Introducing UN/EDIFACT

15 years ago I worked with integrating services via IBM WebSphere Message Broker. Big companies needed help mapping EDIFACT messages to/from other formats. Interesting at first, mapping hell after a while. Quite interesting format, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT And message specs https://service.unece.org/trade/untdid/d20b/trmd/trmdi2.htm

USA use X12, similar thing.

Been working with EDIFACT for 25 years (and X12, TRADACOMS, and all forms of XML). EDIFACT is, in my opinion, the most efficient way to transfer structured, repetitive data structures between different systems (mostly supply-chain or logistics). Designed to be efficient in a time when a 28.8kbps modem was fast. 12 to 15 times more compact than optimized XML. Much better than XML or JSON when you are legally bound to archive invoices for 10 years. Most mesages are around or below 5kB. Only drawbacks: - if you store it in a database, you can't easily query it like you would JSON. - it only supports 1-byte encodings (EDIFACT v4 does support multi-byte encoding, but I have yet to see it used in the real world). These days, UTF-8 is everywhere. - most end users think it's a simple text format, they code quick and dirty half-baked scripts to cobble some EDIFACT-looking garbage together and call it a day. Then they grumble when it gets rejected by a real EDIFACT parser.

I worked with this interchange format for a few years developing customs brokerage and logistics software. There’s like 50 different versions of the language when you count up official EDIFACT revisions and some poorly implemented versions of it per countries customs system. At one point there was even a XML version but I don’t think it caught on.

I once unintentionally broke a particular countries customs system by sending the maximum number of messages in a single interchange envelope. System was out for 3 days whilst shipping containers couldn’t be moved out of their major seaport. Still amazed they had Christmas that year!

(1987)

Sadly, I'm currently working with EDIFACT... It is alive and kicking in Europe.

Blast from the past!