About Inbound Relationships

To correctly receive and process information from a trading partner, you must have an appropriate inbound relationship established that defines the parameters needed to receive data files from that partner. Each inbound relationship defines which business documents are received from a partner.

You must set up several parameters that are used to create an inbound relationship. These parameters tell the system the following information:

The type of data received
The criteria the system uses to validate the information it receives
The functional groups and interchanges in which you expect to receive the documents

Translation Objects

Each inbound relationship must have one or more associated inbound translation objects. These translation objects determine how the received data is processed. You need to specify which translation objects are used to define the rules for exporting, printing, and creating turnaround documents. At a minimum, one translation object must be available.

Note: If this relationship requires a new translation object, you must register that translation object with the system before creating the inbound relationship. See Registering New Translation Objects for instructions.

Inbound Groups and Interchanges

You must define or select an inbound interchange and/or inbound functional group before the system allows you to complete the setup of an inbound relationship. The inbound functional group defines the format of the functional group and the parameters that should be used to verify it. The inbound interchange defines the format of the interchange and the parameters that should be used to verify it.

However, for some transactions, the functional group or interchange is optional and if your trading partner has chosen not to use it then it is not necessary for you to select one. Refer to the following standards to determine whether or not you are required to select an inbound functional group or interchange:

For some ANSI X12 documents, the interchange is optional and the functional group is required. However, for most documents, both an interchange and functional group are required.
For TDCC, the interchange is optional and the functional group is required.
For UCS, the interchange is required and the functional group is also required.
For EDIFACT, the interchange is required and the functional group is optional.
For ODETTE, the interchange is required and the functional group is optional.
For TRADACOMS, the Interchange is required and there is no functional group.

Note: If you do not want to use an optional functional group or interchange, you must still select <none> from the appropriate dialog box to alert the system that you are not using a group.

Process for Creating an Inbound Relationship

The following describes the process for defining an inbound relationship:

Stage	Description
1	Create a new inbound relationship.
2	Create and register the inbound translation object to be used with this relationship. See the IBM® Sterling Gentran:Server for Microsoft Windows Application Integration User Guide for more information about creating a translation object. Also see Registering New Translation Objects for more information.
3	Select at least one inbound translation object.
4	Create and select at least one inbound group to define how the document is received from this partner. Note: Depending on the standards you are using, either the functional group or interchange may be optional.
5	Create and select at least one inbound interchange to define how the document is received from this partner. Note: Depending on the standards you are using, either the functional group or interchange may be optional.
6	If you are generating functional acknowledgements as a result of receiving documents for an inbound relationship, you must set up the corresponding outbound relationship to generate the acknowledgements your partner requests. See Creating an Outbound Relationship for more information.