Composite routes

A simple route reads the edi files from one inchannel, translates, and sends the translated files to one outchannel. More flexibility is offered by the use of composite routes. In a composite route there are several entries in the routes screen, each with the same idroute but a different seq (sequence number within route). Each entry (with different seq) is called route-part. Best way to use this is to have each route-part do any one of the things:

  • Fetch incoming files; you can fetch files from multiple sources

  • Translate (typically once per route)

  • Send outgoing files to different destinations/partners using filtering

It is advised to set up composite routes this way (using at least 3 route-parts).

Use cases

  • Send edi files via ftp where each partner has its own ftp-server.

  • Confirmations/acknowledgements: acknowledgements for incoming edi-files are routed back to the sender (filter by editype/messagetype).

  • Fetch from multiple sources, eg ftp-servers of different partners..

  • Route to different internal destinations: invoices to another system than ASN’s (filter by messagetype)

  • Use a VAN, but one partner uses AS2 (filter by partner)

  • Incoming files are translated multiple times, each message-type goes to different destination. Eg: translate orders both to in-house file (import ERP) and an HTML-email (for viewing).

Example plugin

Download the plugin “composite_route” at Bots Plugins package registry This plugin has one composite route consisting of:

  • 2 input parts

  • Translate part

  • 3 output parts, using filtering

Detailed description here.

Filtering for different outchannels

  • You can filter per outchannel; eg send only asn’s through this outchannel.

  • In route-screen (bots-monitor->Configuration->Routes) the fields used for filtering under Filtering for outchannel.

  • If eg toeditype=csv, only csv-files will be send over the outchannel.

Note

If filtering is not specified, all outgoing files in the route are send through the outchannel.

Schematic

Schematic overview of a route consisting of 5 parts:

../../_images/RouteDiagramComp.png

Note

  • If no inchannel in route-part nothing comes in for that route-part.

  • If ‘translate’ in a route-part is off, no translation in that route-part.

  • If no outchannel in route-part nothing goes out for that route-part.