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What is EDI Format ?

Connect and process EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) files in syncX: Stock Sync by mapping fixed-length plain text columns to your store product fields.

How to Set Up an EDI File

Go to App → Feed Settings → Step 1: Feed Manager

Upload or Select Source: Select EDI as your file format or upload your plain text EDI file.
Determine Column Character Lengths: Measure the start and end character positions for each data field in your EDI file using a text analyzer tool like Online Text Tools.
Assign Column Indices: Map the calculated character index range to the corresponding product destination field in Step 2: Matching Column.

You can use online character length calculators to identify the exact position and character width of each column in raw EDI files.

EDI File Mapping Breakdown

An EDI file follows Electronic Data Interchange standards, storing inventory and product information in a fixed-width, plain-text format.

1. Plain Text EDI Structure

Standard fixed-width EDI files do not use traditional delimiters like commas or tabs; instead, fields are defined by fixed character lengths across each line.

Example of plain text EDI file structure

2. Calculating Column Ranges & Index Mapping

Assign each data column a character range calculated by adding the field's length to the ending index of the previous field.

Demonstration of mapping fixed-length text columns to indices

Example Range Calculation: If the first column spans character positions 1 to 35, and the second column has a length of 12 characters, the second column index is mapped as 36-48 (36 + 12 = 48, spanning index 36 to 48).

Always verify that character counts account for trailing spaces within fixed-width fields.

Key Rules & Technical Details

Unsupported Formats: Standard EDI X12 846 segment-based transaction formats are currently NOT supported.

syncX: Stock Sync does not support standard EDI X12 846 segment formats.

Unsupported EDI X12 846 format example

Troubleshooting Steps

Issue: Fields are truncated or contain extra characters → Solution: Recalculate character lengths using a text length analyzer tool and update your column index ranges in Step 2.
Issue: EDI X12 846 file fails to parse → Solution: Convert the file into a standard fixed-width plain text layout, CSV, or XML format before processing in syncX.

Good Articles to Continue

[Supported File Types and Formats] → Overview of supported inventory file formats including CSV, XML, XLSX, and JSON.
[How to Map Columns in Step 2] → Complete guide to mapping source indices to store destination fields.

Updated on: 14/10/2026

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