The most smooth way to onboard new partners is by reusing an already existing format made available by your own developer or by a Bizbrains developer.
First step to achieve this is to make sure that you know the available formats (e.g. Edifact ORDERS D96A, Edifact INVOIC D96A, your own Custom XML) and which information you receive and send in these formats.
If the format is not applicable out of the box, Link has some possiblilities to adjust standard (please be aware that this is something the developers should include in the mapping). The advantage is that they don’t need to hardcode it and once done, it can be reused with different data for different partners):
Conversion tables
(Demo in webinar Link for Developers chapter 5 - Conversion tables)
The purpose of conversion tables is to convert a given value in the data received/sent to another value in the data going in/out. A perfect example of this is conversion between unit values (e.g. colli to/from cl or piece to/from pce). Another example could be country codes indicated differently from company to company. Description of how to set up new conversion tables in Link User Guide: Conversions .
When a conversion table is available, different values can be entered for different partners, and it also supports that one partner uses different values for the same information.
Description for the developer about how to use the data from the conversion tables in the mappings: Retrieve data from a conversion table . This is also partly described in webinar “Link for Developers” part 12 “Link REST API”: Link for Developers
Configuration Keys
(Demo in webinar Link for Developers chapter 4 - Configuration Keys)
Configuration keys are used to add data that is not available in the data received from the source system (your ERP, WMS, CRM etc.) to a document for a partner. Examples: EDI Contract Number mandatory by the receiver + addresses handled differently at the two parties (receiver/sender) - with different locations as delivery, buyer and invoice, you might need a rule to handle differences.
When the configuration key is available and included in the mapping of a certain document format, the value for it can vary from partner to partner and from distribution to distribution.
If the developer needs to see how to handle the configuration key in the mapping, this is discribed in Webinar “Link for Developers” part 12 “Link REST API”: Link for Developers
Variants and versions
Existing formats can be used to build new ones.
If a format for a customer is close to an existing format and differences can’t be handled with conversions or configuration keys, the developer can use variants and versions to create new formats based on existing ones. To understand what we mean by these different expressions see:Link Basic Building Blocks