GIS Quick Edit - Add Translation Status Report to ProcessData

I have found that getting a copy of the Status Report from the translation step can be very useful if you want to email that report to your customer or even to someone in your company's Tech Support group.

It is very simple to add the Status Report to ProcessData by simply adding a Message From Service entry on the step that creates the Translation Status Report.

Click the Add button and provide the following parameters:

Name = status_report
Value = Status_Rpt("NAME THE REPORT HERE")
Use XPATH? = checked

That's basically it. If there is a translation error and the Status Report is generated it will be written out to ProcessData as well as the Status Report column in Current Processes.

Archiving/Purging BP/Data in GIS

I would recommend everyone on your team review the Archiving and Purging documentation (you will have to login to the new Sterling Commerce Support website to view the .pdf) from Sterling Commerce to get a thorough understanding of the process. I will provide some basic information to help you determine your best practices for this process.


Basic Terminology

Archived: The business process and related data is archived to a backup location of your choosing on the File System.

Purged: The business process and related data is purged from the Active database and is not available for restore.

The Backup Business Process service retains the business process and its related data to a file system as Java™ serialized objects for later backup to tape, some other long-term storage medium, or purging. The Purge service then runs and removes any data from the database or file system, or both, specified in archive settings not to retain.

The screenshot above shows where you can specifically set a BP to override the System Default settings for the Archive/Purge. The setting above can be tailored per BP to either Archive or Purge the BP after it has met it’s expiration period and been marked by the Index process for Archiving/Purging.

The data associated to this BP is not affected by the Process Specific setting in the BP editor. The data will still be available for searching based on the settings in the Archive Manager setup. Once the Data has met its expiration time, the Data as well as the Correlation information will be Archived or Purged depending on the System settings.

For example, if you set the BP Archive/Purge to 2 Days 0 Hours and the Trackable BP information (data) to 2 Days 0 Hours, then the data will be available for 2 + 2 Days = 4 Days.

The Backup Directory is the location of the Archived BP and BP Data on the File System. This Archive file on the File System can then be used to Restore from if you need to research a BP or BP Data that has already been Archived. Simply follow the Restore steps in the Archiving and Purging documentation.

GIS Naming Conventions

I will start off with some basic naming conventions that I have used over the years for the maps, BP's, and envelopes within the Gentran Integration Suite application.  I don't always follow the naming conventions exactly because there are times where you have to go out of the norm to describe a process or transaction type that doesn't fit within the convention.  The conventions I use are just a basic template to make it a little easier to find a particular map or BP based on its role in the process flow. 

Maps


[CompanyAbbreviation]_[data type]_[version or system]_[transaction]_TO_[data type]_[version or system]_[transaction]

Data Types:

• EDI = Electronic Data Interchange
• POS = Positional Flat File
• DEL = Delimited (CSV)
• XML = XML
• SQL = SQL Database

Version or System:

• ERP
• SAP
• 004030

Transaction:

• 850
• ASN
• INVOICE
• 816
 
Business Processes
 
Generic:

GEN_Report_[Desc] - Reports
GEN_Generic_[Desc] - Used in generic flow
GEN_[TP]_[Transaction]_Start - Start of specific TP/Transaction flow
GEN_Util_[Desc] - Utility function

Document Envelopes


ISA:
[Company Abbreviation]_[Partner]_[Direction]_[ISA Version]_[Envelope Level]

GS:
[Company Abbreviation]_[Partner]_[Direction]_[Functional ID]_[GS Version]_[Envelope Level]

ST:
[Company Abbreviation]_[Partner]_[Direction]_[Transaction]_[GS Version]_[Envelope Level]

I know there are many other areas in GIS that should have a naming convention but I would like to ask the readers for their input on what they use as naming conventions in GIS. 
 
The names for these components in GIS may seem a little long to some of you but there is nothing wrong with having a long name if it is used to describe more about the process or map without having to open the component in the editors. 
 
Plus, if you design a naming convention, it is easier to keep like components together.  For example, if you don't incorporate the EDI version in the map name in the same place each time it makes it difficult to quickly browse thru the map list to find the version you are looking for when changes are needed.  The same goes for the transaction ID as well as the type of map it is (i.e. Delimited or EDI or SQL, etc).
 
I hope this information is helpful to some of you out there.  Leave a comment with any questions you may have and I will try to answer them in the blog.
 
--- Chris

Welcome to my EDI and Gentran Blog

I have started this EDI and Gentran Blog to help others learn more about EDI and the Gentran Integration Suite/Sterling Integrator EAI/SOA middleware application.  I have been involved with EDI and the Sterling Commerce products for over 15 years and wanted to help others with some Best Practices as well as answer questions about how to use Gentran application. 

Feel free to post comments on some of the topics I discuss and I will try to answer your questions or at least point you to other resources on the web.