ROUND-TRIP

Round-trip. The property of a payload to survive a conversion round-trip between two EDI formats without information loss.

Definition

Round-trip characterises the ability of a payload to be converted from a source format (EDIFACT) to a target format (UBL) and converted back to the original source format with no information loss: every field, value, qualifier, element order must be restored identically. Round-trip is a critical quality test for validating the completeness of a bidirectional mapping library.

Origin

The round-trip notion emerged with the formalisation of canonical models in the 2000s, particularly around the Open Applications Group (OAGIS) and UBL. UN/CEFACT published in 2013 recommendations on round-trip testing in its Cross Industry Invoice interoperability document. Today, round-trip is a mandatory certification criterion for most commercial EDI Translators and mapping platforms.

Example in context

Take an EDIFACT INVOIC D.96A invoice. The round-trip test consists of: (1) converting it to UBL 2.1 via a documented mapping, (2) reloading the UBL 2.1 and converting back to EDIFACT INVOIC via the inverse mapping, (3) comparing byte-for-byte to the original. Any divergence betrays an incomplete mapping: FTX segments or customised UNCL codes are often the first victims. A flawless round-trip across the full EANCOM message set is a quality hallmark of an EDI Translator.

Related terms

• Mapping — the transformation tested by round-trip.
• Converter — component that must ensure round-trip.
• Pre-validation — step that detects some round-trip losses before sending.