Module for EDI 9.12 | Understanding EDI Concepts | Working with VANs | Outbound Processing: Delivering Documents to VANs
 
Outbound Processing: Delivering Documents to VANs
Module for EDI provides the VAN.VANConnectivity:putToVAN service to deliver outbound EDI documents to a VAN. When you install the module, this service is registered as a Trading Networks registered delivery service and assigned the name VANFTP in Trading Networks.
To use this service, you define a public scheduled delivery queue in Trading Networks. When you define the queue, you associate the queue with the VANFTP delivery service and specify a schedule for when Trading Networks is to deliver the documents in the queue. You can define as many queues as you need that use the VANFTP delivery service. For example, you might define two queues if you want to deliver documents to two different VANs.
To get EDI documents into the queue, you define a Trading Networks processing rule that uses the Deliver Document By processing action. When you set the Deliver Document By processing action, you use Scheduled Delivery and identify the name of the queue that uses the VANFTP delivery service. When the schedule that you associated with the queue indicates, Trading Networks invokes the VANFTP delivery service to deliver the documents that are in the queue to the VAN.
When you define the public scheduled delivery queue, you can set the inputs to the service to indicate other optional actions you want the VANFTP delivery service to take in addition to delivering the outbound EDI documents. The optional actions you can request are:
*Retrieve VAN-generated reports while connected to the VAN. The reports that are available depend on the VAN and can change at any time. Contact VANs directly for timely and accurate information.
*Retrieve any inbound documents that are waiting on the VAN. The EDI documents that are picked up are automatically submitted to Trading Networks to have Module for EDI process the EDI documents.
Delivering EDI Documents to a VAN
Step
Description
1
Trading Networks uses its processing rules to determine how to deliver an EDI document. For more information about how to form an EDI document and send it to Trading Networks for delivery, see Forming EDI Documents and Sending Them Outbound.
To deliver EDI documents to a VAN, you create a processing rule that uses the Deliver Document By processing action to deliver a document to a scheduled delivery queue associated with the VANFTP delivery service. For more information about scheduled delivery and defining queues for scheduled delivery, see the webMethods Trading Networks Administrator’s Guide for your release.
2
When the schedule that is associated with the queue indicates, Trading Networks invokes the VANFTP delivery service to deliver the EDI documents in the queue to the VAN.
3
Optionally, the VANFTP delivery service can invoke the VAN.VANConnectivity:getFromVAN built-in service, which Module for EDI provides, to retrieve any documents that might be waiting on the VAN for pick up. You specify whether you want documents picked up when you set the input variables of the VANFTP delivery service.
4
When the VANFTP delivery service invokes the VAN.VANConnectivity:getFromVAN service, it specifies that the EDI documents it picks up should be submitted to Trading Networks. Module for EDI processes the returned EDI documents like it would any inbound EDI documents. For more information, see Processing Inbound EDI Documents.
For more information about how to define the scheduled delivery queue for outbound EDI documents that are to be sent to a VAN, and how to define processing rules that place outbound EDI documents into a queue, see webMethods Module for EDI Installation and User’s Guide: