What is a Document Structure?

Definition

A Document Structure is a schema that tells the translation engine exactly how to read or write a file. It defines what constitutes each record type in a document — such as header, detail, and trailer records — and how to tell them apart.

It captures the full layout of a file, including:

Components

• Field Layout — For fixed-width files: start position and length of every field. For delimited files: delimiter character, field sequence, and optional qualifier. For XML/JSON: element path and expected data type.
• Data Types and Formats — Character, numeric, date formats (e.g., YYYYMMDD or MMDDYY), packed decimal, signed/unsigned values.
• Conditional Logic — Which records are mandatory, which are optional, and how many times a detail record can repeat.

Where to Find It

Navigate to: Advance Config → Document Types → open a Document Type → Structure tab.

Document Types — list view (Name, Description, Format Type, Alias)

Click ··· on a Document Type and select Config, then go to the Structure tab:

Document Type — actions menu (Config / Clone)

Structure tab — full document structure tree (Document, ISA, FGrp, IEA)

Enable "Show special fields only" to highlight fields marked as special (e.g., Integration Key fields):

Structure tab — Show special fields only (key icon marks special fields like BIG02, BIG04)

Use the action buttons in the top-right to manage the structure:

Structure tab — Xpath Config button (configure Partner XPath, Split XPath, etc.)