---
name: "Business::EDI"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libbusiness-edi-perl"
version: "0.05-3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Business::EDI"
---

# Business::EDI(3pm)

Top level class for generating U.N. EDI interchange objects and subobjects.

## NAME

Business::EDI - Top level class for generating U.N. EDI interchange objects and subobjects.

## SYNOPSIS

```
  use Business::EDI;

  my $edi = Business::EDI-new('d09b');      # set the EDI spec version
  my $rtc = $edi->codelist('ResponseTypeCode', $json) or die "Unrecognized code!";
  printf "EDI response type: %s - %s (%s)\n", $rtc->code, $rtc->label, $rtc->value;
  my $msg = Business::EDI::Message->new($ordrsp) or die "Failed Message constructor";
  foreach ($msg->xpath('line_detail/all_LIN') {
      ($_->part(7143) || '') eq 'EN' or next;
      print $_->part(7140)->value, "\n";    # print all the 13-digit (EN) ISBNs
  }
```

## DESCRIPTION

The focus of functionality is to provide object based access to EDI messages and subelements. At present, the EDI input processed by Business::EDI objects is JSON from the **edi4r** ruby library, and there is no EDI output beyond the perl objects themselves.

## NAMESPACE

When you `"use Business::EDI;"` the following package namespaces are also loaded:\
     Business::EDI::Segment\_group\
     Business::EDI::Message

That's why the example message constructor in SYNOPSIS would succeed without having done `"use Business::EDI::Message;"`

## EDI Structure

Everything depends on the spec.  That means you have to have declared a spec version before you can create or parse a given chunk of data.  The exception is a whole EDI message, because each message declares its  spec version internally.

EDI has a hierachical specification defining data.  From top to bottom, it includes:

- **Communication** - containing one or more messages (not yet modeled here)

  - **Message** - containing segment groups and segments

  - **Segment Group** - containing segments

  - **Segment** - containing composites, codelists and data elements

  - **Composite** - containing multiple codelists and/or data elements

  - **Codelist** - enumerated value from a spec-defined set

  - **Data Element** - unenumerated value

  This module handles messages and everything below, but not (yet) communications.

## CLASS FUNCTIONS

Much more documentation needed here...

### new()

Constructor

## OBJECT METHODS (General)

### value()

Get/set accessor for the value of the field.

### code()

The string code designating this node's type.  The code is what is what the spec uses to refer to the object's definition. For example, a composite "C504", segment "RFF", data element "7140", etc.

Don't be confused when dealing with CodeList objects.  Calling **code()** gets you the 4-character code of the CodeList field, NOT what that CodeList is currently set to.  For that use **value()**.

### desc()

English description of the element.

## METHODS (for Traversal)

### part\_keys()

This method returns strings that can be fed to **part()** like:\
     foreach ($x-\>part\_keys) { something($x-\>part($\_)) }

This is similar to doing:\
     foreach (keys `%x`) { something($x{$\_}) }

In this way an object can be exhaustively, recursively parsed without further knowledge of it.

### part($key)

Returns subelement(s) of the object.  The key can reference any subobject allowed by the spec.  If the subobject is repeatable, then prepending "all\_" to the key will return an array of all such subobjects.  This is the safest and most comprehensive approach. Using part($key) without "all\_" to retrieve when there is only one `$key` subobject will succeed. Using part($key) without "all\_" to retrieve when there are multiple `$key` subobjects will FAIL.  Since that difference is only dependent on data,  you should always use "all\_" when dealing with a repeatable field (or xpath, see below).

Examples:

```
    my $qty  = $detail->part('QTY');      # FAILURE PRONE!
    my @qtys = $detail->part('all_QTY');  # OK!
```

### xpath($path)

`$path` can traverse multiple depths in representation via one call.  For example:

```
    $message->xpath('all_SG26/all_QTY/6063')
```

is like this function **foo()**:

```
    sub foo {
        my @x;
        for my $sg ($message->part->('all_SG26') {
            for ($sg->part('all_QTY') {
                push @x, $->part('6063');
            }
        }
        return @x;
    }
```

The xpath version is much nicer!  However this is nowhere near as fully featured as W3C xpath for XML.  This is more like a multple-depth **part()**.

Examples:\
     my `@obj_1154` = `$message`-\>xpath('line\_detail/SG31/RFF/C506/1154');

### xpath\_value($path)

Returns value(s) instead of object(s).

Examples:\
     'ORDRSP' eq `$ordrsp`-\>xpath\_value('UNH/S009/0065') or die "Wrong Message Type!";

## WARNINGS

This code is experimental.  EDI is a big spec with many revisions.

At the lower levels, all data elements, codelists, composites and segments from the most recent spec (D09B) are present.

## SEE ALSO

```
 Business::EDI::Spec
 edi4r - http://edi4r.rubyforge.org
```

## AUTHOR

Joe Atzberger