The User Defined type does not require any specifications at this level. The version information is required in the EDI profile so it can used accordingly with your Trading Partner definitions.

Click on to define the transmission you are looking to integrate. The version information will then be automatically loaded in the Information box. Configuring this version will also allow you to use the EDI Segment Chooser to load pre-configured segments and data elements for that transaction type.

X12 Options Section

Type	Description
Interchange Control Standard	U-US EDI Community of ASC X12, TDCC and UCS U-US EDI Community of ASC X12 Configures the control standard defined in your X12 EDI specifications

The below checkbox definitions are features of a previous integration platform version. Their primary purpose is for legacy support.

Use Loop Start/End Segment	Set this to put LS and LE segments before and after every loop. This is not needed in most cases.
Ignore Undefined Segments	Directs the system to ignore undefined Segments versus error out condition
Ignore Undefined Elements	Directs the system to ignore undefined Elements versus error out condition

Data Segments and Elements

EDI documents contain rows of data, called segments, each of which contains information defined for the segment. The interpretation of each segment and its contained data is defined by a specification document typically supplied by the Trading Partner. In some cases, entities may alter or add a segment or the elements contained within. In the case of user defined EDI definitions, segment and element information is created entirely by the business specification developed by the EDI professional.

EDI segments contain header, detail or summary loop sections. For example, a purchase order document may contain buyer and seller information, shipping addresses, requested delivery dates and times, and special instructions in the header segments. Specifics about product orders, quantities, packaging information and pricing information may be stored in the detail segments. The summary may contain the total charges for all line items ordered, total weight for the shipment, and total number of pieces ordered.

The order in which segments are defined is important. The order must match exactly the order in the source document. Often the same segment name can occur in both the header and detail containers (such as the N9 segment in many X12 sets). Incorrectly ordered segments can cause the map to associate a particular segment with the wrong loop section.

Data Elements Tab

The Data Elements tab allows you to manually build or choose segments/elements that define the field structure of the EDI you are looking to process. All X12 segments for a specific transaction type (defined under EDI Options) can be classified as a Header, Detail or Summary segment. Refer to your EDI specifications to understand how your segment order should be organized.

When X12 is specified as a standard on the Options tab, you can use the EDI Segment Chooser to define the segments that represent the document's structure. Based on the looping section you are constructing, Boomi will add the segment(s) to the appropriate section loop.

Configuring Elements

Below are the left click options available in the Elements window. Click the dropdown arrow ( ) next to each element to display options to add, insert and delete fields. You can rearrange elements by dragging and dropping the element name to a different location in the tree.

Add/Insert/Delete

Segment Details

Field	Type/Value	Description
Segment ID	Text	ID assigned to segment
Name	Text	Arbitrary reference name
Mandatory	No Yes	Checks for error conditions when reading or writing the segment
Loop Id	Text	The Loop field is used to define the loop id that the system should use when interpreting this segment as it appears in an inbound document as well as the desired structure to create when generating the document.
Max Use	Numeric	For any loop, the maximum usage field is defined within the given EDI standard specification as the maximum number of times a given segment may appear within the given loop. This field is pre-populated when defining a standard based EDI document (e.g. X12) and may be altered by the designer based upon a given requirement. The system uses this field to detect error conditions when interpreting or generating the associated document.
Repeat Action	N/A Concatenate when Reading Repeat when Writing Concatenate and Delimit when Reading Break and Repeat when Writing Break repeated sets when reading Combine repeated sets when writing	The Repeat Action field is used to define instructions for the system to execute upon the occurrence of repeating data when reading or writing the associated segment in the context of a data map.
Purpose (Name)	Text	Non system use. Use for identifying business meaning of segment.
Use Additional Criteria to Define Segment	No Yes	Best used to refer to source EDI data that has specific identifiers on the segment level Data Element: Specify unique sub-element Element Value: Specify text value

Element Details

Field	Type/Value	Description
Data Name	Text	Name assigned to Data Element
Mandatory	Checkbox	Specifies whether to validate existence of the element data or not.

Delimited Field Size Options

Field Length Validation	Checkbox	Specifies whether to validate field length or not. Min and Max required if checked.
Min Length	Numeric	Number representing minimum field length
Max Length	Numeric	Number representing maximum field length

Data Positioned Field Size Options

Start Column	Numeric	Number representing the beginning of the segment. It can be defined as the column where the data begins on a given segment line.
Length	Numeric	Number representing field length to end of the data element
Justification	Left Right	Identifies the alignment of data within the element length

Data Format Options

Data Type

Dropdown

This field is used to define the data type of the element as defined by the associated standard, e.g. X12. For User Defined EDI documents, it is recommended that the designer enter "AN" into this field. The type is a code indicating the purpose of the data element according to X12 EDI standards. These codes are pre-loaded into Boomi for each X12 element, so they should not need to be defined when building an X12 EDI profile. Standard EDI specs should also have these types attached to each element.

AN - string data element
ID - unique identifier
DT - date (Date Format Options)
TM - time
N0 - numeric (Number Format Options)
R - decimal number

Qualifier Details

This section allows you to add text qualifiers on the data element to identify values that can used in Identifier Instances. Refer to Advanced EDI Options to understand how these features can be used to enhance your mapping and lookups.

Advanced Element Details

Field	Type/Value	Description
Purpose (Name)	Text	Non system use. Use for identifying business meaning of element
Comments	Text	Non system use. Comment on use of element
Set Repeat Type	Dropdown	N/A CONSTANT REPEATED
Composite	Dropdown	N/A Composite Start Composite
Write Rule	Dropdown	N/A Not Null: Use in destination profile to prevent output of entire segment when contents of this field are <blank> Not Zero: Use in destination profile to prevent output of entire segment when contents of this field are 0
Auto-Generate Option	Dropdown	Refer to Advanced EDI Options to understand the implementation of these options; most specifically for the X12 856 document type. N/A Hierarchical Level I Hierarchical Level II Hierarchical Level - Summary

Loop Details

Field	Type/Value	Description
Name	Text	Main name of the loop. Best practice is to default the name to the primary segment that makes up the loop.
Loop Id	Text	Identifies the loop. X12 EDI specifications may contain default Id's for certain loops
Loop Repeat	Numeric	Identifies the maximum number of loops within a single transaction

Identifier Instance Details

Refer to Advanced EDI Options to understand how Identifier Instances can be used to enhance your mapping and lookups.

Identifier instances can be defined at the segment and/or loop level within the profile. The segment level identifier instance creates a unique copy of the segment and its sub-elements based on the values defined below. The loop level identifier instance creates a unique copy of the loop and its sub-segments and sub-elements based on the values defined below.

Identify by Occurrence - Instance based on numeric occurrence within single transaction
Identify by Qualifier - Instance based on specific qualifier defined with the segment & element set(s)