Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

Transaction Set Grammar

The grammar of X12 transaction sets is the most complex grammar we'll deal with in this book. In addition to having a complex grammar of segments, composite data structures, and data elements, we also have defined segment groups.

It is important to note again here that, unlike some approaches to converting X12 transaction sets to XML, I'm not doing an exact isomorphic representation of a physical X12 transaction set. I'm doing a logical representation of an X12 transaction set. Specifically, segment groups aren't visible as such in a transaction set, and while we can certainly identify composite data structures by their delimiters, they aren't necessarily highly visible as logical units. I show both structures explicitly ...