Business Central - Data Exchange Definitions - Documentation?

bhalpin

Hi.

Apologies if this is in the wrong area.

I am fighting with a data exchange definition to export an EFT file. Maybe I've missed it, but is there ANY documentation about these that is more then just a skim over the surface as in MS Learn?

Thanks in advance!

Belias

nope. It's a shame because i think it's keeping the devs away from it. Last time I used it, i've had to reverse engeneer from an existing one, and it was a struggle

bhalpin

Struggle - no kidding!

I am a "NAV" developer 13 years now - but I'm new to BC. (And I honestly hate it.) I do have ability to view base BC source code - but I really don't want to fall into that black hole.

My point-of-view is Data Exchange Definitions are supposed to be something a "user" can configure. (Ok, that may be a stretch.) But really - learn.microsoft glides over the topic making it look easy. There is no detail on stuff like the codeunit IDs, tables, etc.

And about the only YouTube video I found is titled "Setup the Data Exchange Definition for EFT". Great! But the only "setup" shown is how to remove the decimal-point from an amount. Thanks ...

And stuff like this makes me nuts: A text filler column that needs to be 1321 characters - it doesn't work! Oh - MAYBE it's the 250 character limit in vars. Yup - gang up 5 x 250-character filler columns plus a 71-character filler and it works. NO ERROR OR INFO THAT THE MAX IS 250. Like, come on ... That only wasted me a (non-billable) hour.

And, and, and ...

I have to get back to work. The customer is pissed that this "easy" setup is taking DAYS!

bhalpin

Arg. It looks like > 250 chars for filler works in other examples. Maybe ... whatever.

But here's the kicker:

Error: Bank No. must have a value in ACH RB Detail: Data Exch Entry no.-38, Data Exch. Line Def Code=Detail. ...

Great. So I go back the the base BC example I started from and I have the same mapping in my definition. So I try the original one and guess what? No vendor bank info in the output file. Back to the field mapping - and MS has those field mappings marked as "Optional'.

Well, they ain't optional ...