Our rules engine has functions to manipulate almost anything – modify text, calculate numbers, use conditional logic, or execute other data changes. But for some truly complex, yet common tasks, that might require stitching together quite a number of functions to get the result you need.

For example, take setting the item status code on the 855 (Purchase Order Acknowledgement). Let's say your trading partner ordered 10 cases of pencils at $10.00 per case. Unfortunately though, your trading partner's information is out of date, so they didn't know the price per case is now actually $10.50. As a result, in the PO Acknowledgement, you need to set the status for the item as 'IP' to signify that the actual price is different from what was specified in the 850 (Purchase Order). This might be a problem if your integrated system of record doesn't store the original 850 as it was received, but instead simply overwrites the price with the new value.

Here's the logic we would need to execute in order to set the item status:

• We need to find the original 850
• We need to match each line item in the 850 with the corresponding line item in the 855 (extra hard depending on how your trading partner references an item)
• We need to compare the price
• We need to compare the quantity
• We need to compare the units of measure

That's a lot of logic to write for a single element. In fact, with our existing functions, it would take over 60 deeply-nested functions – not something easily done!

Enter the smart rule! With smart rules, we give you the ability to execute pre-written, common EDI tasks in a single line. All of the above can be accomplished with a single function call to SMART("itemStatusCode") as seen below:

Check out the documentation or try it yourself in Orderful today.

Changelog

• added: New SMART function
• fixed: Turnaround rule business number reference were broken
• fixed: Empty guidelines codes always caused a validation error

Orderful transaction schemas contain everything needed to capture X12 EDI data. However sometimes you might want to add your own loosely-formatted data to a transaction and then manipulate it later.

For example you might have an integration that always expects an element called Date to be populated. However you suspect various trading partners could populate it in similar but different elements. Instead of an expensive and time-consuming change to your integration every time you add a new trading partner you could simply create a user defined property called expectedDate and use the rules engine to set that conditionally depending on how your trading partner sets data. That way your integration never changes.

See below to watch how easy it is to set the user defined properties in the UI

Every loop and segment accepts a userDefined element so for outbound transactions you can even define it in your integration before the transaction is created. This might be helpful if you have additional data available in your ERP but you're not sure where to map it during your integration. You can add it to the user defined element and then use the rules engine to retrieve it later if the need arises, once again eliminating the need for a costly code change.

Changelog

• added: New SET and OBJECT functions to allow user defined object creation
• added: UI to toggle userDefined element creation

While the transaction list view in the Orderful UI is a great place to see all your transactions at a glance sometimes some graphical sizzle makes it even easier to know your EDI transactions are flowing correctly. Say no more and prepare to meet our new dashboard.

Overview

The dashboard is a collapsible set of graphs that show easily digestible views of your transaction status and historical distribution at a glance.

Filtering

The dashboard responds to the same filters as the previous list view. For convenience we've added granular date filters.

Contextual Information

Hover your cursor over various parts of the graphs for details

No changes are needed on your part. Chat with an EDI expert to learn more!

Changelog

• added: Dashboard

We're proud to announce the launch of our new web form feature. Now you can create a new transaction directly in the UI. Whether you want to use it to try out Orderful before you integrate your ERP or you just prefer to key all your transactions by hand, web forms are ready for you.

Forms are based off Orderful transaction types so they're available for any current and future transaction types. Also they're built against your trading partners' guidelines so you'll always be able to enter exactly what you need.

Overview

To start, go the the transaction list and click 'New Transaction'.

Then simply fill out the form and your transaction will be created.

Create an account here and try it today!

Changelog

• added: Web form creation UI for all transaction types

Money isn't everything but it's important. It's worth making sure it's right. So we're introducing the first of a series of decimal/currency based functions to help format currency values.

FIXED

Sometimes your integrated system may produce currency values that look more like decimals like this

However your trading partner expects currency values in the resulting X12 transaction that look like this

Worry no more with the addition of our new FIXED() functions. Read the documentation for more

Changelog

• added: FIXED function

New year, new documents to trade. Today we're happy to launch support for the following new transaction types:

• 180 Return Merchandise Authorization and Notification
• 290 Cooperative Advertising Agreements
• 816 Organizational Relationships
• 832 Price/Sales Catalog
• 846 Inventory Inquiry/Advice
• 877 Manufacturer Coupon Family Code Structure
• 881 Manufacturer Coupon Redemption Detail
• 885 Retail Account Characteristics
• 887 Coupon Notification
• 888 Item Maintenance

Changelog

• added: 10 new transaction types

Turn around rules

When entering EDI data into your system of record (ERP, TMS etc) sometimes there's not a place for all data in a transaction. This might be fine for your use but sometimes your trading partner is expecting that data back as part of a different transaction. For example they send you an Order with a certain identifier on the items that doesn't mean much to you but they want it back when you send the invoice. Instead of making costly ERP customizations a turn around rule can help!

By allowing you to select data from a previous transaction turn around rules can help you give your trading partners exactly what they want without modifying your system.

You select the other type of transaction you want to pull data from.

Then tell the rules engine how to find the exact transaction of that type and what value(s) to select.

For more details check our documentation.

Selected path display above the expression editor

Do you ever go to enter a rule and then scroll away from the field you're editing? It's okay, we all do. Now the path will be displayed above the expression editor for reference

Changelog

• added: Turn around rule support
• added: Display selected path above function editor
• fixed: Loop guideline validation errors causes transaction view to crash

Having trouble signing up for the world's best EDI provider? No worries, we've got you covered. We've added more obvious and descriptive errors when you try to sign-up with a username or organization that's already been used.

Changelog

• added: Validation error messages on username/email and ISA ID fields

Changelog

• fixed: Upon creating a rule sometimes the status and transaction diff were out of sync
• added: Expressions to guidelines

To make rule creation easier we've added more contextual highlighting. Now as you enter arguments to a function we'll highlight the argument in the function description display.

Sometimes it's good to be explicit, especially when deleting rules. No longer do you have to erase the rule and save. We've made it more clear and saved you a click.

We thought the function bar looked a little bland so we added a funky math word for function f(x) and also made it more clear whether you were creating a document rule or relationship rule

Changelog

• added: Function argument highlighting
• added: Delete button
• improved: Function bar
• fixed: A few typos