Why is EDI still used, and how to deal with it?
Why is this archaic format still used in the face of easier-to-use technologies? Does it provide some benefit that I'm not seeing? It seems that a large amount of vendors still provide data only in this format, instead of something more manageable and easier to use such as XML; at the least it would make sense to me to offer both formats.
Also, what are some good ways to deal with and utilize EDI when you have no other choice but to use it? Something like BizTalk is out of the question as it's far too expensive. Are there any free/open source applications that make EDI easier to work with?
Answer
EDI is not that hard to understand once you familiarize yourself with the delimiters it uses. You might ask yourself as well why anyone would still be using CSV or tab-delimited data.
The answer is probably that those formats are "domain specific languages" defined by committee and standardized in a certain industry, and that a lot of money has already been invested in supporting those formats. Where's the business case to throw that all out again?