Defining Trading Partner Data

The term "trading partner" is used differently in the context of EDI translators than in the context of the e-Commerce Gateway. For EDI translators, the purpose of trading partner data is to:

Trading partner groups are used to associate one or more trading partner definitions in e-Commerce Gateway into one logical entity. Since trading partners are defined at an address or location level within e-Commerce Gateway, trading partner groups may be used to define customers or suppliers. Trading partner groups can also be used to describe larger logical entities such as supplier categories or geographic regions.

Additionally, trading partner groups can also be associated with operating units linked to your responsibility. All trading partners within a group will then be automatically assigned to the same operating unit associated with the group.

To define a trading partner group:

  1. Navigate to the Trading Partner Groups window.

  2. Select an operating unit that is linked to your responsibility for the trading partner group.

    Note: The Operating Unit field is defaulted to the default operating unit set by the profile option MO: Default Operating Unit. This operating unit is the current operating unit that you are signing on. You can select another operating unit from the list of values if you are associated with more than one operating units.

  3. Enter a unique trading partner group identifier.

  4. Optionally, enter a description for the trading partner group.

  5. Do one of the following:

To define a trading partner within a trading partner group:

  1. The Operating Unit field displays the selected operating unit for the trading partner group.

  2. Enter a trading partner name. This trading partner will be associated with the operating unit.

  3. Optionally, enter the trading partner description.

  4. Optionally, enter references 1 and 2. This is for any additional data needed by the trading partner.

  5. Optionally, access trading partner flexfields (also known as attributes) by choosing the flexfield represented by [ ]. In order to be used, flexfields must first be defined using System Administration.

To define a trading partner assignment:

  1. In the Assignment tabbed region, associate this trading partner definition with the corresponding Oracle Applications physical address entity. This is address- or site-level data.

    Since Trading Partners within the Trading Partner group are associated with an operating unit, only those Trading Partner addresses associated with the selected operating unit will be displayed in the list of values for selection.

    When multiple operating units are associated with your responsibility, if you want to associate a different set of addresses for the same Trading Partner group and same Trading Partner, then you have to reselect the operating unit in the Trading Partner Groups form and then change the setup for the underlying Trading Partners. The operating unit is relevant to the underlying addresses only and not to the Trading Partner groups or Trading Partner headers.

  2. Do one of the following:

To define trading partner details:

  1. Open the Details tabbed region to enable transactions and define transaction-specific attributes for the trading partner.

  2. Select the document adding / receiving this document type to test transactions for this trading partner.

    This allows transactions to be marked as a test transaction even if it is extracted from a production application. This code should agree with the test / production flag defined in the EDI translator software or the trading partner application.

    For outbound transactions, the test indicator is set to T (test) on the control record 0010 in the interface data file. For inbound transactions, the test indicator is set to T for the application open interface table if the table has a test / production flag.

To define trading partner contact data: