How to disable segment ordering validation?

Question

I'm receiving an EDIFACT message that I need to process using Biztalk. When Biztalk picks up the file, it puts an error entry in Event Log:

Error: 2 (Segment level error) SegmentID: MEA Position in TS: 5442 15: Use of segment, data-type or segment not supported in this position

I have investigated the issue and I've found that MEA segment is in incorrect place. I tried converting this EDI file using Stylus Studio and I had same problem until I disabled segment ordering validation. After that Stylus successfully converted the file to XML. So I wonder, is there any way I can disable segment ordering validation in Biztalk also? I have disabled EdiDataValidation and XmlSchemaValidation on receive pipeline, but I still get the error. Any idea?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are two possible workarounds to this situation:

1. Change the 'Group Order Type' setting of the parent element in your BizTalk schema from 'Sequence' to 'Choice'. You will also need to change the 'Group Max Occurs' setting from the default to 'Unbounded'
2. Modify your BizTalk schema so that the MEA segment is in the place expected by your specification. The EDI schemas that ship with BizTalk are a set of baselines, not definitive. Most B2B scenarios will require the customisation of these schema to meet your business requirements with your trading partner(s).

These two above are, as mentioned, workarounds. The best solution would be to convince your trading partner to modify their outbound document to adhere to the documented EDIFACT standard, and move the MEA segment to the correct position.