Partners and connections

The partner is the central setting of NCS-EDI. It holds everything needed to exchange data with exactly one business partner: their identifiers, the transport channel and the syntax details of their messages. Every partner is linked to a SAP business partner.

What is this for?

• Maintain the partner identifiers (GLN, ID qualifier).
• Define the channel and the base path used for transmission.
• Describe the syntax of their messages – separators, character set, date format.
• Use test partner to run a partner in trial mode without producing real documents.

How to set it up

1. Create the partner and link it to the business partner in SAP.
2. Enter the identifiers the partner uses under GLN and ID qualifier.
3. Choose the channel and provide the base path used for transmission.
4. Set the message characteristics on the syntax tab: syntax version, separators (segment term., element sep., component sep.), release char, decimal mark, date format, encoding and whether a UNA segment is written.
5. List the message types exchanged with this partner under messages.
6. Define how duplicate incoming messages are handled via on duplicate.
7. Start with test partner set, then switch the partner active.

Fields of the form

Captions taken from the "NCS-EDI partner" form (table @NCSEDI_PARTNER).

Field	Meaning
Partner	Unique key of the partner.
Name	Name of the record.
Tenant	Tenant the partner belongs to.
GLN	Global location number of the partner.
Active	Enables the record. Only active records are evaluated.
Test partner	Trial mode – messages are processed but not posted productively.
General	Tab holding the partner master data.
Syntax	Tab holding the syntax characteristics of the messages.
Messages	Tab listing the agreed message types.
ID qualifier	Type of identifier the partner uses.
Business partner	Linked business partner in SAP Business One.
Channel	Transport channel, such as AS2, SFTP or a monitored folder.
Base path	Base directory for the exchange with this partner.
On duplicate	Behaviour when a message arrives twice.
Character set	Character set of the messages.
Syntax version	Version of the EDIFACT syntax in use.
Segment term.	Character terminating a segment.
Element sep.	Separator between data elements.
Component sep.	Separator inside a data element.
Release char	Release character allowing separators to be sent as text.
Decimal mark	Decimal mark used in numeric values.
Date format	Format of date values.
Encoding	Encoding of the file.
Write UNA	Writes the UNA segment with the separators at the start of the message.
Valid from