Recorddefs¶

Definition: Recorddefs defines the layout of each record.

• Recorddefs is required, except for grammars for editypes templatehtml, xmlnocheck, jsonnocheck.
• Recorddefs is a dictionary; key is record ID/tag, value is list of fields.
• There is always a field BOTSID in a record; mostly BOTSID is the first field (fixed format is the exception).

Some specifics for different editypes

• edifact: record ID is edifact tag (DTM, BGM, etc).
• X12: record ID is the segment identifier
• Xml: record ID is xml-tag (without angle brackets).
• Fixed: bots has to know where record ID is. Default: first three positions in record; this can be set with syntax parameters
• Csv: Csv/Excel does not always have a record ID (all records in an edi-file are of the same type). Bots uses the name of the record as BOTSID if you use syntax parameter: 'noBOTSID':True

Each field is a list of:

1. field ID: has to be unique (bots checks for this).

2. M/C: mandatory or conditional.

3. length: Examples:

   ['field name','C', 9, 'A'],       #max length
   ['field name','C', (3,9), 'A'],   #min length, max length. Use eg as:
   ['field name','C', (9,9), 'A'],   #field length should always be 9
   ['field name','C', 8.3, 'N'],     #length max 8 field, must have 3 decimals.
   

4. format: Different per editype. Especially edifact, x12 and tradacoms have their own formatting codes, just use these. For csv, fixed, xml etc no standard formats exists, so bots uses these formats:

   • A (or AN): alphanumeric.

   • AR: right aligned alphanumeric (fixed only)

   • N: fixed decimals

     • Numeric
     • Fixed numbers of decimals. If no decimals are indicated: integer
     • Incoming: format is checked.
     • Outgoing: bots formats this (rounding if needed, add leading zeros)

   • NL: (for fixed only) as fixed decimals, left aligned, trailing blancs

   • NR: (for fixed only) as fixed decimals, right aligned, leading blancs

   • R: floating point

     • Numeric
     • May have any number of decimals
     • Bots does no checking of formatting.

   • RL: (for fixed only) as floating point, left aligned, trailing blancs

   • RR: (for fixed only) as floating point, left aligned, leading blancs

   • I: fixed decimals implicit. Example:

     • Numeric

     • Fixed number of decimals. Is converted from/to ‘normal’ amount; rounded if outgoing.

     • There is no decimal sign in the field, the number of decimals is implicit from the definition. Eg:

     • Can be negative

     • Example:

       ['field name','C', 8.2, 'I'],   #max 8 long, last 2 positions are decimals; eg for an amount.
                                       #Valid is eg:  12345
                                       #Bots converts this to 123.45 (and vice versa)
       

   • D (or DT): date. Either 6 or 8 positions; format YYMMDD or CCYYMMDD. Bots checks for valid dates both in- en outgoing.

   • T (or TM): time. Either 4 or 6 positions; format HHMM or HHMMSS. Bots checks for valid times both in- en outgoing.

Composite fields

Edifact, x12 and tradacoms have composite fields. Example:

['S005', 'C',                      #composite field
    [
    ['S005.0022', 'M', 14, 'AN'],  #subfield nr1
    ['S005.0025', 'C', 2, 'AN'],   #subfield nr2
    ]],

A composite has:

• field ID; has to be unique (bots checks for this).
• M/C (mandatory/conditional).
• A list of subfields.

['C090', 'C', [                        #composite contains 2 subfields with same ID
    ['C090.3286#1', 'M', 70, 'AN'],
    ['C090.3286#2', 'C', 70, 'AN'],
    ]],
['C542#1', 'M', [                      #composite occurs twice
    ['C542.9425#1', 'M', 3, 'AN'],
    ['C542.9424#1', 'C', 35, 'AN'],
    ]],
['C542#2', 'C', [                      #composite occurs twice
    ['C542.9425#2', 'M', 3, 'AN'],
    ['C542.9424#2', 'C', 35, 'AN'],
    ]],

Details of field format handling

• M/C of fields are always checked.

• min/max length of field are always checked.

• numerical:

  • ‘-‘ is accepted both at beginning and end. Bots outputs only leading ‘-‘
  • ‘+’ is accepted at beginning. Bots does not output ‘+’
  • Thousands separators are removed if specified in syntax-parameter ‘triad’ (see above).
  • Bots does not output thousands separators
  • default decimal separator is ‘.’; use syntax-parameter ‘decimaal’ to change this (‘decimaal’ is Dutch, sorry about that. Noticed to late to change ;-)). Internally bots only uses/accepts decimal point!
  • (incoming) leading zeros are removed
  • (incoming) trailing zeros are kept
  • ‘.45’ is converted to ‘0.45’.
  • ‘4.’ is converted to ‘4’.
  • Note that eg edifact numeric lengths do NOT include decimal sign and negative...

Utility for positions in fixed records

A grammar does not contains the position/offset of each field in a fixed record, but it sure is useful to have this. Add this code to the bottom of the grammar and run/execute the code:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    for key, record in recorddefs.items():
        length = 0
        for field in record:
            print '           ', field, '      #pos',length+1, length + field[2]
            length += field[2]
        print 'Record',key,'  has length ',length, '\n'

Slightly different version - output can be pasted back into grammar

if __name__ == "__main__":
    space = 0
    for key, record in recorddefs.items():
        for field in record:
            space = max(space,len(str(field))+1)
    for key, record in recorddefs.items():
        length = 0
        print '    \'' + key + '\':['
        for field in record:
            print '           ', (str(field) + ',').ljust(space), ' # pos',length+1, '-', length + field[2]
            length += field[2]
        print '    ],'