Method and apparatus for electronic data interchange

A programmable machine system having a plurality of system components for defining, entering, and translating business transaction data for transmitting said data among trading partners, said system comprising:

• (a) input means for defining a dictionary-structured transaction format having a plurality of elements in a particular organization;
• (b) selector means for selecting a given system component;
• (c) overlay generator means cooperating with the input means and selector means for generating an overlay associated with the selected system component, said overlay being used to define at least one second format having positionable parts in the selected system component that are related to the elements in the dictionary-structured transaction format, the overlay also containing a mapping between the location of such parts in the selected system component to its associated elements in the dictionary-structured format;
• (d) translating means for translating data entered in the second format into said dictionary-structured format;
• and
• (e) transmitting means for transmitting the translated data in the dictionary-structured transaction format to a trading partner.

A method of using a programmable machine to perform electronic data interchange among trading partners, with at least two of the trading partners employing different dictionary-defined transaction formats, said programmable machine having a plurality of system components including a keyboard, a display screen, and a memory, said method comprising:

• (a) entering a transaction code into the keyboard for a given trading partner;
• (b) displaying segments for the entered transaction code on the screen;
• (c) creating a data entry overlay that includes information stored in the memory which contains an ordered sequence of elements in a dictionary-structured format and mapping coordinates to positions on the screen where associated data fields relating to each element are located;
• (d) moving the data entry fields on the screen to generate a desired screen format, with the mapping coordinates to the associated elements in the overlay being updated accordingly;
• (e) entering data into the data entry fields;
• (f) using the data entry overlay to translate the entered data into the appropriate order for the defined dictionary-structured transaction format;
• and
• (g) transmitting data in the dictionary-structured transaction format to a trading partner.

A programmable machine system for operating on business transaction data in first and second dictionary-structured transaction (DST) formats, the machine system having a plurality of system components, the machine system comprising:

• first means for defining a first overlay for the first DST format, and a second overlay for the second DST format, with each such overlay having an ordered sequence of elements and mapping coordinates of given elements to related fields of a selected one of the system components;
• and
• second means, using the first overlay, for translating data in the first DST format into a different format for use with the selected one of the system components, and using the second overlay, for translating data in the second DST format into the different format for use with the selected one of the system components;
• whereby the same programmable machine system and the selected system components is operated on data in different DST formats without reprogramming applications software to accommodate such different DST formats.

A programmable machine system having a plurality of components for defining, entering, and translating business transaction data to be transmitted among trading partners, the system comprising:

• input means for defining a dictionary-structured transaction (DST) format having a plurality of elements arranged in a particular organization;
• means for selecting a given system components;
• means, cooperating with the input means and means for selecting, for generating overlay means associated with the selected system component, the overlay means being for defining a second format having positionable parts associated within locations in the selected system component that are related to the elements in the DST format, the overlay means also containing mapping means for correlating the locations of such parts in the selected system component to associated elements in the DST format;
• and
• means for translating data entered in the second format into the DST format.

A method of using a programmable machine including a mass memory, keyboard, data entry screen and central processing unit (CPU) to enter electronic business data in first and second different dictionary-structured transaction (DST) formats into a machine in preparation for interchange of such data among trading partners, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) loading, from mass memory into the CPU, a first DST overlay associated with the first DST format;
• (b) entering data via the keyboard associated with given elements of the first DST format into related fields shown on the screen;
• (c) under the control of the CPU and using the first DST overlay, storing data entered during step (b) in an intermediate file;
• (d) loading, from mass memory into the CPU, a second DST overlay associated with the second DST format;
• (e) entering data via the keyboard associated with given elements of the second DST format into related fields shown on the screen;
• and
• (f) under the control of the CPU and using the second DST overlay, storing data entered during (e) in an intermediate file.

In a programmable machine system, including a keyboard, a display screen, a processor and at least one mass memory device, for operating on business transaction data in different dictionary-structured transaction (DST) formats, a method of translating data organized in first and second DST formats to a file format composed of fixed-field, fixed-length records, comprising the steps of:

• (a) interactively using the keyboard, display screen and processor to define, without manually coding a computer program, a first DST overlay including mapping coordinates;
• (b) formatting at least one segment of data in the first DST format into the fixed file format by moving elements of the data about in accordance with mapping coordinates contained in the first DST overlay;
• (c) storing the data formatted in step (B) in a fixed file in a mass memory device;
• (d) interactively using the keyboard, display screen an processor to define, without manually coding a computer program, a second DST overlay including mapping coordinates;
• (e) formatting at least one segment of data in the second DST format into the fixed file format by moving elements of the data about in accordance with mapping coordinates contained in the second DST overlay;
• and
• (f) storing the data formatted in step (e) in a fixed file in a mass memory device.

In a programmable machine system, including a manual input means, a display screen, processor and a mass memory device, for operating on business transaction data in different dictionary-structured transaction (DST) formats, a method of translating data organized in a fixed file format composed of fixed-field, fixed-length records into a first and second (DST) formats, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) interactively using the manual input means, display screen and processor to define, without manually coding a computer program, a first DST overlay including mapping coordinates:
• (b) formatting at least one segment of data in the fixed file format into the first DST format by moving elements of the data about in accordance with mapping coordinates contained in the first DST overlay;
• (c) storing the data formatted in step (B) in a DST file in a mass memory device;
• (d) interactively using the manual input means, display screen and processor to define, without manually coding a computer program, a second DST overlay including mapping coordinates;
• (e) formatting at least one segment of data in the fixed file format into the second DST format by moving elements of the data about in accordance with mapping coordinates contained in the second DST overlay;
• and
• (f) storing the data formatted in step (e) in a DST file in a mass memory device.

In a programmable machine system for operating on business transaction data in different dictionary-structured transaction (DST) formats, said machine system including a plurality of system components including manual input means, a display screen, processor, and memory;

• a method of creating a data entry overlay to help minimize manual input of data comprising the steps of:
• interactively using the manual input means, display screen, processor and memory to define, without manually coding a computer program, a basic data entry DST overlay having an ordered sequence of elements and mapping coordinates of given elements to related fields of the display screen by specifying an overlay code and a transaction type code;
• and
• customizing the basic data entry overlay thus defined by modifying at least one of the characteristics provided in the basic data entry overlay.