EDI document routing is one of the foundational requirements in an EDI system and it must be configured properly for accurate processing of the documents.
EDI routing rules can range from simple to highly complex, depending on various factors such as the number of systems integrated, the EDI document standards used, and the types of documents involved.
Boomi has provided the necessary tools to make the routing easy and configurable. Here are my top five best practices on Boomi EDI document routing
✅ Use Processing Group component for Inbound Routing
You can route an inbound EDI document to the mapping process/target system using a combination of Route shape, Process Route and Process Call components. However, using processing group for inbound routing has several advantages over other approaches.
a. Processing Group has two functionalities 1) To help organize your trading partners into groups 2) Structure routing of documents.
b. Create Processing Groups to group related Trading Partners. You can group all trading partners from a specific VAN connection into a Processing Group (for example SPS Commerce TP or True Commerce TP etc) and all AS2 direct trading partners into another processing group making it easier to manage.
c. Trading Partner components and the inbound receive process are linked in the Trading Partner Shape. If you were using an inline list of trading partners in the Trading Partner Start Shape, adding a new trading partner will require redeploying the process which introduces the risk of picking up other unintended changes.
d. Processing Group component is an independently deployable component. When a new trading partner component is added to your inbound process, you need to deploy only the Processing Group component.
e. Processing Group has an easy-to-use UI to configure routing based on documents or partners and gives you a better view of how routing is configured.
✅ Leverage default routes for unexpected documents
There are occasions when trading partners can send unexpected documents that were not agreed as part of the business relationship.
When such unexpected inbound documents are received, the document stops if there is no “Default Route” path configured in the processing group. It is advisable to link a route process to the “Default Route” path that can terminate execution or send email of this unfamiliar document.
✅ Use process route component to decouple mapping processes from target system processes
EDI Process flow involves routing of documents to the appropriate mapping process to be sent to the target system.
Your mapping process should be decoupled from the target system connector components for reusability and maintainability. Should the logic for sending documents to your ERP or trading partner be tightly coupled with your mapping process, any modifications to the target system logic would necessitate the redeployment of all mapping processes, leading to a laborious and error-prone procedure.
Process routes help in decoupling your mapping processes from target system processes thereby ensuring they stay as independently deployable component not affecting one another.
Outbound documents from your source system have fields that indicate the document type and receiving partner values. You can capture these values as route parameters and can configure them in process route component to send the document to appropriate mapping process and receiving partner.
✅ Build your EDI integration process properly to handle batch of documents
The Boomi EDI processor splits the inbound EDI document for each transaction sets resulting in multiple documents into the process flow. Also, if your Inbound EDI integration involves connecting to a SFTP server to poll documents, there will be batch of files polled to be processed. Same situation with outbound processing where the integration process would retrieve multiple documents from your ERP or TMS or WMS applications to be sent out to Trading Partners.
Batch integrations that are scheduled to run at specific cadence process multiple documents in a single execution. You need to build your integration logic properly so that individual documents are processed properly to the right target system. Also, error handling should be proper so that the integration stops the failed ones and process the good ones.
✅ Routing of 997 (Functional Acknowledgements)
Inbound FA’s can be filtered at the start shape without passing into the process flow by opting for Filter Functional Acknowledgments option in the Trading Partner component. However, it is advisable to allow the incoming FA into the process flow to evaluate if it’s an accept or reject 997 and send an alert accordingly.
For outbound 997 which flows through the acknowledgements path, you need to rely on the Interchange Receiving Partner x12 document property to route them to the appropriate trading partner. “Interchange Receiving Partner” x12 document property holds the Trading Partner Component Id.
Should you have anything more to add, please write in comments.
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