Atanu Mazumdar

June 3, 2015 7 minute read

B2B Integration Cockpit-XML to Plain Conversion Step by Step Guide–Part1

Objective of this document is to demonstrate the configuration steps in B2B Integration Cockpit EDI Content Manager for conversion of a XML file to a CSV file.

References:

3. http://scn.sap.com/community/b2b-integration/blog/2014/05

The B2B Integration Cockpit is a central application that allows us to monitor and access business-to-business add-on from SAP NW PI environment.

We can use the B2B Integration Cockpit for the following cases

This Document is mainly on EDI Content Manager -> XML to Plain conversion

The EDI content manager is an application that Export/Import, Generate XSD, View, Customize and Test conversion of EDI messages.

B2B add-on XML to Plain Conversion

Using conventional File Content Conversion we can’t handle File hierarchy greater than 3.

With B2B add-on XML to Plain conversion functionality, we can easily convert a multi hierarchical XML file to a flat file structure.

The required source XML file “DemoXMLtoPlain.xml” is attached.

We want to convert the XML file to a pipe delimited CSV file.

Step1:To log in to the B2B Cockpit use the below link

http://<host>:<port>/b2bic

Below screen will appear which will ask your credential to log in.

Once you have logged in, the screen that will appear is given below.

Step 2: From the above list of option click on the EDI Content Manager

The below screen will appear

We can see above that there are various options like Edifact, Eancom, Ansi X.12, Odette, Tradacoms, VDA and Plain. All these are required for conversion from the message format which is involved in the scenario to XML format or from XML format to the message format required.

In this document we will focus on XML to Plain conversion.

Step 3:

Go to Plain->Editor->Message Editor, like the screenshot below and then click Message Editor

On clicking the Message Editor we will get the below screen

We can see there are three buttons Create, Update and Delete

Create has the following option (as given in below screen shot) and is used to create a new message structure.

Update has the following option (as given in below screen shot) and is used to update/change any existing message structure, add inner set (sub segments) and add fields in the structure

Delete has the following option (as given in below screen shot) and is used to delete Record Row, Message and Control Key.

First need to create a new message structure by creating a Control Key, Message and Set and then will update the message by adding fields and inner set. If required we can edit the message also.

Control key represents version and Control Key Association Table provides the information that which Integration Flow should use which Control Key (Version).

All standard content delivered by SAP is delivered under control key name “SAP”.

We can create our own Control Key (Version) and we need to make an entry into Control Key scenario association table to enable runtime usage of this version corresponding to an integration scenario. By default all the fields are populated with “.* “.

Step 4: Creation of Control Key

Go to Create->Control Key and click Control Key

The below screen will appear

Provide Control Key name as DemoXMLtoPlain and Click the Create Button

Control Key is now created and it can be seen in the list of Control Key.

Step 5: Creation of Message

Under Control Key you can define multiple message type/message type with versions.

Go to Create->Message and click on Message.

Below screen will appear.

Here Name is “Name of the message type/message type with versions”

Starts With is “A pattern that denotes beginning of a message structure (can be filled with a regular expression)”

New Line is “Line Feed (Windows), Line Feed (UNIX), TAB and Space”.

Line Feed (Windows) is generally used when we are picking or dropping files from or to any Windows System. Similarly Line Feed (UNIX) is used when we are picking or dropping files from or to any Unix System.

Enable Customized New Line is used to enter a customized new line in hexadecimal format.

Strict Length check box is checked in case of Fixed Length file. For CSV file it will be unchecked.

Char Set is which Character Encoding should be used. e.g. UTF-8 or ISO-8859-15 etc

Document Start is Starting line of the converted document (inserted during conversion).

Document End is End line of the converted document (inserted during conversion).

We enter the following value to the fields and Click on Create Button. We didn’t check the Strict Length option because we will create CSV file in the target.

Therefore now Control Key and Message is created. So in the message editor screen both the Control Key and the corresponding Message Type will appear.

Step 6: Creation of Set

One message type version may contain multiple Set (Record)

Go to Create->Set and click on Set.

The below screen will appear.

Name is Name of the Set (Record).

Starts With is a Pattern that will denote the beginning of a set/Record (can be filled with a regular expression).

Set Type is Type of the record “CS“(character-separated fields) “FF“(field with fixed length).

In this document we will create one CSV file.

If we don’t want to populate any particular set in target XML then check the Check box Comment Set

We enter the following value to the fields and Click on Create Button.

We can see the set HEADER for the Message Type: MaterialDetails and Control Key: DemoXMLtoPlain.

Step 7: Creation of fields

Now under this HEADER set we will add required fields.

Select the set HEADER and then go to Update->Add Field and click Add Field

The below screen will appear

Name is “Name of the field”.

Length is “Length of the field”.

Orientation can be Left or Right oriented.

If we check the Check box for Enable Customized Fill Character, we will get the option “Customized Fill Character” where we can put Fill Character of our own choice.