Need to read an EDI 835 file and convert into delimited file
I have some EDI 835 files and need to read in a talend job and then convert same into flat files. Would be really helpful if someone has done it already and share the details.
I done this with some other EDI files. What product are you using? The Talend Data Mapper is specifically designed for this, and it comes with a predefined 835 structure so you don't need to write one from scratch.
For me, the real headache is getting the looping correct: it pays to read the Data Mapper handbook very closely to see how the different types of loops work. If you have specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
Thanks David for your response. For our POC, we got a desktop licensed version “Talend Data Management Platform version 6.4.1”. Yes there is a map available convert EDI 835 file into xml format. I am new to Talend and I am struggling to find a component using which I can read that 835 file (X12N/005010X221). Can you please suggest me to use any available components in this version? I have to achieve below things:
For each transaction set, I have to derive two records on the basis of different segments - SVC (2110 loop) and PLB (Summary).
There are two versions, one with the envelope, and one without. For unprocessed records, you probably want the one with the envelope.
Next, you'll specify the output structure. The easiest way is to make a sample xml document containing the fields you want, then select it on the tHMap component screen. After that, you'll map between EDI and xml by drawing a line from each EDI component to its corresponding xml component.
Here's the Data Mapper user guide, which I recommend you read before building the job. They have a section just on EDI records. Also, be sure to read the section on Loops: in my experience, this is the hardest thing to get right about EDI mapping.
Thanks David for your detailed response. By looking into your response, it looks like that we don't need any input file component. Is it correct? If yes, then where do I need to give my input file name?
Also, Is it mandatory to convert an EDI file into XML first then delimited? Or we can convert directly from EDI to delimited file with required set of columns.
You'll need a file input component to feed into the tHMap. I use the tFileInputRaw with the default schema (e.g. it's just a raw stream of bytes, so you don't need a real schema). If you have multiple files, then you can use tFileList to iterate over them: it's very important to process them one at a time, so that any bad records don't confuse tHMap and lead to a cascading failure (e.g. if you have all the EDI records in one big file, split them out before processing them).
You can convert EDI straight to delimited. Be aware that since EDI is a hierarchical format, and delimited isn't, you may end up with a lot of close duplicates (i.e. records that are identical except for one field). This is because you are "unrolling" the EDI record, and some of the loops it contains will map as one-to-many relationships. Depending on what you're trying to do, you might need to use the Aggregate functions that the Data Mapper Guide talks about to get the output you need.
