The Integration Engine with Built-In Knowledge of X12 EDI Schemas & Standards

For over 23 years, PilotFish, a leader in integration engine solutions and EDI solutions, has been helping companies connect and exchange data with disparate systems. For more than 35 years, X12 has been developing and maintaining EDI standards and XML schemas. PilotFish is pleased to announce both its partnership with X12 and the eiConsole for X12 EDI. This new offering is a marriage of PilotFish’s best-of-breed data transformation and mapping components with X12 standards artifacts creating outstanding EDI Software.

Parse, Validate, Map and Produce EDI Files and Documents

The eiConsole for X12 strips away the technical complexity of parsing, validating, mapping and producing X12 EDI files and EDI documents. PilotFish provides SNIP validation out-of-the-box for Types 1-3 and for Types 4-7 as an add-on. It’s the only tool you will ever need to validate healthcare X12 EDI data, translate it and map it to or from any other application.

The eiConsole gives you the freedom to integrate with any database, system, device or application. It is system, platform, and database agnostic and can be deployed onsite or in the cloud. PilotFish software has been architected explicitly to support handling the nuances of any industry’s information exchange and the semantics of its data and standards. The eiConsole for X12 extends this capability to include comprehensive support for X12 EDI data.

The eiConsole provides instant connectivity too, with dozens of built-in connectors. If you need support for some other connectivity protocol, simply add it in using our Open API or .Net bridge.

Configuring an EDI Interface in 7 Stages with PilotFish’s eiConsole

In the eiConsole, interfaces are configured following a graphical automated interface Assembly Line without any coding or scripting required. It makes data integration so easy; business analysts can do up to 90% of your interface development. The PilotFish Assembly Line consists of 7 stages. You start by configuring your source and target systems.

In the Source System stage, you can choose from a library of built-in icons or add your own. Label your source for easy reference later. In the Target Stage select an icon and label it. You can add as many Source and Targets as you like.

The Listener stage is where you select a connectivity protocol from a drop-down of dozens of built-in connectors. Each has a pre-configured panel with default settings that make it easy to configure.

The Listener stage is also where you can add processors. Processors perform operations that affect all of the incoming data – These range from changing the encoding, handling encryption, performing compression or decompression, and preserving metadata. Over 100 are built-in or easily add your own.

PilotFish follows a common model approach. In the Source Transform stage, once data is received by the application, it goes through a conversion process in two steps. First, it goes through an automated Transformer to convert the raw content to XML (if needed). After the Transformer, the data is mapped using XSLT.

X12 EDI Transformation Module

Pre-built Transformation modules can be set up through a simple configuration, too. These accept a wide range of standard data types and generate an XML representation of the data.  Among them is the EDI Transformation module, which in addition to converting the data to XML, allows you to perform XML validation along the way.

Validation of SNIP Types 1-7 (SNIP Levels) is handled by PilotFish’s stand-alone rules-driven EDI SNIP Validation Processor. The EDI specification includes SNIP Types 1-7 (SNIP Levels) that define checks to make sure a given EDI message is EDI compliant and passes specific criteria for being well-formed. PilotFish provides SNIP validation out-of-the-box for Types 1-3 and for Types 4-7 as an add-on. The eiConsole for X12’s EDI parser even has the ability to parse non-standards compliant EDI.

Once you have configured the EDI Transformation Module, which includes the ability to perform SNIP Type 1-7 (SNIP Levels) validations, you utilize the X12 EDI Data Mapper component.

X12 EDI Data Mapper and X12 Format Builder

The eiConsole features an exclusive 3-pane, graphical drag & drop data mapper. Your source is represented on the left, the target is on the right. The middle pane is where you configure the relationship between the two via drag & drop mappings and additional logic.

The eiConsole allows you to do anything you can do programmatically and graphically, with a built-in palette of XSLT structures and functions. The palette includes a library of useful functions for performing additional manipulations, including conditional logic, looping, and table-based lookups.

While you never have to rely on scripting or coding, the eiConsole generates W3C-compliant XSLT under the covers. If you want to work in code view, you simply toggle back and forth, in real-time, using the graphical and code view tabs.

The eiConsole for X12 also includes productivity-boosting tools like the Data Mapper’s built-in format readers. Here users can select the EDI format reader as well as dozens of others to instantly read in their data. Users can select from a drop-down menu for a specific transaction. Users also have the option to build from an internal data source or from an external schema file.

While it’s possible to start from scratch, users can also automatically create a baseline for mapping by importing vendor-specific transaction samples, allowing easier data mapping to the specific requirements of the endpoint system.

The Data Mapper includes a “Friendly Name” or human-readable Option for elements that provide human-readable names for EDI records and segments and inline documentation and code tabs that make it easier for those less familiar with the EDI standard.

The Data Mapper includes a built-in testing mode. Simply load your sample data and run your test. After you have mapped your data and tested it, you return to the eiConsole’s main route grid and continue configuring your interface.

Routing & Monitoring EDI Transactions

After the Source Transformation stage is the Route stage. Here you can add Routing Rules. You can send to All Targets or layer XPath expressions to route transactions. You can also add Transaction Monitoring to set up Email Alerts, Error Route Triggers and SNMP Traps.

In the Target Transform stage, you can perform transformations on your data to match what the receiving system requires. As with the Source Transform stage, you can select from built-in transformation modules to instantly read your data or use the eiConsole’s Data Mapper to map your data to the Target format.

In the Transport stage, like the Listener stage, a configuration panel opens with a drop-down menu with dozens of built-in adapters. In this example, we select the Database SQL Transport.

Testing Your EDI Interface

Once you have configured the interface, you can graphically test it end-to-end in the eiConsole’s Testing Mode. In Testing Mode, you can start and stop your test at any stage and view the output of any stage. It alerts you to errors so that you can work iteratively until your interface is fully tested and ready for deployment.

Once you have fully tested your interface, the eiConsole for X12 makes deployment easy, too. In the eiConsole, configurations are just files on the file system. To copy files, simply navigate to the root directory chosen for these configurations and copy the files over to the other server; use the eiConsole’s built-in drag & drop feature or deploy your interfaces through the eiDashboard – PilotFish’s web-based application for Operational reporting and management of your interfaces.

The eiConsole for X12 offers users the broadest range of EDI features and capabilities of any product on the market and dramatically reduces the technical complexity of parsing, validating, mapping and producing EDI Files.

Additional X12 EDI Information

For more on PilotFish’s EDI tools and resources, visit our X12 EDI Integration and EDI Parsing and X12 EDI Data Mapping web pages.  Also available for more detailed information is our X12 EDI Tools Technical Video Demonstration.  Read how PilotFish’s EDI Software improved these companies’ performance and their bottom line. Review our X12 EDI Case Studies for use cases.

Test Drive PilotFish’s eiConsole Integration Engine

We invite you to take advantage of PilotFish’s eiConsole for X12 EDI by downloading a full FREE 90-day Trial Version. Users can try out our EDI SNIP Validation Processor and EDI Identification Processor. With the Quick Start Tutorial, users can complete an end-to-end interface in less than 20 minutes and get a real sense of the ease-of-use of PilotFish’s interface engine solution.

X12, chartered by the American National Standards Institute for more than 35 years, develops and maintains EDI standards and XML schemas.