X12 Character Set Differences

Mohsin,

I am using Biztalk 2006 R2 Beta release and when I look at the properties for the EDIReceive pipeline component, the CharacterSet is set to UTF8. According to your earlier comments, it appears that UTF8 should allow the special character >. However when I test it with a sample EDI-820 file that has > it does not work. Taking out that special character > makes it work. I have even tried changing the EdiDataValidation property for the receive pipeline to False and that did not work either. Let me know if there is anything else I can try to resolve this issue.

I am disassembling the file and using the standard X12_00304_820.xsd schema. Attached below is the error message I receive

Error encountered during parsing. The X12 transaction set with id '0001' contained in functional group with id '176994', in interchange with id '000178113', with sender id 'B215T ', receiver id '005037726 ' is being suspended with following errors:

Error: 1 (Field level error)
SegmentID: NTE
Position in TS: 66
Data Element ID: NTE02
Position in Segment: 2
Data Value:
6: Invalid character in data element
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The sample 820 file that is causing the above error is pasted below. As you can see the special character > is used in the NTE segment of this file.

ISA~00~ ~00~ ~ZZ~B215T ~01~005037726 ~070907~2008~U~00401~000178113~0~P~>*
GS~RA~B215T~005037726~070907~2008~176994~X~003040*
ST~820~0001*
BPR~I~+1689817.11~C~ACH~~01~700 00000~~700~9B69KA0000~~~~~~070910~VEN*
TRN~3~000312071~9B69KA0000*
N1~PR~FORD MOTOR COMPANY~92~B69KA*
N2~CENTRAL ACCOUNTING SERVICES*
N1~PE~FLUID HANDLING SYSTEMS~92~B215T*
PER~AP~~TE~408-856-3322*
ENT~1~~~~SU~92~B215T*
N1~SU~FLUID HANDLING SYSTEMS*
RMR~IV~ G061478-00~~-749.00~-749.00~+.00*
NTE~PAY~ FOR DEDUCTIONS THIS MONTH REFER TO>*
NTE~PAY~ CONCERN NO.> G061478 QR NO.> G061478-00*
NTE~PAY~ CALL> DOROTHY MARTIN 816-459-1246*
NTE~PAY~ FOR DEDUCTIONS THIS MONTH REFER TO>*
NTE~PAY~ CONCERN NO.> G061478 QR NO.> G061478-00*
NTE~PAY~ CALL> DOROTHY MARTIN 816-459-1246*
REF~TN~7248C0010386B*
REF~PE~AP06*
RMR~IV~ G061518-00~~-509.76~-509.76~+.00*
NTE~PAY~ FOR DEDUCTIONS THIS MONTH REFER TO>*
NTE~PAY~ CONCERN NO.> G061518 QR NO.> G061518-00*
NTE~PAY~ CALL> MICHAEL J. TUCKER 816-414-5756*
NTE~PAY~ FOR DEDUCTIONS THIS MONTH REFER TO>*
NTE~PAY~ CONCERN NO.> G061518 QR NO.> G061518-00*
NTE~PAY~ CALL> MICHAEL J. TUCKER 816-414-5756*
REF~TN~7248C0010387B*
REF~PE~AP06*
SE~28~0001*
GE~1~176994*
IEA~1~000178113*

Genuine- Thanks for this tip. After I made the change to the ISA segment in the input file to replace the > with ' I was able to successfully process the file using Biztalk R2. The ISA segment as it came orignially was as below

ISA~00~ ~00~ ~ZZ~B215T ~01~005037726 ~070907~2008~U~00401~000178113~0~P~>*

and after modification is was as below

ISA~00~ ~00~ ~ZZ~B215T ~01~005037726 ~070907~2008~U~00401~000178113~0~P~'*

I have a concern regarding this though. In my example the component element seperator is ~ and the segment element seperator is *. Why should Biztalk care about the > in the ISA segment and not allow that character in the notes segment. Besides this is a file that is coming from Ford and I do not have any control over the use of any other character other than > in the ISA segment. Let me know your thoughts.

Genuine- As you mentioned in your reply "In an X12 interchange, the segment terminator is defined as the character in the last character position of the ISA segment" and if you look at my sample file, the last character in the ISA segment is * and not >. In fact if you look at all the lines in the sample file, the last character of each line is an * followed by CR/LF which I would think denotes that * is the segment terminator. Am I missing something? Please let me know.