Flat File Document Types

Flat file documents present complex hierarchical data in a record-based storage format which, unlike XML, does not embed structural information within the data. The Trading Networks definition of a flat file is any file or document whose format is non-describing; that is, a document that does not contain metadata. In other words, flat file data is externalized as a set of records (list of records containing fields and composites) without any structural information. Since the records are not structured in the document, the application receiving the flat file must know the structure of the flat file to read its content.

Since Trading Networks does not know the structure of a flat file document, it cannot extract values for attributes directly from documents. The entry points for flat files into Trading Networks, therefore, are document gateway services; that is, your trading partners send their flat files to document gateway services rather than directly to Trading Networks. A document gateway service does the following:

Places output variables such as the flat file document type for the document; the processing rule for the document; system document attributes such as SenderID, ReceiverID, and UserStatus; and custom attributes in the pipeline

Definition	Description
Document recognition criteria	Content that an inbound flat file document must have to be a match for the document type. You can specify any of the variables the document gateway service placed in the pipeline, such as the name of the flat file document type to use; the SenderID, ReceiverID, or UserStatus system attributes; or custom attributes.
Attribute extraction	System and custom attributes to extract from the document. You can also specify transformations for extracted attributes; for example, you might want to transform an extracted string value into all uppercase characters.
Pre-processing actions	Same as for XML documents, except that the Format as IS Document Type action is not available for flat file documents (see XML Document Types).