The core functionality in Link is to receive and send documents (data) between different partners/systems. Link supports many different data transport methods (i.e. FTP, SMTP, File transfer, API etc.) and it is possible to you can use any digital format (i.e. EDIFACT, PEPPOL, cXML, flat files, etc.) in both directions.
This example diagram shows above illustrates a document exchange using different formats between two business partners.
In Link, one document exchange (or document flow) between two partners is called a distribution - in the diagram, two distributions are shown : One - one for Orders and one for Invoices.
Link is largely built to support the an integration pattern called Canonical Data Model. This will also be referred to as Common Data Model or in short, CDM.
Canonical Data Model
In short, this This integration pattern means that a format-inan “in-the-middle middle” format is introduced for each type of data that is exchanged. A CDM is an XML structure that a developer must create and make available in Link. For each of your document types (i.e. Orders, Invoices, Price catalogues etc.), you need to have one CDM format implemented. Before this is done, the The document type will not be visible in Link before this is done.
Understanding Learn how to set up new document types is described in the Link technical guide.
An input document will be mapped to the CDM XML structure , and when data has been mapped to the CDM it is used as a basis for mapping to the desired output documents. Therein lies This is where the user sees the flexibility offered you get by using the CDM format.
The advantage of the CDM concept format is in loose coupling and flexibility: an . An input document format is never mapped directly to an output document format. This results in tremendous robustness - should meaning if the input or output formats change, all the other code will still remain intact.
Having a format-inan “in-the-middlemiddle” format, however, means that the developer must code two mappings: a mapping that maps the input document to the CDM XML structure, and a different mapping that maps the CDM XML to the desired output(s).
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Note that all the terms mentioned in the following below (except distributions) should be made ready by developers / or other advanced users. There is much Learn more information about how to set them up in
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A developer should create a CDM schema for each document type and then make them available for regular other users.
Format, variant and version
When (later) Later, when setting up a distribution in Link, you need to must choose the format, variant and version of the outgoing document.
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Note that it is a good idea to give names to name your formats in a way that reflect reflects both the digital standard used and the document type.
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Custom XML Invoice
The variant is by default, set to “Standard” ,but new ones can be created - e.g. supporting deviating mappings in case certain when business partners has have special requirements. In this case, a variant could be created and then named after the specific business partner - e.g. “Contoso”.
The version is by default set to “1.0” and it is pretty rare that the need arises any need to create more is rare. The main use-case for creating a new versions version is if you are your team is in a transition period between a certain an integration - and moving away from version 1.0 towards to version 2.0.
Like with the document type, format/variant/versions should be made available for to you by your developers/ technical advanced users. The developer will can create a mapping between the CDM and each combination of the three and this . This will be selectable when creating distributions for the relevant document type.
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When you have your document types and their associated formats/variant/versions ready, you are almost ready to use them for making to make distributions.
However, one last thing needs to be in place before you can do so this - you must create so-called document configurations.
Remember that a full document flow (a distribution) consists of two mappings:
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The Document configuration is the entity that associates your document type and format/variant/version with the direction (inbound or outbound), and when . When you create your distributions, you need to must select both and an inbound and outbound document configuration. This way, you can flexibly configure mappings to and from CDM on your distributions.
Note that this is not all a document configuration does. On a document configuration, an advanced topic called itinerary steps is can also be configured - this . This is where several other functionalities (and even including custom functionalities) functionalities like validation, disassembling, assembling, batching etc. can be configured.
Setting up document configurations is for advanced users or developers and will not be covered in the User Guide - there is much more information about . Read more about how to do this in the Link technical guide.
As a regular user, you should note , that the exact setup of a document configuration , could can result in more options (fields, drop-downs, check-boxes) for you to consider make use of when selecting the document configurations for your distributions.
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The distribution is the actual setup of a document flow of one document type moving from one partner to another partner.
Hopefully, this chapter has given you an understanding of the basic underlying data entities necessary to have in place before setting up distributions.
An important goal (normally) for a Link-setup is to make your document configurations reusable, so that regular users can Most Link users find that making document configurations reusable is an important goal in their Link-setup. Doing so makes it easy for regular users to set up distributions themselves for similar or near-similar integrations. Read more about this in the Make your integrations reusable chapter.
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