Chapter 9. Converting EDI to and from XML
EDI has been described as complex low technology.
—Paul Kimberley
This chapter presents basic utilities for converting Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) files in the U.S. X12 standard to and from XML documents. Support for other standards, such as UN/EDIFACT, and more comprehensive functionality are discussed.
The quote above from Kimberley [1991] is one of my favorite statements about EDI. Even in 1991 EDI could only be considered low-tech. Think about it: delimited file formats designed to save every last byte, summary records with record counts, unencrypted security and authorization information, slow dial-up connections, and asynchronous or bisynchronous communications and file transfer protocols ...
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