Outbound communication channels in Orderful are used to send data out of your system of record to Orderful, creating transactions. This article covers how to send any file to Orderful via each supported outbound channel, and how to configure routing so Orderful can identify the correct relationship for each incoming file.

How routing works

Unlike standard EDI, Orderful cannot parse the content of any file to extract routing metadata.
Instead, Orderful uses four pieces of metadata to route an incoming file to the correct relationship. A fifth field — business number — is also configured here but does not affect routing; it is used for display and search in the Transaction List.

Outbound API

Unlike AS2, FTP, and SFTP channels, the API requires no additional routing configuration in Orderful.

Routing is defined directly in the request via custom headers — Orderful uses them to identify the correct relationship and create the transaction. Send any file to Orderful via the /v3/transactions/raw endpoint with the following custom routing headers:

POST /v3/transactions/raw
Content-Type: application/xml          (or application/pdf, text/csv, etc.)
orderful-api-key: <your-api-key>
custom-edi-sender-id: <sender-isa-id>
custom-edi-receiver-id: <receiver-isa-id>
custom-edi-transaction-type: RAW_INVOICE
custom-edi-stream: LIVE
custom-edi-business-number: PO-2026-00123

<raw file content>

📘

• Set Content-Type to match your file format.
• The request body is the raw file bytes — not JSON-wrapped.
• custom-edi-sender-id, custom-edi-receiver-id, custom-edi-transaction-type, custom-edi-stream are required. A request with missing headers will return a 422 error.
• custom-edi-business-number sets the business number displayed in the Transaction List and used for search. Does not affect routing. If omitted, the transaction ID is used.

Outbound AS2 / FTP / SFTP

For AS2, FTP, and SFTP channels, routing metadata cannot be passed via HTTP headers.

Instead, Orderful extracts it from the file name using regex patterns, or defaults all incoming files to a static value configured on the communication channel.

Configuring MFT advanced settings on the communication channel

Configure the MFT advanced settings on the communication channel. For each metadata field, choose one of these modes:

• Static — select a fixed value from a dropdown. Use this when all files on a given channel always come from the same sender, go to the same receiver, are the same transaction type, or are always TEST or LIVE.
• Regex — write a regular expression to extract the value from the file name.
• File Name — only available for Business Number. Defaults the business number to the file name.

📘

If the regex does not match an incoming file name at runtime, Orderful cannot route the file and you will receive an unprocessed notification.

📘

If the regex extract a transaction type or stream that isn't matching Orderful's transaction type and stream values, enable Custom Identification and fill in the mapping table to translate your extracted values to Orderful's.

Example: Your partner names their shipment status file ShipmentDispatch in their file name. The routing metadata transaction type can be configured with a regex to extract the value "ShipmentDispatch" and with a mapping table: ShipmentDispatch → SHIPMENT_STATUS.

MFT advanced settings reference