EDI Core: the foundation of any reliable EDI system
This post mentions Stedi’s EDI Core API. Converting EDI into JSON remains a key Stedi offering, however EDI Core API has been superseded by Stedi Core, an event-driven EDI system that allows you to configure integrations without being an EDI or development expert.
Developers come to Stedi to build EDI systems of their own. And at the center of any EDI system is data translation: a way of turning EDI – an arcane file format – into a more approachable format, like JSON.
Introducing EDI Core
There are two ways to interact with EDI Core:
- In the browser using the free Inspector
- Programmatically using the EDI Core API
Visualize EDI with Inspector
Let’s take an example Amazon Direct Fulfillment Purchase Order from a code editor…
Rich view
– a human-readable version of the EDI file. This will help you understand the contents and the structure of the file. Hover over the elements in the Rich view to see where they show up in the original EDI file on the left; click on the elements to gain a deeper understanding of the codes and their definitions.JSON view
, you will see the file in Stedi’s JEDI format. If you want to learn more about the JEDI format, take a look at our documentation.Working with imperfect EDI files
It’s fairly common to receive a less-than-perfect EDI file. Trying to debug a malformed EDI file can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. If you find yourself in a situation like this, the Inspector has several features that can help make the process less painful:
- When an EDI document is malformed, we’ll do our best to parse it and display actionable error messages to help troubleshoot – like this
- If the EDI file is not formatted correctly, you can make it easier to read by clicking the ‘Format EDI’ button
- If you want to share the file via the Inspector with others, simply copy the URL in your browser and share it, or click the download button to save the EDI file.
Translate EDI programmatically using EDI Core API
Where EDI Core API fits into your system
Regardless, EDI Core can be the foundation of this system.
- Override EDI delimiters,
- Generate control numbers, including setting control number values,
- Remove empty segments
EDI Core is now Generally Available
If you want to build an end-to-end EDI system that utilizes EDI Core, there is some assembly required. You’ll need to handle the actual transmission of EDI files with your trading partners (via SFTP or AS2), orchestrate API calls, handle retries and errors, and more – though we do have developer-focused products in each of these categories coming soon.
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