KR100250119B1 - Mapping method of electronic documents system - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Application program and electronic document mapping method in electronic document exchange system.

2. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

The goal is to provide an efficient and simple interface for applications and electronic document exchange systems with minimal overhead.

3. Summary of Solution to Invention

The data file is generated using the item identification number as a key, and based on the information in the mapping table containing the preset information, the data file is converted into a flat file that can be recognized by the transmission document converter in the subscriber device. Convert it into a recognized interchange file and send it. The receiving subscriber device reads the interchange file from the relay host, converts the interchange file into a flat file, and converts the generated flat file into a data file that can be recognized by an application program by referring to a mapping table including preset information.

4. Important uses of the invention

Used for electronic document exchange system.

Description

Application Program and Electronic Document Mapping Method in Electronic Document Exchange System

The present invention relates to a method for mapping an application and an electronic document in an electronic data interchange system (EDI), particularly when computerized application systems transmit and receive electronic documents using the electronic document exchange system. The present invention relates to a method for mapping an application program and an electronic document through efficient interfacing between the application system and the electronic document exchange system.

First, an electronic document exchange system (EDI) will be described in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention.

Electronic document exchange system (EDI) refers to a new document delivery method in which commercial transaction documents and administrative documents are converted into electronic documents structured to be processed by a computer according to a standard agreed by the trading party and exchanged through a computer communication network.

In such an electronic document exchange system, the internationally agreed UN / EDIFACT document standard and the ITU-T X.435 communication standard on the contents and structure (document standard) and communication method (communication standard) of electronic documents are prescribed.

In the electronic document exchange system, the private data file generated by the application system is converted into an interchange file composed of the international (UN / EDIFACT) standard electronic document structure through mapping and conversion process, and transmitted, and when received, the private data is reversed. Convert it to a file.

In general, an electronic document exchange system performs document conversion in compliance with all syntax rules specified in the international (UN / EDIFACT) standard.

Like social indirect capital such as roads, ports, and railways, ICTs have a huge impact on all industries and are an important measure of corporate and national competitiveness. Among them, the electronic document exchange system, which provides a new business method of paperless transaction, has emerged as an essential means for securing competitiveness of companies around the world. Conventional faxes and e-mails transmit unformatted data that is not mutually agreed upon by the sender in a human-readable form, but are transmitted electronically. It must be reprocessed or re-entered on the computer. This is because it assumes a man-to-man communication type. In other words, human intervention is indispensable.

However, in an electronic document exchange system that assumes a computer-to-computer communication type, the electronic document exchange system generates data generated by a computer application program, unlike the fax and email. It is converted into standard electronic document format of and transmitted to receiving system. The standard electronic document is again processed by the receiving computer's document conversion system according to the international standard electronic document syntax rules, that is, inversely decoded and processed into a form that can be processed by an application program. This allows the computer to process the document without human intervention.

The electronic document exchange system that connects each company's information system generates documents in accordance with the document standard and communication standard of the electronic document exchange system without being restricted by computer hardware, software, geopolitical location, time zone, and communication facilities. Anyone with the software to interpret can send paperless electronic documents anywhere, anytime, to any customer. In other words, the scope of the electronic document exchange system is very wide, enabling not only vertical information flow but also horizontal information flow between industries and industries, and also international information flow between countries. Therefore, the traditional document processing method such as telephone, mail, fax, etc. is repeatedly inputted data, so the processing time is delayed, the accuracy of data by re-entry is low, much time and manpower is consumed, Processing is inefficient and complicated, but the use of electronic document exchange system can reduce the cost of inventory, transportation, and data errors, improve work efficiency, improve customer service, improve relations with customers, and improve international competitiveness. Can be.

In order to realize such an electronic document exchange system, there should be a standard for electronic documents exchanged between a sender and a receiver. Since the format of documents used by each company is different, in order to maintain the compatibility of documents, various standards regarding the content and structure of electronic documents to be exchanged are required.

The standards applied to the electronic document exchange system generally include document standards and communication standards. Document standards were established and published around the UN European Economic Commission (UN / ECE), and telecommunication standards were published around ITU (formerly CCITT) and ISO. Currently, the United Nations has issued UN / EDIFACT as an international document standard (1987), and the ITU-T has issued an X.435 Recommendation as an international telecommunication standard.

In order to enable the international distribution of information, the United Nations (UN / ECE) has proposed the standard of exchange documents for each field such as trade, banking, aviation, transportation and administration as the international standard (UN / EDIFACT). , Message design guidelines, data entry directories, data segment directories, and message directories. This international standard (UN / EDIFACT) is a document standard on the global electronic document exchange system approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an international standard.

In addition, there is a need for a communication standard to support the exchange of electronic documents. In the past, various communication protocols existed, and a third party solved a communication problem in between. (CCITT) has established X.435 and F.435 communication standards that combine the electronic document exchange system and the X.400 Message Handling System (MHS) to solve the communication problem for transmitting electronic documents. X.435 and F.435 define the protocols and services for document transfer in an electronic document exchange system, respectively.

With the advent of X.435 based on the OSI (Open System Interconnection) seven-layer model, electronic documents can be reliably combined with multimedia data in geopolitically distributed electronic document exchange systems regardless of customer location, computer type, or communication network. It is now possible to transfer.

Until the X.435 Recommendation was published as an international telecommunication standard, there was no international protocol on the communication of electronic document exchange system. Therefore, each system is developed and provided to each service provider. It became. Therefore, in order to smoothly exchange electronic documents between domestic and foreign companies, an electronic document exchange system based on international document standards and communication standards is required.

The software for exchanging electronic documents requires a subscriber system installed at the subscriber (EDI subscriber) and a message store and relay system installed at the transmission host having a function of transmitting and temporarily storing messages transmitted between subscribers. The electronic document exchange system can be used on any hardware platform such as personal computers (PCs), workstations, minicomputers, mainframes, as well as communication modems. It is possible to build an electronic document exchange system based on the system and to contribute to the spread of the electronic document exchange system.

An example of an electronic document exchange system in accordance with the X.435 and F.435 standards and international document standards, based on the X.400 recommendations of the International Telegraph and Telephone Advisory Committee (CCITT), is as follows:

Once an electronic document exchange system has a variety of hardware and software configurations, depending on the application and the user's environment, the software basically consists of subscriber system, subscriber processor, relay system, and message store. Each subsystem may be installed in various combinations, depending on the software environment, and the hardware platform on which each subsystem is installed may vary.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic document exchange system to which the present invention is applied.

The subscriber device 101 is connected to the subscriber processing unit 104, the message storage unit 106, and the messaging device 103 having a plurality of message repeaters via a public telephone network (PSTN) to send a message to another subscriber, It performs the function of searching, receiving and processing messages sent by subscribers. That is, the subscriber unit 101 provides various functions for generating, transmitting, or receiving an electronic document message, and the subscriber device 101 is a text editor, a document converter, and a communication processor responsible for transmitting and receiving electronic document messages between the relay host and the subscriber device. And a message storage unit inquiry processing unit according to the message storage unit access protocol (P7), and a document management unit that objectizes and manages transmission / reception documents and management information.

The document conversion unit 102 in the subscriber device 101 is a function unit that maintains the mutual compatibility of messages by performing a mutual conversion between a private document and a standard electronic document for all messages transmitted and received. Mapping and converting a data file (DF) to create an interchange file (IC) consisting of an international standard electronic document structure, or vice versa to create a private data file that can be used by an application system. do. In general, the document conversion unit 102 performs conversion in compliance with the general syntax rules (ISO9735) of the international standard (UN / EDIFACT), and is divided into a transmission converter, a reception converter, a mapper, and a standard data manager.

The subscriber processing unit 104 of the messaging device 103 which is a relay host performs a function of encoding or decoding a message transmitted between the subscriber device 101 and the message storage unit 106. That is, the message created and transmitted by the subscriber device 101 is encoded according to the encoding rule (ASN. 1) and transmitted to the message storage unit 106, or by decoding the message transmitted from the message storage unit 106. Send to 101.

The message storage unit 106 functions to serve as a relay between the subscriber processing unit 104 and the relay host, and receives and stores a message transmitted from the subscriber from the message relay processing unit 105. In addition, for the messages stored in the message storage unit 106, the user uses the subscriber device 101 to search the number of messages satisfying a specific condition, to take a specific message entirely, or to search the list of stored messages. It provides a function to search in various ways. The P7 protocol (message store retrieval protocol) is applied when a message is passed between the subscriber processor 104 and the message store 106, and P3 when it is passed between the message store 106 and the message relay processor 105. The protocol (submission and delivery protocol) applies.

The message relay processing unit 105 transmits a message submitted from the message storage unit 106 to another relay system through the subscriber device 101, or delivers the message to the message storage unit 106 connected to its relay system. Perform. That is, the message is stored in the message storage unit 106 using the P3 protocol, or the message is submitted from the message storage unit 106, and the message is transmitted to another message relay using the P1 protocol (message transfer protocol). In addition, multiple message relays can be connected to relay messages, and the message is delivered using a store-and-store method, and an acknowledgment service that conveys the success or failure of the message delivery to the message delivery requester, prioritized delivery of each message. It provides various services such as support according to rank, delivery selection function such as resource delivery, contents conversion to various media, error diagnosis function according to submission and delivery of message.

The transmission and reception procedure of the electronic document exchange system having such a configuration is shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 2, the transmission / reception process of the electronic document exchange system is as follows.

The sender starts and logs in via the subscriber device (201), and enters the contents of the document in the form of the document to create / edit the document (202). After converting the generated document (203), the send menu is selected (204) to compose a message (205), and then the relay host is connected (206) to transmit the document (207).

The relay host receiving the document then notifies the receiving party of the message that has already been started and logged in to establish a connection. The receiving side calls the message (209), classifies and stores the account (210), inverts the document (211) and confirms the received document (212).

The most practical problem when the existing general application systems attempt to send and receive electronic documents in the electronic document exchange system is that the structure and attributes of the data used by the existing application systems and the data used by the electronic document exchange system are different. In order to use the electronic document exchange system, the overhead caused by the problem of changing the data structure or processing method of the application system is becoming a technical obstacle that hesitates to introduce the electronic document exchange method to the work. Moreover, data structures used by electronic document exchange systems usually have such complex structures that they can only be written with considerable knowledge of the elements used in international standards and electronic document exchange systems. It is true that it is a burden for application programmers who do not have much knowledge of the document exchange system.

Accordingly, the present invention overcomes the problems described above, and when general application programs want to send and receive electronic documents through the electronic document exchange system, the application program and the electronic document exchange system can be efficiently and simply interfaced with minimal overhead. Its purpose is to provide a mapping method that enables this.

1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic document exchange system to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a flow chart of electronic document transmission and reception schematically illustrating the overall operation of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart showing a transmission mapping step according to the present invention;

4 is a structural diagram of a flat file according to the present invention.

5 is a structural diagram of a mapping table according to the present invention;

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

101: subscriber device 102: document conversion unit

103: EDI messaging device 104, 107: subscriber processing unit

105: message relay processing unit 106: message storage unit

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for transmitting and receiving an electronic document, which is applied to an electronic document exchange system having a plurality of subscriber devices and a relay host device, by using an application program using the item identification number of the electronic document form as a key. A first step of generating a data file; A second step of mapping the generated data file to a flat file that can be recognized by a transmission document converter in the subscriber device based on information of a mapping table including preset information; Converting the generated flat file into an interchange file that can be recognized by the relay host and transmitting the converted flat file to the relay host; A subscriber station on the receiving side, reading the interchange file from the relay host and converting the interchange file into a flat file; And a fifth step of converting the generated flat file into a data file that can be recognized by an application program by referring to a mapping table including preset information.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the present invention, since the operation of the relay host is a general matter, the description thereof will be omitted, and only the operations performed in the subscriber apparatus will be described.

The core of the present invention is a transmission mapping step of mapping a data structure output by an application program to a data structure that can be recognized by a document conversion unit that performs document conversion for transmission and reception with a relay host in a subscriber device. A reception mapping step of mapping a data structure outputted from a document converter on the receiving subscriber device side into a data structure that can be easily used by application programs.

The data structure of the media file used in the transmission mapping step is as follows. A parameter file is a text file that consists of a set of records with a "line break (\ n)" at the end of a line. A record consists of an item identification number and the corresponding data portion of an electronic document form separated by a space. have. The item identification number consists of 4 decimal digits, the value of which is greater than 0 and less than 9999. If the item identification number is less than 4 digits, the number is filled with zeros before the number. The media file configured as described above is referred to as a data file in the present invention.

The item identification number in the data file corresponds to the item identification number displayed on the electronic document form. In other words, the attributes of all the data in the data file, the interfacing file, are determined depending on the item identification number in the electronic document format. For example, data that appears after an item identification number in the data file that refers to "company name" in the electronic document form may be data representing "company name."

If a particular item and group of items need to appear repeatedly in an electronic document form, the item identification number and corresponding data value of the document form may be described in order of repeated items. The item identification number assigned to the electronic document form is assigned by referring to the item identification number given in the mapping table created by referring to the segment table of the electronic document, not an arbitrarily assigned number, so that the electronic document form and the electronic document structure can be matched.

Therefore, if an application program creates a data file using only the item number given in the electronic document form, the data file can be said to be a data file having only valid items.

Therefore, even application programmers who have no expertise in the electronic document data structure and international standards can create data files using only the electronic document form with item identification number and the data generated by the application system. You can combine the document converter. The use of these intermediate files allows the application program and the electronic document converter to be independent of each other, providing flexibility in implementation.

The transmission mapping step is an interface between the application program and the electronic document converter, and the mapping of the data file generated through the application program into a flat file structure that can be recognized by the electronic document converter is performed. to be.

Since the electronic document conversion unit is designed to input data of flat file structure only, various types of data structures created by application programs are converted into flat file structure through batch mapping step that performs a kind of preprocessor function. It is done. Therefore, various types of application programs and electronic document conversion units may be combined through the transmission mapping step, and flexibility may be provided, such as validation and attribute change of data generated by the application programs.

By providing a mapping step between the application program and the electronic document conversion unit, a mapping of N: 1 between the application program and the electronic document conversion unit can be achieved.

The I / O file and directory environment in the transmission mapping step is as follows.

The default names of the input data files in the input directory are "UNB", "UNG [m]", and "UNH [m]. [N]".

UNB is a file containing the interchange header information. The UNB is a file containing information corresponding to the UNB segment of the international standard. The UNB may be generated directly by an application program. ) / Automatically generated using message agreement (MA) information and MIG information in the mapping table.

UNG is a file that contains functional group information and corresponds to the UNG segment of the international standard. The subscript m ranges from 0 <m <= 50 (unix 100).

UNH is a data file containing the contents of an electronic document and contains information from the UNH segment to the UNT segment specified in the International Standard. Subscripts n and m range from 0 <= m <= 50, 0 <n <= 999 in the DOS environment, and 0 <= m <= 100, 0 <n <= 5000 in the UNIX environment. .

Electronic document files (UNH) containing homogeneous electronic documents must match the subscript m of the corresponding functional group (UNG) file. In other words, UNG1 is UNH1.1, UNH1.2, ..., UNH1.n. However, if no functional group is used, UNH0.1, UNH0.2, ..., UNH0.n. Therefore, the UNHm.n file belongs to the functional group UNGm, which means that it is the nth data file.

3 is an operation flowchart of a transmission mapping step according to the present invention.

In order to perform the mapping, the transmission mapping step first acquires an Interchange Agreement (IA) / Message Agreement (MA) information between trading partners (301), and implements a message implementation guide (MIG). Obtain a mapping table with information (302).

After the data files have been created by the application, the generated data files are written to the input directory, and when the send mapping process is called, the send mapping process reads the data files stored in the input directory (303) and contains UNB containing interchange header information. Check if the data file exists (304).

As a result of the investigation 304, if the UNB data file does not exist, the interchange header information (UNB) data file having a default value using the interchange agreement (IA) / message agreement (MA) information and the electronic document implementation guide information of the mapping table. Generate 305.

On the other hand, if the survey result 304, there is interchange header information, or if the interchange header information is generated using the default value, the mapping process is performed while referring to the mapping table using the item identification number of the data file as a key (306). The values of essential elements omitted in the data file are set to default values with reference to the interchange agreement (IA) / message agreement (MA) information and the electronic document implementation guide information of the mapping table (307).

In addition, the validation of the data in the input data file is performed based on the electronic document implementation guide information of the mapping table (308).

Through this process, the source mapping process converts the data file into a flat file that can be recognized by the electronic document conversion process, and then stores the flat file in the output directory (309), and invokes the source document conversion process to call the source document conversion process. The transmission mapping process ends. If an error occurs during the above-described transmission mapping process, an error report file "error.sam" containing an error history is stored in the generated output directory (309).

In the flat file generated in the transmission mapping step, as shown in FIG. 4, since each of the data values generated by the application program is added with international standard elements that determine the properties and uses of the data, the electronic document conversion unit conforms to the ISO9735 syntax rules. It has an electronic document data structure that can be converted into a document.

The mapping table necessary for mapping the item identification number of the data file to the international standard elements in the transmission mapping step is shown in FIG.

The mapping table includes an item identification number corresponding to the electronic document format, an international standard code corresponding thereto, and electronic document implementation guide information and item attribute information. In the mapping process, the data file and the mapping table are mapped using the item identification number of the data file, and the corresponding international standard codes are extracted. Validation of data values in the data file is performed based on the electronic document implementation guide information in the mapping table. And replacing data values to create a flat file of international standard codes and data values.

The receiving document conversion process performs the reverse conversion of the received interchange file according to the ISO9735 syntax rule, generates a flat file, and then calls the reception mapping process.

The reception mapping process takes the interchange agreement / message agreement information and the mapping table of FIG. 5 in order to convert the flat file generated by the received document conversion process as an input into a data file that can be processed by the application. Perform the reverse operation of the transmission mapping process by referring to the document implementation guide information. That is, after separating the international standard code elements from the flat file, the item identification number corresponding to the records of the flat file is extracted from the mapping table by mapping with the mapping table using the key, and the data values of the flat file are mapped to the mapping table. Validation is performed based on the electronic document implementation guideline information and then the data file is created.

The receive conversion process converts the interchange file to a flat file, writes it to the input directory, and invokes the receive mapping process. The reception mapping process creates a data file that can be recognized by the application program and writes it to the output directory.

If an error occurs during the reception mapping process, the error report file "error.pam" is saved in the generated output directory.

According to the present invention, the application program and the electronic document converting unit can easily interface with each other through a mapping step, so that any subscriber device that wants to transmit and receive a document using the electronic document exchange system can be easily and at low cost. There is an effect that can communicate.

Claims (4)

In the application program and the electronic document mapping method applied to an electronic document exchange system having a plurality of subscriber devices and relay host devices, A first step of generating a data file using an application program using the item identification number of the electronic document form as a key; A second step of converting the generated data file into a flat file that can be recognized by a transmission document converter in the subscriber device based on information of a mapping table including preset information; Converting the generated flat file into an interchange file that can be recognized by the relay host and transmitting the converted flat file to the relay host; A subscriber station on the receiving side, reading the interchange file from the relay host and converting the interchange file into a flat file; And A fifth step of converting the generated flat file into a data file that can be recognized by an application program by referring to a mapping table including preset information; Method of mapping the application and the electronic document made, including. The method of claim 1, The second step, Reading a mapping table including information on a predefined interchange agreement / message agreement and electronic document implementation guide information; Reading the data file generated by the application to check whether the interchange header information exists; If there is no interchange header information, generating a data file including interchange header information having a default value with reference to the read information; Setting an omitted essential element in the data file to a default value while extracting an international standard code through the mapping table and the mapping process using the item identification number of the read data file as a key when interchange header information exists or is generated; Validating the data file based on the electronic document implementation guide information in the mapping table; And Storing the flat file generated through the mapping process of the data file Method of mapping the application and the electronic document made, including. The method of claim 1, The fifth step, Separating the standard code element from the received flat file, and extracting an item identification number corresponding to the records of the flat file from the mapping table by searching the mapping table using the key; Validating the data values of the flat file based on the electronic document implementation guide information in the mapping table; And Storing the generated data file while mapping all flat file records with the mapping table Method of mapping the application and the electronic document made, including. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The mapping table, An item identification number corresponding to the electronic document form, an international standard code corresponding to the item identification number, internationally defined electronic document implementation guide information, and item attribute information. Mapping method.

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