B2B Gateway uses Data Integration mappings to process EDI and EDIFACT messages that you exchange with your partners.
Inbound EDI X12 and EDIFACT messages
B2B Gateway runs pre-packaged, EDI processing mappings to handle the connectivity between the partner and the B2B Gateway document store. You can define custom backend processing mappings to process the interface file that the EDI processing mapping places on the document store to the backend system.
You can define a single process-to-backend mapping to process all interface files, a mapping for each type of file that you want to process, or both mapping types. When an inbound process runs, B2B Gateway first runs the process-to-backend mappings that are defined for specific message types, and then it runs the process-to-backend mapping that is defined for the inbound flow of the partner.
Outbound EDI X12 and EDIFACT messages
For an outbound flow, you must define custom backend processing mappings to extract and process the data to send to the partner from the backend system to an interface file on the B2B Gateway document store. You can define a single process-from-backend mapping to process all the messages to the interface file, a mapping for each type of file that you want to process, or both mapping types. When an outbound process runs, B2B Gateway first runs the process-from-backend mappings that are defined for specific message types, and then it runs the process-from-backend mapping that is defined for the outbound flow of the partner.
B2B Gateway then runs the pre-packaged, EDI processing mappings to generate valid EDI messages and to handle the connectivity between the document store and the partner.
Note: For both inbound and outbound flows, define each message type in one mapping only. If you define the same message type in both a message-specific backend processing mapping and in the flow's backend processing mapping, B2B Gateway might run messages of that message type twice. For example, if you define a process-from-backend mapping for the 810 Invoice message type for a customer, and 810 Invoice is also defined in the process-from-backend mapping that is defined for the outbound flow of the customer, B2B Gateway might run 810 Invoice messages twice.
When you create a partner, you define the partner interchange qualifier and identifiers, B2B Gateway uses the interchange qualifier and identifiers in inbound flows to verify the interchange qualifier and identifier in inbound partner messages. If the qualifier and identifier in inbound partner messages are not identical to those that you define for the partner, B2B Gateway rejects the messages.
You can use context parameters in custom mappings to add information from the gateway to inbound and outbound messages and to filter the data in inbound and outbound messages. For example, add the partner name to inbound messages, or filter outbound messages based on partner number.