Liaison

EDI Notepad Guide

EDI Notepad Express
EDI Notepad Professional

All rights reserved.

No part of this document may be copied, duplicated, or reproduced without written consent from
Liaison.
Copyright 2011 Liaison.
Liaison EDI Notepad, Liaison Delta, and Liaison ECS are trademarks of Liaison. Microsoft is a registered
trademark and Windows, Access, and Internet Explorer are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All
other trademarks mentioned are trademarks of their respective holders.

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Liaison, Inc.
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Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone +1 805-882-2588
Fax +1 805-882-2599
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Liaison B.V.
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Phone +31 (0)20 6388077
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Table of Contents
1

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1

DESKTOP ORIENTATION.................................................................................................. 1
Orientation Overview .................................................................................................................2
Tabbed Document Interface.............................................................................................................. 2
Two-Pane Layout ............................................................................................................................... 3
Configurable Themes......................................................................................................................... 4
Opening EDI ...............................................................................................................................6

VIEWING EDI .................................................................................................................. 7

HTML View .................................................................................................................................8
Edit View .................................................................................................................................. 10
Text View ................................................................................................................................. 12
Hex View .................................................................................................................................. 13

VALIDATING EDI ........................................................................................................... 14

Syntax Validation Checks .......................................................................................................... 15
Syntax Error Display ................................................................................................................. 16
Error Highlights in Document Display Interface .............................................................................. 16

EDITING & MANAGING EDI ........................................................................................... 18

Editing EDI................................................................................................................................ 19
Editing Elements .............................................................................................................................. 19
Inserting Segments .......................................................................................................................... 21
Dragging and Dropping Segments ................................................................................................... 24
Deleting Segments ........................................................................................................................... 24
Splitting Transactions ...................................................................................................................... 25
Managing EDI ........................................................................................................................... 25
Find .................................................................................................................................................. 26
Print ................................................................................................................................................. 28
Copy/Paste ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Undo/Redo ...................................................................................................................................... 29
Find/Replace .................................................................................................................................... 29

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Export .............................................................................................................................................. 29
Control Number Incrementation..................................................................................................... 29
Interchange Summary Report ......................................................................................................... 29
Trading Partner Manager Integration ............................................................................................. 30
Command-Line Support (EDI Notepad Professional Only) .......................................................... 30
Printing ............................................................................................................................................ 30
Functional Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... 31
Validation......................................................................................................................................... 31
SMTP Send ....................................................................................................................................... 31
Transaction Splitter ......................................................................................................................... 33
Logging............................................................................................................................................. 34

BUILDING EDI FROM SCRATCH ...................................................................................... 35

GENERATING ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................. 39

SENDING EDI ................................................................................................................ 40

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Introduction
Liaisons EDI Notepad is available in two editions: EDI Notepad Express and EDI Notepad
Professional. This guide contains information about both editions of EDI Notepad; features
available only in EDI Notepad Professional are designated as such. Unless otherwise indicated,
all features and functions described in this guide are available in both editions of EDI Notepad.

Desktop Orientation
In this chapter, we'll discuss the basic organization of Liaison EDI Notepad's desktop, as well as
the properties that a file must possess in order to render appropriately in EDI Notepad.

Orientation Overview
Opening EDI

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Orientation Overview
When you first open EDI Notepad, the Document window features Liaison EDI Notepad's
Welcome page. The Welcome page displays a variety of quick-start links that allow you to create
new documents or open recent documents.
Of course, the Document window has a much more important function than hosting the
Welcome page; it's also where you'll view, edit, and build EDI transactions. In the following
sections, we'll take a closer look at the interface components of the Document window:

Tabbed document interface (see next section)

Two-pane layout (see page 3)

Tabbed Document Interface

As shown in the next graphic, the Document window features a tabbed document interface that
supports easy navigation between multiple open documents.

If you have more tabs than can fit in the Document window, EDI Notepad displays tools in the upper right corner
that allow you to slide the tabs to the left or right. Or, as highlighted here, you can use the drop-down icon to jump
to a document whose tab doesn't fit in the window.

Each document you open in the Document window displays a tab to the right of the right-most
tab. If you'd like to switch up this default order, you can drag and drop tabs as you see fit. If
you'd like to view more than one open document, you can cascade or tile the documents in the
Document window from commands available under the Window menu.

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Orientation Overview

You can right-click on a tab in the Document window to display a convenient list of commands,
as shown next.

Two-Pane Layout
EDI Notepad's desktop is divided into two panes. In the left pane, there is an EDI structure tree
that displays three nested node types, each representing a different EDI component: envelope,
group, and transaction. When you highlight a node from the left pane, EDI Notepad displays its
details in the right pane.

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Orientation Overview

When you first open a document in EDI Notepad, it defaults to the HTML view mode, as shown here. However, you
can edit this default from EDI Notepad's application preferences, available under Tools|Settings.

Configurable Themes
Change the look and feel of EDI Notepad according to your preference by selecting from a list of
available themes.

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Orientation Overview

To change your theme, choose from a list of available options under Tools|Settings|Workspace.

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Opening EDI
Any text file containing valid, raw EDI can be opened in EDI Notepad. EDI Notepad considers EDI
to be valid if it contains either a properly formatted ISA segment (ANSI X12), a properly
formatted UNB segment (UN/EDIFACT), or a properly formatted STX segment (TRADACOMS).
If you attempt to open a file that does not contain a properly formatted ISA, UNB, or STX
segment, EDI Notepad will alert you, to the best of its ability, to the errors it encountered in the
ISA, UNB, or STX segment, as shown in the next graphic.

Any document on your system with an extension of .edi will automatically open in EDI
Notepad.

By default, all .edi files opened outside of EDI Notepad will open in the current open instance of
EDI Notepad. However, if you want .edi files opened from other applications to open new
instances of EDI Notepad, you can deselect the Open new files in a single instance of EDI
Notepad option found under Tools|Settings.
Another preference you can set from EDI Notepad's Settings page is the folder that EDI Notepad
will reset file browsing to each time you open the application.

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Viewing EDI
Liaison EDI Notepad offers four view modes. You can switch from one view to another using
either EDI Notepad's View menu or the drop-down view selection from EDI Notepad's toolbar,
as shown in the next graphic.

All four of these view modes are discussed in this chapter.

HTML View

Edit View

10

Text View

12

Hex View

13

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HTML View
EDI Notepad's HTML view displays EDI transaction sets as attractive business documents, as
shown in the next graphic. If you're looking to easily read or comprehend the information
contained in an EDI document, this is the ideal viewing mode.

By default, the Download partner logo and display information dynamically from Liaison option
is enabled from EDI Notepad's Settings page (Tools|Settings). Pertaining to the HTML view only,
this option dynamically queries Liaison's database of trading partners, looking for one that has a
qualifier/identifier pair that matches the sender or receiver of the document currently open in
EDI Notepad. If a match is found, EDI Notepad will display the custom template that Liaison has
created for that trading partner's documents, as shown in the next graphic.

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HTML View

Liaison's custom templates are initially created for clients who are using Liaison's forms-based EDI application,
Liaison Athena, to exchange EDI documents with their trading partners. Since EDI Notepad uses the same
architecture as Athena when rendering EDI in HTML, Liaison is able to provide EDI Notepad users with this same
enhancement.

By default, the details contained within some segments of an EDI document are collapsed
when you initially open a document in HTML view. If you would like all segment details to
expand upon opening, you can enable the Expand all segments when opening an EDI
message option found under Tools|Settings.

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Edit View
EDI Notepad's edit view displays EDI transaction sets in a columnar format. The left column can
either display a segment's formal name or a segment's position in the EDI document, whichever
you prefer. The Data column displays the EDI segment and its accompanying elements.

Whether the edit view displays segment name or position in the first column depends on which view ("Segment
Name" or "Segment Position") you currently have enabled from the View menu. In this graphic, segment name is
shown.

EDI Notepad's edit view supports on hover highlights and tooltips. For example, as shown in the
next graphic, when you hover over a piece of data, EDI Notepad highlights the element and
displays a yellow tooltip with additional information about the element.

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Edit View

You can customize the background and text color of highlighted data under Tools|Settings.

The edit view is the viewing mode you will use to edit and build EDI transactions, as
discussed in detail in chapters 4 and 5, beginning on page 18.

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Text View
EDI Notepad's text view displays, in a native EDI format, all the envelopes, groups, and
transaction sets included in the current EDI batch.

As shown in the previous graphic, if a line break is not used as the transaction's segment
delimiter, the native EDI displays as one long line of text, which is accurate. However, if you'd
like a friendlier view in the text view (or for copying/pasting/printing operations), a convenient
feature is the ability to view the text with line breaks added in. This can be accomplished on a
per-transaction basis by right-clicking inside the Document window and selecting "View With
Line Breaks" from the context menu. Or, you can set this viewing preference globally from EDI
Notepad's Tools|Settings command.

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Hex View
EDI Notepad's hex view displays, in a hexadecimal format, all the envelopes, groups, and
transaction sets included in the current EDI batch. The hex view is helpful when you need to see
non-printable characters.

Highlighting characters in the left-hand hex pane causes EDI Notepad to highlight their corresponding ASCII
characters in the right paneand vice versa.

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Validating EDI
Liaison EDI Notepad validates EDI according to the EDI standard and version referenced in the
current document. The types of errors EDI Notepad validates for as well as how EDI Notepad
identifies these errors are discussed in this chapter.

Syntax Validation Checks

Syntax Error Display

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Syntax Validation Checks

Using the syntax set forth by the EDI standard and version, EDI Notepad validates for:

Mandatory segments and elements

Conditional segments and elements (i.e. mandatory status is determined by the presence of
another segment or element)

Out-of-order segments

Maximum segment repeat/loop counts

Discrepant trailer counts

Discrepancies between header/trailer controls

Minimum/maximum character widths for elements

Invalid data formats

Invalid codes (optional, see note below)

By default, the Verify that codes are legal as defined in the dictionary option is enabled

from EDI Notepad's Settings page (Tools|Settings). However, if you and your trading
partners have agreed to use codes outside the EDI standard, you may disable this option.
When this option is disabled, EDI Notepad no longer validates code values, nor does it
reject invalid code values on the functional acknowledgments that it generates.

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Syntax Error Display

EDI Notepad identifies errors with both visual highlights and with detailed error reports, all in
one error pane.

Error Highlights in Document Display Interface

Error Details (see page Error! Bookmark not defined.)

Error Highlights in Document Display Interface

In the left pane, EDI Notepad places a red icon with an "x" in it over any envelope, group, or
transaction node, along with its parent nodes, that contains errors. For example, if the error
exists in a transaction, the transaction, along with its parent group and envelope, will all display
the error icon in the EDI structure tree, as shown in the next graphic.

In the right-hand Document window EDI Notepad, whenever possible, will highlight the segment
rows that contain errors. These highlights are only visible in EDI Notepad's edit view. In some
instances, such as missing mandatory segments, EDI Notepad will not be able to place a
highlight in the right pane.
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Syntax Error Display

Visual highlights may not provide the detail you need to pinpoint EDI syntax errors. For a
complete explanation of the errors found in an EDI file, click the red x on the toolbar to view
the Errors box at the bottom of the EDI Notepad screen.

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Syntax Error Display

Editing & Managing EDI

Using Liaison EDI Notepad's edit and management tools, you can extensively manipulate your
EDI files.

Editing EDI

19

Managing EDI

25

Command-Line Support (EDI Notepad Professional Only)

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Editing EDI
Using EDI Notepad's edit tools, you can extensively manipulate your EDI files. These
manipulations include the editing of element values and the deletion/insertion of segments and
elements.

Editing Elements

Free-form Editing

Inserting Segments 21

Deleting Segments 24

Splitting Transactions 25

26

If you have Liaison Delta installed, you can launch EDI Dictionary Viewer from EDI Notepad
to assist you in understanding the syntax rules that govern the message you're currently
editing, as discussed on page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Editing Elements
You can edit element values, add new elements to the document, or delete elements from the
document. As described in the next two sections, the process of editing elements in the body of
an EDI document differs from the process of editing elements in the document's envelope or
group.
Editing Transaction Elements
Elements found within the body of an EDI document are edited from the right-hand Document
window, while in the edit view mode, as described in the next set of steps.
To edit, add, or delete transaction elements
1

If you haven't already, switch to EDI Notepad's edit view by selecting it from the menu bar
(View|Edit) or the toolbar.

From the left-hand EDI structure tree, highlight the transaction that contains the element
you would like to edit.

In the right pane, double-click the element (or, if you're adding an element, double-click
between the two delimiters that surround the intended element). EDI Notepad displays the
properties of the element, as shown in the next graphic.

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Edit, add, or delete an element value, as described next:

Editing an element value. Overwrite the current element value by highlighting the text
in the Data field and entering new text or, if the value is determined by a code list,
select a different code from the Data field's drop-down menu.

Adding an element. Enter a value in the Data field or, if the value is determined by a
code list, select the appropriate code from the Data field's drop-down menu.

Deleting an element. Erase the current value from the Data field or, if the value is
determined by a code list, select "=(None)" from the Data field's drop-down menu.
"=(None)" is always the first selection listed in the code list.

After making your edits, click OK.

To change the control number of a transaction written in the ANSI X12 standard (i.e. to
edit the ST02 and SE02), double-click the transaction from the EDI structure tree.

EDI Notepad Professional Only

EDI Notepad Professional allows you to create and maintain control number sequences with
your trading partners.

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Managing EDI

You set up parameters for generating control numbers, including Partner ID qualifier and
identifier, and set the next control number in the sequence. You also set your preference for
how the next control number is assigned whether by sequence or by timer.
Editing Envelope and Group Elements
Envelope and group elements are edited from dedicated property screens, as described in the
next set of steps.
To edit envelope and group elements
1

In the EDI structure tree, double-click the envelope or group that contains the element you
would like to edit.

In the Envelope Properties screen or Group Properties screen, click once in the field that
carries the value that you would like to edit to activate it for editing.

After making all necessary edits to the elements found in the group or envelope, click OK.

Free-form Editing
EDI Notepad Professional Only
EDI Notepad Professional lets you edit EDI in the text view in freeform fashion. To do this from
the menus select Edit|Free-form Edit, or click the pencil icon in the toolbar.

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Managing EDI

Paste EDI
EDI Notepad Professional Only
EDI Notepad Professional lets you paste an entire EDI message as a new document, making it
easier and faster to create new EDI. Pasting EDI can be done in the text, HTML, or HEX views.
To paste EDI as a new document make sure the document youd like to duplicate is the active
document, then select Edit|Copy from the toolbar. Next, select File|Paste EDI Document to
create a new EDI file with an automatically generated name such as EDI Document2.

Inserting Segments
You can insert segments into an EDI transaction.

If you're looking to insert an envelope, group, or entire transaction into the EDI file, visit
the chapter titled Building EDI from Scratch on page 35 for detailed instructions.

To insert a segment
1

If you haven't already, switch to EDI Notepad's edit view by selecting View|Edit.

From the left-hand EDI structure tree, highlight the transaction that you would like to insert
a segment into.

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Managing EDI

In the right-hand Document window, right-click the segment row that will immediately
precede the new segment and, from the context menu that appears, select the segment you
would like to insert, as shown in the next graphic.

When inserting a new segment, EDI Notepad provides you with only those segments that can validly exist
between the highlighted segment and the one immediately below it.
4

EDI Notepad displays the newly inserted segment's property screen. From this screen, there
are two methods available to you for completing the segment:

You can move from element tab to element tab to enter and save values for the
elements that you are including in the new segment, as described in the set of steps
titled To edit, add, or delete transaction elements on page 19.

You can click the Quick Entry button, which allows you to create the segment using
free-form text, as shown in the next graphic. (If you'd like the quick entry screen to
always appear when inserting segments, you can select the Open quick entry dialog
when segments are inserted option available under Tools|Settings.)

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Managing EDI

This quick entry screen opened with the one mandatory element for the NAD segment already denoted
with a placeholder; however, you can alternately choose for it to open (1) with all element names in
place, (2) with all delimiters in place, but no element names, or (3) as an empty segment. This preference
is customized from the Start quick entry dialog with drop-down menu found under Tools|Settings.
5

After completing your new segment, click OK.

Dragging and Dropping Segments

EDI Notepad Professional Only
EDI Notepad Professional helps you edit EDI documents, groups, and envelopes by letting you
drag and drop elements within a single EDI file and across multiple open files.
Copying and Pasting Segments
EDI Notepad Professional Only
EDI Notepad Professional helps you edit EDI documents, groups, and elements by letting you
copy and paste elements within a single EDI file and across multiple open files.

Deleting Segments
As described in the next two sections, the process of deleting segments in the body of an EDI
document differs from the process of deleting the document's envelope or group.
Deleting Transaction Segments
Segments found within the body of an EDI document are inserted and deleted from the right
Document window, while in the edit view mode.
To delete a transaction segment
1

If you haven't already, switch to EDI Notepad's edit view by selecting View|Edit.

From the EDI structure tree, highlight the transaction that has the segment you're deleting.

In the right pane, right-click anywhere on the segment and select "Delete" from the context
menu that appears.

If you'd like to delete an entire transaction from the EDI file, right-click the transaction
from the EDI structure tree and select "Delete" from the context menu that appears.

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Managing EDI

Deleting Envelopes and Groups

To delete an envelope or group, right-click it from the EDI structure tree and select "Delete"
from the context menu that appears. When you delete an envelope, you are also deleting all of
its associated groups and transactions (i.e. the entire interchange). When you delete a group,
you are deleting the group and all of its associated transactions.

You can delete multiple interchanges at once from EDI Notepad's Purge screen
(Tools|Purge).

Splitting Transactions
EDI Notepad Professional Only
EDI Notepad Professional helps you split all of the EDI documents in a tree node into separate
files.

To split a tree node into separate documents select Edit|Split Envelope. The resulting screen
shows you the sender and receiver information for the new, separate documents. You configure
the naming convention for the files that will be created from the split node using available
special values, and get a preview of the files that will result from the split.

Managing EDI
EDI Notepad has several tools and features to help you more efficiently work with EDI files:
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Find

Print (see page 28)

Copy/Paste (see page 28)

Export (see page 29)

Control Number Incrementation (see page 29)

Interchange Summary Report (see page 29)

Trading Partner Manager Integration (see page 30)

Find
EDI Notepads Find function lets you search in a single or in multiple transactions. Simply open
the Find panel by selecting Edit|Find or Find in Transactions, or by clicking the binoculars icon
from the toolbar.
In the Find panel enter the text youre looking for and selecting options for matching case and
matching whole word, then click Find. Search results appear in the lower part of the panel.
Clicking these results also highlights the found text in the document window.
The search term you use is queried as a string. As long as it is found in its exact form, it will make
a match. For example, the search term "fish" will match on "fishing" or "fishsnkassrt." However,
entering "fishing assortment" as a search term would not create a match because those terms
aren't found next to each other.

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Managing EDI

EDI Notepad has two find features, depending on whether you want to search only the text that
is currently displayed in the right-hand Document window or the transaction data found across
all of a batch's transactions.

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Managing EDI

Using Find for Current Displayed Text

If you want to search the text that is currently displayed in the Document window, use the
Edit|Find command. In this context, the find feature is only considering rendered text. This
means that the view mode you're currently using could affect search results. For example,
searching on the phrase "buyer name" is much more likely to produce results in the HTML view
mode because the HTML view mode is the only one that translates EDI into human-readable
business documents. Conversely, searching on the element value of "BD" (which represents
buyer name in ANSI X12) within a purchase order would likely not produce a match in the HTML
view mode, but it would in the other three view modes.

If the Edit|Find command is disabled (i.e. grayed out on the menu), it's most likely

because focus is not currently on the right pane. Click somewhere in the Document
window to put it into focus and then try the Edit|Find command again.

Using Find across All Transactions

The Edit|Find in Transactions command will search through all transactions in the batch,
regardless of what's currently displayed in the Document window or what's currently
highlighted in the EDI structure tree. This global find feature only considers transaction data, not
envelope or group data. In addition, it only searches the underlying native EDI, regardless of
which view might currently be selected.

Print
When printing EDI, EDI Notepad will print it in the format of the current view mode. With the
exception of the HTML view mode, you can only print what's currently displayed in the
Document window. In HTML mode, however, you can select any number of transactions from
the EDI structure tree to print each one on its own page.

Use the Edit|Select All Transactions command to highlight and print every transaction in
the batch. This command only works in conjunction with the HTML view mode. You
cannot print multiple transactions in edit mode.

Copy/Paste
EDI Notepad's Edit|Copy command is quite versatile. You can use it to:

Copy one or more EDI transactions. Focus needs to be on the left-hand EDI structure tree
and one or more transactions need to be highlighted at the time you perform the Edit|Copy
command. Data copied from the EDI structure tree is copied in native EDI format only. Tip:
Use the Edit|Select All Transactions command to highlight and copy every transaction in the
batch.

Copy a group and all its transactions. Focus needs to be on the left-hand EDI structure tree
and the group needs to be highlighted at the time you perform the Edit|Copy command.
Data copied from the EDI structure tree is copied in native EDI format only.

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Managing EDI

Copy an envelope and all its groups and transactions. Focus needs to be on the left-hand
EDI structure tree and the envelope needs to be highlighted at the time you perform the
Edit|Copy command. Data copied from the EDI structure tree is copied in native EDI format
only.

Copy displayed text. Whatever is highlighted in the right Document window is copied at the
time you perform the Edit|Copy command. Focus needs to be on the Document window. If
you're copying EDI from the Text view whose segments are not delimited by line breaks, but
would like the text to paste with line breaks between segments, right-click inside the
Document window and select "View With Line Breaks" from the context menu. Or, you can
set this viewing preference globally from EDI Notepad's Tools|Settings command.

EDI components (i.e. envelopes, groups, and transactions) copied from EDI Notepad can be
pasted into EDI Notepad, as long as focus is currently on the left-hand EDI structure tree. You
cannot paste directly into the right-hand pane.

If you're pasting something copied from EDI Notepad into an application other than EDI
Notepad, it will be pasted in text format.

Undo/Redo
Standard word processing undo/redo functions streamline your EDI editing. To undo or redo
one or more prior actions select Edit|Undo/Redo.

Find/Replace
To globally replace one text or string with another, select Edit|Replace and enter the text youd
like to replace, then the replacement text.

Export
If you'd like to isolate a single interchange from a batch of interchanges, you can export it to a
new file by highlighting the envelope in the EDI structure tree and selecting Edit|Export
Envelope from the menu bar. EDI Notepad will export the envelope, its associated groups, and
its groups' associated transactions.

Control Number Incrementation

If you're using EDI Notepad to test or resend documents and your EDI system won't process
documents with duplicate control numbers, the Edit|Increment Control Numbers function is a
convenient tool for globally incrementing all control numbers in the EDI file by one. You can also
increment control numbers for just an envelope, group, or transaction by right-clicking it in the
EDI structure tree and selecting "Increment Control Number" from the context menu that
appears.

Interchange Summary Report

Select Tools|Report for a summary report of all the envelopes in an EDI file. The report displays
three columns of information for every envelope: sender qualifier/ID, receiver qualifier/ID, and
control number.

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EDI Notepad Professional Only

EDI Notepad Professional lets you select specific criteria to show in the report, as shown below.

Trading Partner Manager Integration

If you're a Liaison client and are running Liaison Vista, Liaison Delta, or Liaison ECS, EDI Notepad
can access the trading partner record (as found in the Trading Partner Manager utility) of any
sender/receiver ID in EDI Notepad. Simply right-click the envelope from the EDI structure tree
and select Trading Partners|(Edit Sender/ Edit Receiver) from the context menu that appears.
If the sender or receiver's qualifier/ID pair is found in Trading Partner Manager, the record
immediately opens for editing. If the qualifier/ID pair is not in Trading Partner Manager, you're
given the opportunity to either create a new trading partner record or add the
qualifier/identifier pair to an existing record.

Command-Line Support

(EDI Notepad Professional Only)

EDI Notepad Professional supports the ability to script and automate basic functions of EDI
Notepad. The following is a list of commands to invoke those functions. All commands currently
assume that a filename containing EDI is at the end, and EDIPAD.exe is at the beginning.
Combining commands is not supported unless otherwise described.

Printing
EDIPAD /PRINT:format /TARGET:filename filename.edi

Both the target option and the format are optional.

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Option

Explanation

Example

/PRINT

The print command. Its optional format

may have the values HTML, TEXT. The
default format is HTML if none is
supplied.

/PRINT:HTML

If left out the output will be sent to the

default printer. Otherwise the output
is written to the target file.

-target:targetfile.html

-target

/PRINT:TEXT

TIP: Do not put a space character left or right of the colon (:).

Example:
EDIPAD /PRINT myedifile.edi

This causes EDI Notepad to quietly print the file, and all envelopes/documents contained, in the
same human readable layout as the HTML view supported in EDI Notepad.

Functional Acknowledgments
This feature creates a functional acknowledgement from an EDI file. Example:
EDIPAD /FA:c:\fa.edi 850.edi

Where /FA=generate functional acknowledgement with the target filename specified after the
:. If the target file name is left out, the output is streamed to the standard output.

Validation
EDI Notepad returns 0 if the content is valid, -1 if it is invalid. Example:
start "" /wait EDIPad.exe /VALIDATE 850.edi
echo %errorlevel%

The EDI file is validated against the EDI standard (ANSI X12 or EDIFACT).
The start "" /wait command is not part of EDI Notepad, but belongs to MS-Windows
and it is necessary in order to wait till EDI Notepad exits.

SMTP Send
Sending EDI as an email message can be accomplished by calling this command.
EDIPAD /SEND options filename

By default EDI Notepad will use the settings pre-configured in the SEND dialog. You must first
configure the server settings from within the application in order for this feature to work
properly if no overrides are provided. User can override by adding tokens:

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Option

Explanation

Example

/SEND

The send
command

/SEND

-server

SMTP server
name

-server:mail.somewhere.com

-port

Port number

-port:25

-from

Sender e-mail
address

-from:[email protected]

-to

Receiver email address

to:[email protected]

-subject

Subject line of
the e-mail

-subject:Hello there

-user

Mail server
user name

-user:someone

-password

The password

-password:youllneverguessit

-format:HTML

Send EDI
rendered as
HTML.
Default is
native EDI.

-format:HTML

-nodefault

If this option is
present,
only the
options
above that
are set will
be used. If
this option
is absent,
any options
above that
are not
specified
will instead
use the
configured
defaults.
This includes
the
password.

-nodefault

The / and symbols are mutually exchangeable, as are lowercase and uppercase letters.
There can be no space between the option and the colon (:) or between the colon and its value.
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Example:
EDIPAD /SEND -to:[email protected] myfile.doc

Transaction Splitter
The transaction splitter in the user interface is also available from the command line. To split out
each envelope contained in the source file into a separate file:
EDIPAD /SPLIT:filepattern edifile

To split every transaction contained in the source file into a separate file containing a single
envelope:
EDIPAD /SPLIT:filepattern txn edifile

Where file pattern is a string that consists of a path plus file name. In the file name special
values are allowed:
Special
value

Meaning

{txn}

control number of the transaction

{env}

control number of the original envelope

{seq}

sequence number within this split

{qual}

receiver qualifier

{id}

receiver id

{second},
{minute},
{hour}

Time related values. Always formatted as two digits, so at 9 o clock {hour}

is 09

{day},
{month},
{year}

Date related values. Day and months are two digits. Year is four digits.

Example:
EDIPad /SPLIT:"c:\targetfolder\split{seq} env={env} tp={qual},{id}.edi" myfile.edi
EDIPad /SPLIT:"c:\targetfolder\split{seq} env={env} txn={txn} tp={qual},{id}.edi" txn
myfile.edi

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Logging
When a command results in an error, EDI Notepad returns with an exit code of -1. In addition
the cause of the error can be logged by using the /LOG command. This must be used in
combination with another command; /SEND in this example:
EDIPAD /SEND /LOG myfile.edi

This will produce a log file in folder <liaison install path>\shared\Logs when an error occurs. The
file name will be EDIPad<yyyy-mm-dd>.log where the text between <yyyy-mm-dd> will be
replaced by the current date stamp.
The file and location can be overridden by using an argument after the log command. Example:
EDIPAD /SEND /LOG:c:\logfolder\edinotepad.log myfile.edi

Logging will always append to the file if the file already exists.

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Building EDI from Scratch

In addition to inserting elements, segments, and other document components into existing EDI
files, as discussed previously in the section titled Editing EDI on page 19, you can also use Liaison
EDI Notepad's insert tools to build new EDI envelopes, groups, and transactions from scratch.

If you have Liaison Delta installed, you can launch EDI Dictionary Viewer from EDI Notepad
to assist you in understanding the syntax rules that govern the message you're currently
building, as discussed on page Error! Bookmark not defined..

To build an EDI envelope from scratch

1

Select File|New from the menu bar to create an envelope within a brand new EDI file. To
create a new envelope within the current open EDI file, right-click any component in the EDI
structure tree and select "Insert Envelope" from the context menu that appears.

EDI Notepad displays the Envelope Properties screen for you to complete. As shown in the
next graphic, EDI Notepad provides default values for many of the envelope's elements, but
you are welcome to override these values as necessary.

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Although most of the default values provided here are arrived at using "common practice" logic and,
therefore, cannot be globally set by you, there are two default values that you can customize: standard and
dictionary version. These defaults can be set under Tools|Settings. Control numbers are generated using the
last nine digits of the time, represented in seconds, that has elapsed since 1970.
3

After completing the Envelope Properties screen, click OK to add the new envelope to the
EDI structure tree.

To build an EDI group from scratch

1

Right-click the parent envelope node from the EDI structure tree and select "Insert Group"
from the context menu that displays to open the Group Properties screen. As with the
Envelope Properties screen, EDI Notepad provides standard default values for several of the
elements on the screen, but you are welcome to override these values as necessary.

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After completing the Group Properties screen, click OK to add the new group to the EDI
structure tree.

To build an EDI transaction from scratch

1

Right-click the parent group node from the EDI structure tree and select "Insert Transaction"
from the context menu that displays to open the Transaction Properties screen, as shown in
the next graphic.

As with envelope and group control numbers, EDI Notepad generates transaction control numbers using the
last nine digits of the total number of seconds that have elapsed since 1970. You are welcome to override EDI
Notepad's default transaction control number. In EDI Notepad Professional Only, you can maintain control
number sequences with your trading partners. See page 21 for more information.
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From the Transaction Properties screen, select a transaction set type from the Transaction
field's drop-down menu and, if the transaction is an EDIFACT transaction, complete any
other applicable properties. Click OK.

Highlight the newly inserted transaction from the EDI structure tree and, from the edit view
mode, you will see that EDI Notepad has inserted several empty placeholder segments into
the transaction. These are the key segments according to the standards for the EDI version
and transaction.

To finish building your transaction, use the element editing tools (see page 19) and segment
insertion tools (see page 21) discussed in Editing EDI.

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Generating
Acknowledgments
Liaison EDI Notepad can generate acknowledgments for any EDI envelopes opened in its
interface. The acknowledgments will show accepted or rejected statuses, according to the
standards for the EDI version and transaction.

By default, the Verify that codes are legal as defined in the dictionary option is enabled

under Tools|Settings. However, if you and your trading partners have agreed to use codes
outside the EDI standard, you may disable this option. When this option is disabled, EDI
Notepad no longer validates code values, nor does it reject invalid code values on the
acknowledgments that it generates.

To generate an acknowledgment
1

From the EDI structure tree, right-click the interchange (i.e. envelope node) you would like
to generate an acknowledgment for and select "Create Functional Acknowledgment" from
the context menu that appears.

EDI Notepad generates the acknowledgment in the same instance of EDI Notepad. The
acknowledgment will originally display in whichever view mode you have set as the default
view mode under Tools|Settings.

Use the File|Save As command to save your newly-generated acknowledgment to the

location and name of your choosing.

You can send your newly generated functional acknowledgment as an attachment using
EDI Notepad's send feature, as discussed in the next chapter.

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Sending EDI
From Liaison EDI Notepad, you can e-mail EDI files as attachments. If you don't want to send all
of the envelopes in the file, use EDI Notepad's export feature (as discussed on page 29) to first
isolate a single envelope.
EDI Notepad Professional Only
With EDI Notepad Professional you can forward EDI in HTML format in addition to raw EDI
format, allowing you to send these documents on to parties who cannot handle raw EDI files.
To e-mail an EDI file
1

Open the tab of the file you would like to send and select File|Send from the menu bar to
display the Send To screen.

In the Send to, As Coming From, and Subject fields, enter standard e-mail header
information.

In the Attachment Name field, enter the name you would like assigned to the EDI file you
are sending.

In the Server field, enter the IP address or host name of your mail server.

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If you are using EDI Notepad Professional choose either EDI or HTML in the Format field.

If your recipient's network requires SMTP authentication, enter appropriate user name and
password into the Mail Username and Mail Password fields.
Liaison's network requires SMTP authentication. If you're a Liaison network client and would
like to send an EDI file to your Liaison mailbox, you'll need to enter your Liaison mailbox
number and password into these fields.

Click OK to send the e-mail.

By default, EDI Notepad will warn you if you're sending EDI that contains errors. You can
disable this warning from under Tools|Settings.

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