Guide builder: More easily specify when to use segment and loop variantsJanuary 27, 2023

You may want to allow multiple variants of a segment or loop in your EDI specifications. For example, you could specify that partners include two N1 Name loops in each 850 purchase order: one for the ship to contact and another for the bill to party.

The guide builder UI now lets you select a discriminant element that has unique values for each variant. The discriminant tells the guide’s EDI Inspector and the EDI Translate API when one variant should be used over the other for validating, generating, or parsing EDI documents.

In the 850 purchase order example, you’d add the Entity Identifier Code as the discriminant for N1 Name loops. For the bill to variant, you’d use the BT qualifier, and for the ship to variant, you’d use the ST qualifier.