EFI segment

For the 841 transaction set, an Electronic Format Identification (EFI) segment precedes a group of repeating BIN segments. The EFI segment provides information about the binary data file.

WebSphere Partner Gateway provides special processing for only the following data elements in the EFI segment:

File name: The EDI standard essentially defines file name as free format with a maximum length of 64 characters. Its format depends on the computer operating system being used. Accordingly, WebSphere Partner Gateway treats this element as a fully qualified data set name, including the owner ID. A file name value with a length greater than 44 characters (the maximum length of a data set name) will be ignored.

Block type: The standard defines block type as free format with a maximum length of 4 characters. Its value indicates the organization of data in the BIN segments. Examples are fixed length, variable length, and spanned.

However, the definition does not provide any codes to represent the organizations, such as F for fixed and V for variable. In the absence of standard codes, WebSphere Partner Gateway interprets the block type as a string of characters that can have the following values:

A: ASA printer control characters

B: Block

F: Fixed

M: Machine code printer control characters

S: Spanned

U: Undefined

V: Variable

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003, 2005