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Inside SmartBridge: Journey of incoming data - example 2

Inside SmartBridge: Journey of incoming data - example 2

Oct 01, 2015

 

To explain how SmartBridge works let's look at a fictitious example: What happens with an order that your business partner sends to your ERP system?

In this example you will see:

  1. The global path from a partner to the ERP system.
  2. The path of a document within SmartBridge.

Path from partner to ERP system

In this fictitious example below Partner X sends an Order document in EDI format. Suppose your ERP system only accepts text files to be imported.

The above process flow entails the following steps:

  1. Partner X begins the transaction by sending out the document, an order in EDI format, through either VAN or the internet (FTP/SMTP).
  2. SmartBridge retrieves the EDI document during a communication session through the communication module.
  3. SmartBridge will then convert the document into FlatFile format and store the results within a specific folder.
  4. SmartBridge will then execute a command batch, triggering the ERP system to import the document.

Note that Partner X may also be sending a batch of multiple documents, a scenario in which the system’s Splitter component will be required to extract the documents individually.

On this page

What happens inside SmartBridge

Visualized

 

 

Step by step

This process actually begins when Partner X delivers an order document to the VAN mailbox. Then, the process in SmartBridge begins:

  1. A trigger in the Scheduler component is activating a schedule job that must initiate a read communication session on the desired communication module.
    1. The administrator can also trigger the execution of such a job from the System Management Console (SMC).
  2. Scheduler posts a message to the Messages Bus having the subject “Start Read Communication Session”.
  3. The CM-In Activator component is subscribed to the Messages Bus for messages having subject “Start Read Communication Session”, and receives the command message.
  4. The communication session is then initiated within the Communication Module.
  5. The Communication Module component retrieves the document from the VAN mailbox.
  6. A new message is created (carrying in its payload the incoming document) and posted to the Message Bus with a subject of “New Document.”
  7. Since the Document Analyzer is subscribed to the Message Bus for messages with the “New Document” subject, it receives the message carrying the new document and extracts necessary information from it, identifying it as an EDI Order coming from Partner X.
  8. The Document Analyzer then posts a message to the Message Bus with a subject of “Known Document,” indicating that the document is ready to be processed.
  9. Since the Document Processing Dispatcher is subscribed to the Message Bus for messages containing the “Known Document,” it receives the message carrying the recognized document.
  10. The Document Processing Dispatcher determines the process (workflow) configured to run for the document, according to its type and sender (in this example, an EDI Order from Partner X). A message with subject “Execute Workflow” having the workflow name as a parameter is posted to the Messages Bus.
  11. The Workflow Processor will receive the message with the subject “Execute Workflow” and will start the execution of the workflow determined by the name receive as parameter.
  12. The workflow activates that Translator (ETC) in order to convert the document into FlatFile format.
  13. The FlatFile file is then placed into a configured folder.
  14. A command batch is executed to begin the ERP import process.

 

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