Send EDIFACT order files

You send EDIFACT files with the FTP Upload delivery method. Dropday builds the file from a template that follows the format your partner requires, and sets up that template for you. You need a supplier for the trading partner and the partner's server details.

Connect to your partner's server

1. On the supplier's page, click Add action and choose FTP Upload.

2. Choose the protocol your partner uses: FTP, FTPS (implicit SSL) or SFTP. Enter the server details and save.

3. In the FTP Upload settings, test the connection, and give your partner the IP addresses Dropday shows there if the server only accepts known addresses.

Send orders by FTP, FTPS or SFTP explains these settings and how the file is named.

Have Dropday set up the EDIFACT template

A Dropday employee builds the template from a sample file you upload, and sets the content, file name and character encoding of the file for you. Everything it has to copy into your files, such as the message layout and your partner's identifiers, must be in that sample.

You don't enter a template, message specification or partner identifiers in the dashboard, and you don't change the file in your settings.

1. Ask your trading partner for a sample EDIFACT ORDERS message that contains their identifiers.

2. Save the sample as a .txt file. The upload only accepts .xml, .csv, .txt and .json files, so an .edi file is rejected.

3. On the supplier's FTP Upload action, click Choose file under Upload sample file and select the sample.

Before you send orders to this partner, check that the FTP Upload settings say the file is approved by a Dropday employee.

Send ANSI X12 850 or another text standard

If your partner requires an ANSI X12 850 purchase order, you send it the same way, with FTP Upload and a template Dropday sets up. Dropday has no built-in 850: for that partner it writes the order into the file template, in the layout your partner requires, and uploads that file.

Ask your partner for a sample 850 and follow the steps above with it. The sample has to be a .txt file, and ASCII is one of the encodings that can be set on the upload. Other text standards can be produced the same way, as the contents of that partner's file.

What your partner receives

• Orders, one file at a time: when an order comes in with order lines a rule assigns to this partner, Dropday puts one file with those lines on the server, unless you turned on Hold order for review for this supplier. Orders aren't collected into batches or sent at a fixed time.

• No messages back: this is outbound only. Dropday doesn't import order responses, despatch advice or invoices from your partner automatically, and doesn't read files from the partner's server, such as an X12 997 or 856. AS2 and a VAN aren't connections in Dropday.

• See a file first: ask Dropday for an example. FTP Upload doesn't send test orders, and Dropday creates no file for a test order, so your partner receives the first file with a real order.

Next, create a rule that assigns order lines to this trading partner.