› Advanced features › Import EDI files

Import EDI files

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a standard for exchanging data via electronic means. Kofax Import Connector supports two prominent international EDI standards:

  • UN/EDIFACT

  • ANSI ASC X12

Basic workflow:

  1. Customer copies the EDI files to a designated folder.

  2. Kofax Import Connector ingests EDI documents via folder import.

  3. Kofax Import Connector uses Rules to determine that raw EDI document belongs to a generic EDI destination.

  4. Kofax Import Connector converts the EDI data stream to XML.

  5. Kofax Import Connector uses Rules, XML namespace, and root element on the transformed EDI document to determine the proper destination (batch class).

  6. Kofax Import Connector imports the XML into Kofax Capture. Depending on the destination setting, XML data is mapped to Kofax Capture fields and/or rendered as PDF or TIF.

You can import EDI files from a folder. Other sources, such as email import or web service import, are not supported.

Important configuration steps:

  1. Create a generic destination for EDI. See Destinations Tasks.

    • On the Import settings tab, enter Name.

    • On the Advanced Conversion and Import tab, select Enable EDI to XML conversion and routing at this destination.

    Most other destination settings are ignored. As soon as the raw EDI is converted to an XML document, the XML is rerouted to a different destination.

  2. Create a rule to route your EDI files from a certain folder to the generic EDI destination. See Configure rules.
  3. For each EDI type you want to use, provide XML schema definition file and a sample XML file. See EDI types.
  4. Create a destination for each EDI type. Use XML mapping and rendering functions:

    To import EDI documents as EML or MSG, configure it in the generic, routing destination. These settings are ignored for the EDI-specific destinations.

  5. Create rules that route the XML documents to their Kofax Capture destinations. These specific rules must be in a higher position in the list than the generic rule created in step 2. Click Move Rule Up or Move Rule Down on the Connection Tasks menu to establish rules priority.

Internally, the change to a different destination in the EDI feature is done using the script ReRoutingScript. Refer to the Kofax Import Connector Developer's Guide. The script notifies KC Plug-In to assign the message to a different destination. The script modifies the message in a way that it can be processed by the new destination. KC Plug-In then processes the message with the new destination and uses the appropriate XSL transformation and mapping. When message rendering is enabled in the new destination, the conversion to TIFF and PDF configured for the original destination applies.

When you select to "Include original content", the EDI data stream is not available in the original format and only converted XML is available.