United Nations Directories for Electronic Data Interchange for
Administration, Commerce and Transport
UN/EDIFACT
United Nations Directories for Electronic Data Interchange for |
Message Type : GENRAL
Version : D
Release : 01C
Contr. Agency: UN
Revision : 3
Date : 2001-11-07
SOURCE: D2 Purchasing (SWG)
CONTENTS
General purpose message
0. INTRODUCTION
1. SCOPE
1.1 Functional definition
1.2 Field of application
1.3 Principles
2. REFERENCES
3. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
3.1 Standard terms and definitions
4. MESSAGE DEFINITION
4.1 Segment clarification
4.2 Segment index (alphabetical sequence by tag)
4.3 Message structure
4.3.1 Segment table
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For general information on UN standard message types see UN Trade Data
Interchange Directory, UNTDID, Part 4, Section 2.3, UN/ECE UNSM
General Introduction
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0. INTRODUCTION
This specification provides the definition of the General
purpose message (GENRAL) to be used in Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) between trading partners involved in
administration, commerce and transport.
1. SCOPE
1.1 Functional definition
A message to enable the transmission of textual information.
1.2 Field of application
The General purpose message may be used for both national and
international applications. It is based on universal practice
related to administration, commerce and transport, and is not
dependent on the type of business or industry.
1.3 Principles
This message:
- may be used to send general application support information
to one or multiple addresses.
- may be used to send required data for which there is no
specific standard message.
- MUST not be used as a substitute for an existing UNSM under
development, under trial or at approved status. Nor should it
be used to avoid the development of a more specific application
message.
- is not designed or intended to be used as a replacement for
existing electronic mail systems.
The GENRAL message was designed primarily to
. facilitate early transmission testing between new EDI
partners;
. broadcasting of known problem areas to EDI partners;
. transmission of text (preferably structured or coded) to
supplement or further clarify previously transmitted EDI
standard messages, e.g. to stress that provision data is for
test purposes only contains known errors to test out error
routines.
. transmission of small amounts of structured text where no
existing messages exist, e.g. computer listings.
2. REFERENCES
See UNTDID, Part 4, Chapter 2.3 UN/ECE UNSM - General
Introduction, Section 1.
3. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
3.1 Standard terms and definitions
See UNTDID, Part 4, Chapter 2.3 UN/ECE UNSM - General
Introduction, Section 2.
4. MESSAGE DEFINITION
4.1 Segment clarification
This section should be read in conjunction with the segment
table which indicates mandatory, conditional and repeating
requirements.
The following guidelines and principles apply to the whole
message and are intended to facilitate the understanding and
implementation of the message:
All specified dates/times should be in the format
'yymmdd'/'hhmm' unless all parties involved in the transaction
agree that there is a functional requirement for an alternative
format. Periods should be specified as whole numbers
representing the required period as indicated in the format
qualifier (weeks, months, etc.)
Where a choice of code or text is given only the code element
should be used wherever possible.
Conditional data that is not required in the message should not
be included.
Care must be taken to ensure that the segment qualifier in
dependent segments do not conflict with the segment qualifier
of the trigger segment of a group.
Free text information within the message should be avoided as
this inhibits automatic processing.
0010 UNH, Message header
A service segment starting and uniquely identifying a message.
The message type code for the General purpose message is
GENRAL.
Note: General purpose messages conforming to this document must
contain the following data in segment UNH, composite S009:
Data element 0065 GENRAL
0052 D
0054 01C
0051 UN
0020 BGM, Beginning of message
A segment to indicate the type and function of the GENRAL
message and to transmit its unique identifying number.
0030 DTM, Date/time/period
A segment specifying general dates, and when relevant, times
related to the whole message.
0040 Segment group 1: RFF-DTM
A group of segments giving references where necessary, their
dates relating to the whole message, e.g. despatch advice,
contract number.
0050 RFF, Reference
A segment for referencing documents relating to the whole
message, e.g. despatch advice, purchase orders, delivery
instructions.
0060 DTM, Date/time/period
Date/time/period as applied to the referenced document.
0070 Segment group 2: NAD-LOC-SG3-SG4
A group of segments identifying names, addresses and locations,
and referred documents relevant for the whole message.
0080 NAD, Name and address
A segment for identifying name and addresses of a party and
their functions relevant for the whole message.
Identification of the sender and receiver parties are
mandatory for the message.
It is recommended that where possible only the coded form of
the party ID should be specified.
0090 LOC, Place/location identification
A segment indicating more details regarding specific
place/location related to the party specified in the NAD
segment, e.g. internal site/building number.
0100 Segment group 3: RFF-DTM
A group of segments giving references only relevant to the
specified party rather than to the whole message.
0110 RFF, Reference
A segment for referencing documents relating to the party
specified by the NAD segment.
0120 DTM, Date/time/period
A segment for date/time/period as related to the referred
document.
0130 Segment group 4: CTA-COM
A group of segments giving contact details of the specific
person or department within the party identified in the NAD
segment.
0140 CTA, Contact information
A segment to identify the person, function, department to
whom communication should be directed.
0150 COM, Communication contact
A segment to identify communication types and numbers for
person, function, department identified in CTA.
0160 Segment group 5: FTX-SG6
A group of segments enabling the specification of the text and
optionally, the identification of other parties or locations to
whom the information should be directed.
0170 FTX, Free text
A segment to identify the text type and reason, and to
specify the relevant agreed information.
0180 Segment group 6: NAD-LOC-SG7-SG8
A group of segments allowing the specification of the name
and address of a party, within the receiving party
identified in the heading section, to whom the preceding
text should be distributed. It also allows to specify the
name and address of a party advised as copyreader of this
text.
0190 NAD, Name and address
A segment for identifying names and addresses.
It is recommended that where possible the coded form of
the party identification should be specified.
0200 LOC, Place/location identification
A segment indicating more details regarding specific
place/location related to the party specified in the NAD
segment, e.g. internal site/building number.
0210 Segment group 7: RFF-DTM
A group of segments giving references only relevant to
the specified party rather than the whole message.
0220 RFF, Reference
A segment for referencing documents relating to the
party specified by the NAD segment.
0230 DTM, Date/time/period
A segment for date/time/period as related to the
referenced document.
0240 Segment group 8: CTA-COM
A group of segments giving contact details of the
specific person or department within the party identified
in the NAD segment.
0250 CTA, Contact information
A segment to identify person, function, department to
whom communication should be directed.
0260 COM, Communication contact
A segment to identify communication types and numbers
for person, function, department identified in CTA.
0270 UNT, Message trailer
A service segment ending a message, giving the total number of
segments in the message (including the UNH & UNT) and the
control reference number of the message.
4.2 Segment index (alphabetical sequence by tag)
BGM Beginning of message
COM Communication contact
CTA Contact information
DTM Date/time/period
FTX Free text
LOC Place/location identification
NAD Name and address
RFF Reference
UNH Message header
UNT Message trailer
4.3 Message structure
4.3.1 Segment table
Pos Tag Name S R
0010 UNH Message header M 1
0020 BGM Beginning of message M 1
0030 DTM Date/time/period C 1
0040 ----- Segment group 1 ------------------ C 10----------+
0050 RFF Reference M 1 |
0060 DTM Date/time/period C 10----------+
0070 ----- Segment group 2 ------------------ C 2-----------+
0080 NAD Name and address M 1 |
0090 LOC Place/location identification C 5 |
|
0100 ----- Segment group 3 ------------------ C 10---------+|
0110 RFF Reference M 1 ||
0120 DTM Date/time/period C 10---------+|
|
0130 ----- Segment group 4 ------------------ C 5----------+|
0140 CTA Contact information M 1 ||
0150 COM Communication contact C 9----------++
0160 ----- Segment group 5 ------------------ C 100---------+
0170 FTX Free text M 1 |
|
0180 ----- Segment group 6 ------------------ C 100--------+|
0190 NAD Name and address M 1 ||
0200 LOC Place/location identification C 5 ||
||
0210 ----- Segment group 7 ------------------ C 10--------+||
0220 RFF Reference M 1 |||
0230 DTM Date/time/period C 10--------+||
||
0240 ----- Segment group 8 ------------------ C 5---------+||
0250 CTA Contact information M 1 |||
0260 COM Communication contact C 5---------+++
0270 UNT Message trailer M 1
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