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Configuring Charset and Separators (X12)

  • Article

In the partner agreement, you can specify the character set that BizTalk Server will use to validate party properties when creating the envelope for an outgoing X12 message. You can also specify what separators and terminators will be used for the segments in the interchange.

Note

The settings described here also apply to HIPAA interchanges.

Important

The following properties are disabled on this page if you cleared the Local BizTalk processes messages received by the party or supports sending messages from this party check box while creating the party for which you are creating the agreement.

  • Data element

    • Component element separator (ISA16)
    • Segment terminator
    • Suffix
    • Replace separators in payload with

    The properties are disabled only on the one-way agreement tab that corresponds to the properties for interchanges being sent from the party. For example, if you create two parties Party A and Party B and for Party A, you cleared the check box, the above list of properties are disabled on the Party A->Party B one-way agreement tab.

Prerequisites

You must be logged on as a member of the BizTalk Server Administrators or BizTalk Server B2B Operators group.

To configure the character set and separators

  1. Create an X12 encoding agreement as described in Configuring General Settings (X12). To update an existing agreement, right-click the agreement in the Parties and Business Profiles page, and click Properties.

  2. On a one-way agreement tab, under Interchange Settings section, click Charset and Separators.

  3. From the Character set to be used drop-down list, select the X12 character set to be used to validate the properties that you enter for the agreement.

    Note

    BizTalk Server only uses this setting to validate the values entered for the related agreement properties. The receive pipeline or send pipeline will ignore this character-set property when performing run-time processing.

  4. For Data element, enter a single character that BizTalk Server will use to separate composite data elements consisting of two or more simple data elements, and simple data elements that are not part of a composite element. Select Char for a character data element or Hex for a hexadecimal data element. The character you entered will automatically change when you change the format from Char to Hex or vice-versa.

  5. For Component element separator (ISA16), enter a single character that BizTalk Server will use to separate simple data elements within composite data elements. Select Char for a character data element or Hex for a hexadecimal data element. The character you entered will automatically change when you change the format from Char to Hex or vice-versa.

  6. For Segment terminator, enter a single character to indicate the end of an EDI segment. Select Char for a character data element or Hex for a hexadecimal data element.

    If the type is Char, the default value is ~.

    If the type is Hex, the default value is 7E.

    This data element is required.

    This element is limited to the values in the ASCII character set. This property is not validated against the X12 character set defined in the General page.

    The character you entered will automatically change when you change the format from Char to Hex or vice-versa.

  7. For Suffix, select the character to use with the Segment Terminator value. Options include:

    • None: Default

    • CR: Carriage Return

    • LF: Line Feed

    • CR LF: Carriage Return/Line Feed

      The Segment Terminator and Suffix combinations include the following:

    • Any Segment Terminator + None Suffix

    • Any Segment Terminator + CR Suffix

    • Any Segment Terminator + CR LF Suffix

    • D (Hex) Segment Terminator + None Suffix: This combination behaves as if Segment Terminator is blank and Suffix is set to CR.

    • A (Hex) Segment Terminator + None Suffix: This combination behaves as if Segment Terminator is blank and Suffix is set to LF.

    • D (Hex) Segment Terminator + LF Suffix: This combination behaves as if Segment Terminator is CR and Suffix is set to LF.

  8. If the payload data contains characters that are also used as data, segment, or component separators, check Replace separators in payload with and specify a replacement character. When generating the outbound X12 message, all instances of separator characters in the payload data will be replaced with the specified character. Select Char for a character data element or Hex for a hexadecimal data element. The character you entered will automatically change when you change the format from Char to Hex or vice-versa.

  9. Click Apply to accept the changes before continuing with the configuration, or click OK to validate the changes and then close the dialog box.

See Also

Configuring Interchange Settings (X12)