pros and cons of using PI as pass-through for EDI messages

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

We have a edi translator in place that can map sap idocs to x12 and vice-versa. We are also using PI as middleware for all our interfcaes. I want to understand the pros and cons of using PI as a pass-through layer between ECC and EDI translator. We have to make a decision whether to use PI in between and what benefits it brings as compared to by-passing PI altogether and have ECC and EDI translator communicate directly.

Thanks,

Jassi..

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I am not aware of EDI translator...But in order to use EDI In PI need to go for third party adapters like seeburger or ....

which incldues an additional cost...

but advantages is you can make use of AS2 OFTP ..etc,adapters and can send message directly to your partner..(no idea about edi translation regarding this feature..)but PI server needs to open some ports for the same...

Messages can be monitored in PI...

HTH

Rajesh

[agasthuri_doss]

Jassi,

>We have to make a decision whether to use PI in between and what benefits it brings as compared to by-passing PI

Monitoring, Alert messages - errors, whether system is up ?,we can find the message size, we can schedule the message flow from PI, Temporarily we can stop the message flow by stopping the adapter, If the system is down from PI we can resend the messages ( No need to trigger from the source system ) etc

Cheers

Agasthuri

[Former Member]

Since EDI messages are typically huge, if we don't use a seeburger type adapter on PI and just use it as pass-through w/o any transformations, and do all mapping logic in a third party translator outside of PI, would it still be beneficial to use PI in between to have re-transmit capabilities and monitoring considering the overhead on PI for supporting the huge messages and adding another layer in between SAP and EDI translator..

[baskar_gopalakrishnan2]

PI says optimum message size is 5 MB. If you think you are going to have large volume messages then you might not consider using PI as extra hub. If you file zise is lesser or around 5 mb, then certainly you can make use of monitoring, alerting and message reprocessing capabilities.

[former_member181962]

Hi Jassi,

As a good design principle,we should route all of our interfaces through a common middleware.

This would ensure PI to be the common interface repository, which makes it easy for anyone who has to manage the integration landscape of your company.

Also, if for example, you want to send the same information to some other system (Non Edi based, for example a jdbc system/jms system) then you can simple add a scenario and a mapping in PI, without touching your edi interface.

Also, PI can be the single place to monitor all your interfaces.

Best Regards,

Ravi