Scalable algorithm for sharing EDI schemas

• US 8,156,148 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2006
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gaurav, Suraj, Machiraju, Surendra
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THU N
• Application Number:
  US11/361,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20070203932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,237 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/791
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Recreating an electronic data interchange (EDI) schema from a file. The file is received from a source and the file includes a plurality of data values. The plurality of data values is identified. The plurality of data values is analyzed to determine the structure of the EDI schema. A set of decoding rules is analyzed to the analyzed plurality of data values. The EDI schema is recreated as a function of the applied set of decoding rules and the analyzed plurality of data values.

Claims

1. A computerized method for recreating an electronic data interchange (EDI) schema from a file, said computerized method being executable by a computing device, said computerized method comprising:

receiving, at a client, the file, without the EDI schema of the received file, from a source, said file being formed based on the EDI schema at the source and including a plurality of data values that have been separated from formatting texts in the EDI schema at the source, said file corresponding to the EDI schema, said file being a text-based file with a plurality of pre-determined delimiters to separate the plurality of data values;

identifying, at the client, the plurality of data values in the received file, said data values corresponding to elements of the EDI schema at the source;

analyzing, at the client, the plurality of data values to determine a structure of the EDI schema at the source;

applying, at the client, a set of decoding rules to the analyzed plurality of data values as a function of the determined structure of the EDI schema, said set of decoding rules being received from the source;

in response to applying, recreating, at the client, the same EDI schema at the client as a function of combining the applied set of decoding rules with the analyzed plurality of data values; and

in response to recreating the EDI schema, generating, at the client, an EDI schema file with XML tags describing an EDI schema corresponding to the EDI schema at the source wherein the generated EDI schema file corresponds to the data values in the received file.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the plurality of data values comprises identifying values for one or more of the following properties for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) tags:

name, minimum number of occurrences, and maximum number of occurrences.

3. The computerized method of claim 2, wherein the values includes value of the one of more properties:

data type name, minimum length, and maximum length.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein said structure of the EDI schema includes information relating to a transaction type of the EDI schema.

5. A system for recreating an electronic data interchange (EDI) schema from a text file, said system comprising:

a memory area at a client for storing the text file without an EDI schema of the received file, said text file being received from a source, said text file corresponding to the EDI schema, said client being remote with respect to the source; and

a processor at the client for executing computer-executable instructions for;

receiving, at the client, the text file from the memory area, said file being formed based on the EDI schema at the source and including a plurality of data values that have been separated from formatting texts required in the EDI schema at the source;

identifying, at the client, the plurality of data values, said data values corresponding to elements of the EDI schema at the source;

analyzing, at the client, the plurality of data values to determine a structure of the EDI schema at the source;

applying, at the client, a set of decoding rules to the analyzed plurality of data values as a function of the XML document and the determined structure of the EDI schema, said set of decoding rules being received from the source;

in response to applying, recreating, at the client, the same EDI schema at the client as a function of combining the applied set of decoding rules with the analyzed plurality of data values; and

in response to recreating, generating, at the client, an EDI schema file with XML tags describing an EDI schema corresponding to the EDI schema at the source wherein the generated EDI schema file corresponds to the data values in the received file.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor analyzes the plurality of data values by identifying values for one or more of the following properties for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) tags:

name, minimum number of occurrences, and maximum number of occurrences.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the values includes value of the one of more properties:

data type name, minimum length, and maximum length.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein said structure of the EDI schema includes information relating to a transaction type of the EDI schema.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the text file includes a plurality of pre-determined delimiters to separate the plurality of data values, and wherein the processor is configured to identify the plurality of data values by identifying the plurality of pre-determined delimiters.

10. A system for generating an electronic data interchange (EDI) transaction based on an EDI schema from a file, said EDI schema including one or more repeated information according to a schema syntax structure, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing at the client the file without an EDI schema of the received file, said file being received from a source, said file corresponding to the EDI schema, said client being remote with respect to the source; and

a processor at the client for executing computer-executable instructions for;

receiving, at the client, the file from the memory area, said file being formed based on the EDI schema at the source and including a plurality of data values that have been separated from the repeated information according to the schema syntax structure of the EDI schema at the source;

identifying, at the client, the plurality of data values, said data values corresponding to elements of the EDI schema at the source;

analyzing, at the client, the plurality of data values to determine a structure of the EDI schema at the source;

applying, at the client, a set of decoding rules to the analyzed plurality of data values as a function of the determined structure of the EDI schema, said set of decoding rules being received from the source;

in response to applying, recreating, at the client, the same EDI schema at the client as a function of combining the applied set of decoding rules with the analyzed plurality of data values;

in response to recreating, generating, at the client, an EDI schema file with XML tags describing an EDI schema corresponding to the EDI schema at the source wherein the generated EDI schema file corresponds to the data values in the received file; and

generating the EDI transaction based on the generated EDI schema file.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising an interface for receiving input from a user, and wherein the processor is configured to apply the received input from the user to generate the EDI transaction.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor analyzes the plurality of data values by identifying values for one or more of the following properties for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) tags:

name, minimum number of occurrences, and maximum number of occurrences.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the values includes value of the one of more properties:

data type name, minimum length, and maximum length.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said structure of the EDI schema includes information relating to a transaction type of the EDI schema.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the file includes a plurality of pre-determined delimiters to separate the plurality of data values, and wherein the processor is configured to identify the plurality of data values by identifying the plurality of pre-determined delimiters.