Overview
The most basic functionality in Link is that it can receive, transform and send documents / data.
In Link, there is a very big conceptual difference between receiving and sending documents. We will handle document receival and sending in separate chapters.
Note that it is easy (for developers) to create new transport types, so don’t panic if you have a special scenario that is not covered by this chapter. To learn about creating custom transport types, you can check the OLD Link Technical Guide.
Receiving documents
Link offers several ways of receiving documents. As you can see in the diagram, there are different types of receive sites and also the possibility to set up so-called Polling locations. We will explain the different types in the chapters below.
Resolving document type, sender and receiver
A key topic to understand is, that in order to process a document correctly, Link needs to know the document type, who sent the document and who should receive it - i.e. who the sending partner is and who the receiving partner is. With these key pieces of information.
In many cases, Link will be able to learn all three things simply by analyzing the document content. E.g. Link has built-in functionality for understanding the global standards like EDIFACT, X12 and PEPPOL, but it is also easily achievable using custom formats like CSV or a home-made XML format. In any case, your developers just need to have set up the relevant document types and format/variant/versions.
It is also possible to configure one or several of this information directly on a Polling location by setting up an Init configuration.
There are many roads leading to Rome, but regardless how the document type, sender and receiver are resolved, Link will be able to route the document through the appropriate distribution (assuming a matching distribution has been set up)
Receive sites
The most commonly used receive site is the REST (API). This offers several methods including a way to send documents into Link.
Link also offers a more old-school SOAP API.
It will depend on individual customer setups is AS2 and/or AS4 receive sites are available - if you believe you should have this option available, you need to talk to your administrator to get the relevant URL, certificates etc.
Inbound polling locations
Inbound polling locations are often associated directly with a specific partner, and you can set up as many as you want. The possibilities are described in detail in the Incoming transport location details chapter.
You can also set up global locations - e.g. relevant when you receive lots of mixed documents from a VANS-partner.
Integrated FTP
Link also offers the possibility of integrating your preferred internal FTP software (Cerberus is supported). This makes is possible to add new partner-specific in- and out- folders with only a few clicks in the partner configuration.
Sending documents
Synchronous transport locations
One of the many configuration possibilities for a specific partner is that you can set up one or several outbound locations. A common example would be a designated FTP-folder for delivering invoices, but Link supports many other protocols. You can read about them all in detail here:
It’s important to understand that the target outbound location for a specific document flow is configured as a part of the distribution setup.