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EDIFACT

  • Segments in EDIFACT?
  • Service Segments Specification
    • UNA (separators, delimiters...)
    • UNB (file header)
    • UNG (group start)
    • UNH (message header)
    • UNT (message end)
    • UNE (group end)
    • UNZ (file end)

What is EDIFACT?

The UN/EDIFACT Syntax Rules were approved in 1987 as the "ISO 9735" by the International Organization for Standardization.

EDIFACT stands for "Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport".

The EDIFACT standard provides:

  • a set of syntax rules to structure data
  • an interactive exchange protocol (I-EDI)
  • standard messages which allow multi-country and multi-industry exchange

The EDIFACT standards cover transaction sets (the business documents that you wish to transmit), data element directories and syntax rules which cover delimiter characters etc.

  • An EDIFACT electronic transmission consists of one or more Interchanges.
  • Each Interchange may consist of one or more Messages.
  • These Messages contain segments of data relating to the business transaction.
  • At each level, a series of enveloping data pairs keep track of the exchange structure.

Service Segments

All of these EDIFACT messages have the same basic structure, consisting of a sequence of segments:

UNA – separators, delimiters and special characters are defined for the interpreting software 
UNB – file header (with the file end "UNZ" this makes up the envelope, containing basic information)
UNG – group start
UNH – message header
UNT – message end
UNE – group end
UNZ – file end

You can also visualize these lines as something like:

 |_Service String Advice              UNA  Optional
 |____Interchange Header              UNB  Mandatory
 :    |___Functional Group Header     UNG  Conditional
 :    :   |___Message Header          UNH  Mandatory
 :    :   :   |__ User Data Segments          As required
 :    :   |__ Message Trailer         UNT  Mandatory
 :    |__ Functional Group Trailer    UNE  Conditional
 |___ Interchange Trailer             UNZ  Mandatory

Structure

EDIFACT has a hierarchical structure where the top level is referred to as an interchange, and lower levels contain multiple messages which consist of segments, which in turn consist of composites. The final iteration is an element which is derived from the United Nations Trade Data Element Directory (UNTDED); these are normalised throughout the EDIFACT standard.

Examples

  • An EDIFACT EDI Purchase Order (source)
UNB+UNOA:1+US::US+50138::THEM+140531:0305+001934++ORDERS'
UNH+1+ORDERS:91:2:UN'
BGM+220+A761902+4:20140530:102+9'
RFF+CT:EUA01349'
RFF+AAV::C'
TXT+THIS IS WHAT AN EDI MESSAGE WOULD LOOK LIKE... '
NAD+BY++OUR NAME PLC::::+++++EW4 34J'
CTA+PD'
COM+01752 253939:TE+01752 253939:FX+0:TL'
CTA+OC+:A.SURNAME'
COM+2407:EX'
CTA+TI+:B.BROWN'
COM+0:EX'
CTA+SU'
COM+0161 4297476:TE+01752 670633:FX'
UNT+15+1'
UNZ+1+001934'
  • Used to answer a flight ticket (FRA-JFK-MIA) availability request (source)
UNA:+.? '
UNB+IATB:1+6XPPC:ZZ+LHPPC:ZZ+940101:0950+1'
UNH+1+PAORES:93:1:IA'
MSG+1:45'
IFT+3+XYZCOMPANY AVAILABILITY'
ERC+A7V:1:AMD'
IFT+3+NO MORE FLIGHTS'
ODI'
TVL+240493:1000::1220+FRA+JFK+DL+400+C'
PDI++C:3+Y::3+F::1'
APD+74C:0:::6++++++6X'
TVL+240493:1740::2030+JFK+MIA+DL+081+C'
PDI++C:4'
APD+EM2:0:1630::6+++++++DA'
UNT+13+1'
UNZ+1+1'

References