My first plugin

Purpose of this tutorial is to get your first edi configuration running.
This is done by installing plugin 'my_first_plugin'; this plugin provides a working configuration.
When run, this configuration will read and write example edi messages (provided in the plugin) from your system.
In this configuration incoming edifact orders are translated to a fixed file format.

Install plugin 'my_first_plugin'

Assumed is:

  1. You've installed bots, see installation
  2. You've managed to get bots-monitor running, see get bots running.

Now download and install plugin 'my_first_plugin'.
Instructions for installing a plugin are here.
The plugin can be downloaded from the bots sourceforge site.

Activate the route

  1. go to the routes screen: bots-monitor->Configuration->Routes
  2. note that route 'myfirstroute' is not active now (indicated by red icon)
  3. select the tick-box in front of the route 'myfirstroute'
  4. select action 'activate/de-activate'
  5. click on the 'Go'-button behind the selected action.
  6. note that route 'myfirstroute' is active now (indicated by green icon)

Run the translation

Run the translation: bots-monitor->Run->Run (Only New).
You will get notified that the bots-engine is started.
Bots-engine is the part of bots that does the translations and communications; it runs in the background. Bots-engine will be finished in approximately one second.

View the results

Now let's view the results of the translation:

  • First look at the results of the run: bots-monitor->All runs->Reports (per run). Each run of bots is represented by a line; the last run is on top.
  • View the incoming files via bots-monitor->Last run->Incoming. Click on the incoming file to see its contents.
  • View the outgoing files (the results of the translation) go to or bots-monitor->Last run->outgoing. Again: click on the file name to see its contents.

Note: this configuration reads the incoming files but does not delete them. So you can run it over and over again.

More

  • Screenshots and information about viewing the results.
  • Walk through the configuration in this plugin is here.
  • A more detailed explanation about the 'run' and what happens in a run is here.