Engineering Data Support

Appendix J. PDI format

Introduction

The Product Data Interface (PDI) format file is a form of object data exchange between CEDS and external systems.

This document describes the architecture syntax, content, and possible configurations of the PDI file.

PDI file content

The PDI file is composed of several sections. The sequence of the sections is shown below and the content is described in the remainder of the document.

• Header record
• Administrative header
• Data dictionary
• Object data

Header record

The header record is the first section in the PDI file. The header record identifies the file as a PDI file and can provide additional information about the file's creation. The record contains information such as:

• PDI file identification
• PDI version, release, and modification level
• Date and time of the PDI file's creation

The header record is constructed with the following data fields:

Character Position	Description	Example
1-4	PDI file identification	PDIF
5	field separator character (blank)
6-16	PDI version, release, modification level	V01.R01.M00
17	field separator character (blank)
18-31	Date/time of PDI file creation (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS)	1990112010103505
32	Header record terminator (colon)	:

Administrative header section

The administrative header follows the header record in the PDI file and contains a text prologue to the file. This prologue contains information such as:

• Product identification
• Information about the originator of the file
• System software name
• System software version
• Creation date
• Destination of the file
• Security of the file
• Original filename
• Code page of the file

The administrative header record is constructed with the following data fields,

SECTION, ADMINISTRATIVE_HEADER,Administrator_Class;

attribute-name1, attribute-type1; · attribute-nameN, attribute-typeN::

attribute_data; · attribute_data::

Field Name

Contents

SECTION

Keyword specifying that the file section name follows.

ADMINISTRATIVE_HEADER

Keyword specifying the section name.

Administrator_Class

Class name of the object describing the header data for the PDI file.

attribute_name

Name of the attribute.

attribute_type

Data type of the attribute.

The attribute name and type record is repeated for each attribute of the administrative header and is terminated with a semicolon. The last record is terminated with a colon.

The following fields describe the data records of the administrative section.

Data Field

Content

attribute_data

The data for the section. This data is terminated by a semicolon except for the last data field which is terminated by a colon.

Data dictionary section

The data dictionary section contains information describing the objects in the PDI file. This information specifies object names, attribute names, and attribute types for each object and has the following format.

SECTION,DATA_DICTIONARY;

DEFID,definition-id,class-name,2; attribute-name1attribute_type1; · attribute-nameNattribute_typeN:

Field Name

Contents

SECTION

Keyword specifying that the file section name follows.

DATA_DICTIONARY

Keyword specifying the section name.

DEFID

Keyword stating the number of the definition in the data dictionary section follows.

definition_id

Number uniquely identifying a definition within this section.

class_name

Class name of the object being described.

attribute_name

Name of an attribute.

attribute_type

Data type of an attribute.

The attribute name and type record is repeated for each of the objects and is terminated with a semicolon. The last record is terminated with a colon.

Note: After the last attribute_type in the section another colon is required to indicate the end of the section.

Object data section

The object data section contains attribute data for the objects and has the following content and format.

SECTION,OBJECT_DATA;

definition_id;object_id; data-value1; · data-valueN:

Field Name

Contents

SECTION

Keyword specifying that the file section name follows.

OBJECT_DATA

Keyword specifying the section name.

definition_id

Number of the definition in the data dictionary section describing the attributes of this object.

object_id

Unique name for the object in the sending system.

data-value

Data for an attribute. This data is terminated by a semicolon except for the last occurrence which is terminated by a colon. If the data type is character string or byte string, the data is represented in a hexadecimal form (each byte is represented by two bytes indicating the hexadecimal representation of the character).

Note: After the last data_value in the section, another colon is required to indicate the end of the section.