Standards Viewer

From ATLASWARES

The Transaction Set Directory window displays the ASC X12 Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) standards published by the Data Interchange Standards Association, Inc. (DISA), who is the authorized Secretariat for Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC X12) of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

X-12 Standards Structure

EDI standards provide a hierarchical, structured approach to representing the information in business documents. Each level of the standards has a corresponding window which may be selected from the Standards menu. Levels of the standards hierarchy are interrelated through detail tables. Sets have detail tables which show segments within the sets. Segments and composites have tables showing their element members. Identifier type data elements have corresponding code tables. Each detail table is shown in the Details Body tab.

Discrepancy Summary

The EDI*ATLAS standards viewer displays information loaded from the table data release of the standards. The following changes have been made in the presentation of the data.

• Where doubled apostrophe characters were found in text, they were changed to the quote mark (").
• Left apostrophe characters (`) were changed to apostrophes ('). (The left apostrophe is not in the permissible character set for use with EDI.)
• Whenever the Maxuse column in Set Details was not filled in, the null value was replaced with the number "1".
• Null values in the Repeat column of Set Details were replaced with "0".
• Spelling errors in the data are not corrected.
• In the standards, the "Condition Designator" has a "Condition Code" and a "Requirement", and the "Relational Conditions" have a "Condition Code" and a "Requirement." The Condition Designator is alternately referred to as the "Requirement Designator" in the standards, and this nomenclature is adopted in the viewer.
• The Requirement Designator (detail tables column "Req") has a requirement code, and Relational Conditions have a condition code (detail tables column "Cond") and a Relation reference list (column "Relation").
• In the standards, requirement codes with related element lists are displayed in syntax notes along with the note text. The viewer has additional columns for the Condition Codes and Relation lists in the detail table displays as stated in the previous paragraph.
• The syntax notes text is displayed in the Segments and Composites windows without the code values.
• Element reference lists in syntax codes are shown as a sequence of two-digit numbers in the standards. In the viewer, the lists are shown as reference numbers separated by commas.
• When more than one relational condition applies to an element, the condition codes and relation lists are separated by semicolons.
• Table data for the standards uses a "C" in the Requirement Designator to show that a relational condition exists. Published standards now use "X" instead of "C", and the viewer has changed the table data for consistency.
• Semantic notes are annotated in the published standards by adding a "Z" to the Requirement Designator. A separate notes indicator column displays the semantic notes indicator (Z) in the viewer.
• Simple Data Elements may be made up of multiple parts, as is the case with DE 103. The viewer separates code values by part in the Data Element details table. A length for the parts is also maintained internally in the data, although not shown in the details tables. (Data Element parts are not described within the body of the standards.)
• The Maximum Use column is defined in DE 905 and the Loop Repeat Count in DE 910 are both defined as type=N0, min=1, max=7. The standards represent an unlimited use with the notation ">1." Since this violates the numeric data element definition, the number "9999999" is used in data transmission to show an infinite repeat.
• The requirement designation for an unbounded loop is implicitly the same as the requirement designation of the loop's first segment. However, a separate column explicitly defines the loop repeat, whereas the first segment's maximum use designation could have implicitly defined the loop repeat.

Definitions

Transaction set 

A transaction set is the definition of the meaningful data collection exchanged between two parties which comprises a complete business document. Each transaction set is composed of a specific assemblage of segments that represent a common business document (for example, a purchase order or an invoice). Each transaction set consists of the transaction set header (ST) as the first segment and contains at least one data segment before the transaction set trailer (SE).

Data Segment 

A segment is the intermediate unit of information in a transaction set. Segments consist of logically related data elements in a defined sequence. When segments are combined to form a transaction set, their relationship to the transaction set is defined by a segment requirement designator and a segment sequence. Some segments may be repeated, and groups of segments may be repeated as loops.

Segment Identifier 

A unique segment identifier comprises the first characters of the segment. This identifier is a combination of two or three letters or digits.

Segment Requirement Designator 

One of the following three designators defines a segment's requirement to appear in the transaction set:

• Mandatory (M) - This segment shall appear at least once
• Optional (O) - This segment appears at the option of the sender
• Floating (F) - This designation is used with the NTE segment, which may appear anywhere within the transaction set

Segment Sequence 

Each segment is assigned to a specific position in the sequence of segments in the transaction set. Within a transmission, segments shall appear in this order except for segments which are designated "Floating."

Maximum Use of Segments 

Each segment is permitted to appear in succession a maximum number of times at a specific location within a transaction set. The symbol >1 indicates that segments may be used one or more times at their specific locations in the transaction set.

Loops of Segments 

In the transaction set tables, the segments comprising a loop are designated by the loop identifier at the starting segment, and the level indicating the continuation of the loop. The loop repeat next to the loop identifier shows the number of times the loop may be used at that specific location. The symbol >1 indicates that a loop may be used one or more times.

• Loops may be nested within other loops. The level column in the tables indicates the current nesting level.
• If the requirement designator of the first segment in a loop is Mandatory, at least one iteration of the loop must occur.
• If a loop is used, the first segment shall be used in each loop iteration.
• Mandatory segments within a loop are mandatory only if the loop is used.

Transaction Set Identifier 

The transaction set identifier is the first data element of the transaction set header segment (ST). The codes for element #143 in the Data Element Dictionary list possible transaction set identifiers. Each transaction set has a unique reference identifier.

Functional Group Identifier 

Each transaction set is assigned to a functional group identifier code. This identifier is the first data element of the functional group header segment (GS). The functional group identifier code for each transaction set is defined in the Data Element Dictionary under element #479, Functional Group Identifier. In cases where no functional group is given, the transaction set assumes the functional group ID of the functional group with which it is transmitted.

Notes and Comments 

Where notes are provided, these are considered part of the standard. Comments are not a part of the standard. Multiple notes and comments may appear for the same segment.

Transaction Set Detail Tables 

Detail tables which show the segments of a transaction set in sequence are displayed in the Detail Body tab of the Transaction Set Directory window. The A-Pos column contains two pieces of information: Area and Position. Header, detail, and summary tables are identified by areas 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The position of each segment follows in column "Pos."