About
About ediverse
ediverse.io is an independent, bilingual, free-access editorial platform devoted to the standards behind business-to-business data exchange: EDIFACT, X12, cXML, OCI, UBL, PEPPOL, AS2, OFTP2.
Why ediverse exists
Public EDI documentation suffers from three structural problems. First, it is
fragmented: the definition of an ORDERS D.96A message does not live in
the same place as the definition of its BGM segment, which does not live in
the same place as the qualifier code lists used by its composite elements. Second, parts
of it are behind paywalls: X12 Implementation Guides (TR3) require an
ANSI subscription, and the full ISO 9735 syntax norm sits behind the ISO paywall.
Finally, it is ageing: the official sites hosting the UNECE directories
look much as they did in 2002, and several reference resources have disappeared during
institutional migrations.
Readers starting an EDI integration in 2026 deserve better. ediverse offers a reference reading: structured, sourced, verified, legible, freely accessible, and translated into the two working languages of the community.
What ediverse covers
The editorial scope is deliberately broad: the platform aims to document the entire EDI landscape, not a single standard. Four families are in scope:
- Message syntaxes: EDIFACT (UN/CEFACT), X12 (ANSI ASC X12), cXML (Ariba/SAP Business Network), OCI (SAP Open Catalog Interface), UBL (OASIS), and derived profiles such as PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0.
- Transport protocols: AS2 (RFC 4130), AS4, OFTP2 (RFC 5024), AS1, SFTP, and the historic VAN gateways.
- Identifiers and codifications: GLN, DUNS, ICD, plus UN/EDIFACT code sets (qualifiers, code lists).
- Interactive tools: syntactic validators, converters and parsers, running entirely in the browser, without sending your data to a server.
Editorial policy
Three requirements govern how ediverse pages are produced. They are formalised in the site's source repository:
- Sourcing: every technical fact cited must be tied to a primary source, listed in the site's source registry.
- No LLM invention: message structures, segment definitions, and composite element codes are never generated from model memory. They are taken from the UNECE directories, cXML DTDs, public X12 indexes, or SAP PDFs; reproduced or summarised according to applicable rights.
- Copyright respect: freely available specifications (UNECE's UN/EDIFACT directories, OASIS UBL) can be covered in full, with attribution and within their publisher's terms. OpenPeppol profiles, published without a licence, are summarised and referenced, not reproduced. Proprietary standards (X12 TR3, paid ISO norms) are covered at the conceptual level only, with original didactic examples. See the Disclaimer page for details.
Who is behind ediverse
ediverse is an independent website: it is neither sponsored, mandated, nor operated by any normative body. Error reports and proposed corrections are welcome; the Contribute page describes how.
The site's code, content and translation dictionaries are versioned in a Git repository: every change is tracked.
Bilingualism
Each page exists in French (the default locale, at the site root) and in English (under
the /en/ prefix). The two versions are edited in parallel: EDI is a
discipline rooted in two traditions (European / EDIFACT, North American / X12), and a
monolingual coverage would be incomplete. Translation is aligned term-by-term with the
glossary.
Free access
The documentation and the online tools are available without sign-up or payment. Cited primary sources keep their original licence, indicated page by page when the licence requires it.