Home

4. Managed File Transfer Tutorial

EME 1.2.2


Table of Contents


4. Managed File Transfer Tutorial


Managed File Transfer (MFT) is made very easy with BIT EME. For both inbound messages (Trading Partner to you) and outbound messages (you to Trading Partner), simply create a Trading Partner profile in the EME interface. This will create and enable you to manage the necessary settings in both Protocol Proxy and EME for the sending and receiving of messages for that Trading Partner.

In both Protocol Proxy and EME, "inbound" and "outbound" always refer to the point of view of the Enterprise (you), never from the point of view of the Trading Partner. "Inbound" always refers to messages coming from the Trading Partner TO you; "outbound" always refers to messages going FROM you to the Trading Partner.

EME will automatically create different inbound and outbound directories for each Trading Partner that is integrated. ("Integration" on a Trading Partner profile is explained in Section 4.1.1.)

EME reads files from and writes files to directories in the default setup for Managed File Transfer. However it is capable of integrating to many different systems with a wide range protocols. For more information or help integrating with your internal systems, please Contact Us.


4.1. Hello World Example


In this section, we will create a fictional Trading Partner (hello) for you to test sending and receiving messages.

Verify that BOTH Protocol Proxy and EME are running before proceeding with this tutorial.


4.1.1. Add Trading Partner


Login to EME: http://localhost:8888

username password
admin password


Go to the Trading Partner tab and click Create new Trading Partner.

You will see a screen similar to below.


Fill out the form and save:

    In the Trading Partner section:
      Set the Name to hello.
      Set the Password to world.
      The Active field defaults as checked.
        It is VERY important that the Active field is checked. This controls a Trading Partner's access to Protocol Proxy, to drop off and pick up messages.

Name and Password are mandatory; the other fields are optional or for informational purposes only.



If your new Trading Partner is successfully created in both Protocol Proxy and EME, the screen will refresh. You will see "Trading Partners > HELLO" at the top, left of the screen, and the Integrations section will now appear on the right side of the screen.


Now that we have created the Trading Partner HELLO, we will set up a workflow to manage the steps required so this Trading Partner can send a message inbound to us.

In the Integrations section, select MFT Inbound in the Add drop-down box and name the workflow Hello World by entering it in the blank field. Click the Add button.

You will see a screen similar to below.



At this point, EME will contact Protocol Proxy every 60 seconds to send any outbound messages or retrieve any inbound messages for any active Trading Partners.


You will see the four basic steps that default for an MFT Inbound workflow. You can modify, add, or delete workflow steps as needed. For example, you can change endpoints, or add transformations or decryption. Any changes made are effective immediately - you do not need to perform a system reboot.

Click the name of the workflow, Hello World, to edit the workflow steps. You will see a screen similar to below.


4.1.2. Send Inbound Message


Now we can test sending an inbound message as the new Protocol Proxy trading partner we just created, hello. We are going to use the Protocol Proxy Web Portal, which is the web interface that is available to your trading partners. A real trading partner can use any of the protocols supported by Protocol Proxy without any changes.


Login to the Protocol Proxy Web Portal with our newly created user: http://localhost/proxy-portal

username password
hello world


Click the Upload tab to select a file to send to Protocol Proxy.

You will see a screen similar to below.


You will specify what type of file it is, either binary or text. Let's send the text file that is posted on our Download page as a zip archive. It is an EDI standard 810 invoice. Using the Browse tool, select the file 810.edi from the directory where you extracted it from the zip archive. Change the Content Type selection to Text.

Microsoft Word files, Microsoft Excel files, and PDFs are actually binary file types.

When you have selected the file, click upload.

After the upload, the screen refreshes to view the Inbox tab. You will see the file listed, similar to the screen below.



Once EME has successfully retrieved the file, it will remove it from the Inbox in Protocol Proxy. If you refresh this screen after 60 seconds, it will have been removed.


After 60 seconds, let's check EME to see the retrieved message from Protocol Proxy. There are two places to see the file: the file directory where EME stores the file, and the EME Message Viewer.

Let's check the EME Message Viewer. You can see any inbound or outbound files that EME has sent or received.


Login to EME and go to the Messages tab: http://localhost:8888

username password
admin password


Here you can view the message payload and any properties that EME assigned to help route the message to the final destination. The properties contain the Protocol Proxy user that sent the message, the original filename, and the timestamp it was received. Click the Message and it will display the payload of the message.

Binary messages are NOT human readable so you can only view the properties for those messages.

You will see a screen similar to below.



Now let's check the directory. This is where you would retrieve the messages from EME, either manually or programmatically:

    {BIT_EME_HOME}/eme-{version}/MFT/hello/in


The file you uploaded will be in this directory. Go ahead and open it to verify.


4.1.3. Send Outbound Message


Now we will test sending a message to our test Trading Partner, hello. We are going to put a text file into the directory that EME is polling for the Trading Partner hello. Every 60 seconds, EME scans the directory and sends any files it finds to Protocol Proxy for the Trading Partner. Then we will check the Protocol Proxy Outbox for the Trading Partner hello like your real Trading Partners.


Copy a text file to the following directory:

    {BIT_EME_HOME}/eme-{version}/MFT/hello/out


After 60 seconds, login to the Protocol Proxy Web Portal as hello to verify the file arrived: http://localhost/proxy-portal

username password
hello world


Go to the Outbox page to view the message. You can download the message from this page.

When real Trading Partners download a message from Protocol Proxy successfully, they will need to Delete the message. This allows them to download a message as often as is needed, and remove it only when they have successfully processed it.

You will see a screen similar to below.


You can also check the EME Message viewer to see when the outbound message was sent, so you always have a history of inbound and outbound files in EME.


Login to EME and go to the Messages tab: http://localhost:8888

username password
admin password



4.1.4. Workflow


Now we will explain in more detail the Integrations section of the Trading Partner profile, where you can manage workflow. Workflow refers to processing that needs to take place on a message. For inbound messages (to the enterprise), this would consist of actions required for the file to be processed by your enterprise application(s). For outbound messages (to the trading partner), this would entail tasks they have requested before you transmit the data to them. Some examples include PGP encryption/decryption, data transformation (data mapping), application of an XSLT, and translation of the filename.

To add or modify workflow steps, click the Trading Partner tab. For this tutorial, click hello to go to the Trading Partner profile we added earlier. Click Hello World in the Integration section. In this example, we will add workflow steps for inbound messages.

The available workflow steps appear in a drop-down box. Click to see the list of options.

    To add decryption, select PGP Decrypt and click Add.
      You will be prompted to enter the PGP Key File name and the Private Key Pass Phrase.
    To transform an X12 standard EDI message to your internal XML standard, 2 steps are required.
    1. Select X12 to XML and click Add.
    2. Select XSLT and click Add.
      You will be prompted to enter the Stylesheet filename. For this example, enter 810_to_invoice, which was included in the .ZIP package as an example.
    To translate a filename, select Filename Translate and click Add.
      You will be prompted to enter the Filename parameters for how you need the filename formatted. You will see a list of currently supported parameters.


This is the end of the tutorial. You have learned how to:
  • add a Trading Partner
  • send files inbound - from a Trading Partner
  • send files outbound - to a Trading Partner
  • view the inbound and outbound messages in the EME Message Viewer
  • add Workflow steps, such as:
    • decrypt
    • transform (data map)
    • apply XSLT for BDP
    • translate filename


Table of Contents