ZenCart! + EDI?

[yelow]

Hey everyone. I'm posting a general question, I've not been able to come up with a concrete answer for this.

I'm interested in using EDI ([ur=http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+electronic+data+interchange]Electronic Data Interchange[/url]) with my ZenCart! installation. I have a ton of objects to put in, and my distributor said this was their standard practice.

The reason I'm asking is that this is the answer given to me by the rep when asked for a .csv of their catalog.

Is this a matter of their security or just a diff. system? And is there an EDI module(?) or something to plug-n-pray over?

-Tim

thanks

[stevesh]

EDI is just term that refers to a set of standards agreed upon by sender and recipient, and can be as simple as .csv (or .doc, for that matter) files emailed back and forth, as long as both parties agree as to format, etc. The idea is that each piece of information will be in the same place and in the same format in each type of document, so the documents can be machine-read at both ends.

The standards are usually set by the party with the most power in the relationship (if you want to do business with Walmart, you use, and pay through the nose for, their forms).

There are standards set by www.x12.org, but your supplier may or may not adhere to them.

You'll need to know exactly in what format your supplier intends to supply the information before you (we) can decide if Zencart can handle it.

[yelow]

...so...there's no way to edit posts?

thanks Steve, you seem to be my knight in shining markup.
I may add, not only mine alone, this entire forums seems to have an even spread of people asking questions and you answering them.

I was promised some kind of EDI file, and yea, EDI just means that the person sending the file and the person receiving it both follow the same data standards, but there are some very specific rules, such as a very rigid and unwavering data structure, *s to separate data, ~s to separate rows, and I forget what else.

I actually have a few powerpoint presentations on the, um, benefits of standard-structure EDI (I guess standard at least to the company that released said standards) and it's nothing like the spreadsheets I'm uploading for my catalog.

I hope I'm not going to have to sit and manually copy row after row of data from one file to another...

thanks again,

-Tim