BMEcat 2005 ETIM Version 3.1 and older

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BMEcat ETIM version 3.1

Warning: This format does not support the 2BA Extention's (UDX.2BA)

The complete documentation is available at the download section of ETIM International.

BMEcat 2005 and BMEcat ETIM version 2.2

2BA supports imports and export in the BMEcat 2005 format. BMEcat 2005 is a German standard for distributing catalogue information. Technically it is a very comprehensive and extensible XML format. The format is mainly focussed on sellable products from manufactures. It pays less attention to the method of distinguishing manufacturer products from wholesalers trade items in comparison to GS1 (on which 2BA is based). BMEcat 2005 format is very well documented and "fused" with an XML schema. We will validate every import against this XSD schema.

Different model

It is good to keep in mind that the BMEcat 2005 format has some other roots in comparison to the GS1 standard on which 2BA is based. As noted earlier a main difference is the way of distinguishing manufacturer products from wholesalers trade items within 2BA. Another difference is the method of describing the trade item information. Following BMEcat you will order a product one or more times but in GS1 world you order a packaging (for example using a GTIN) with some products in it. There are lot more differences, probably every field has a slightly different naunce.

Mapping MIME MD codes

• Mapping MIME MD codes versus data model

ETIM Guide and Extension

ETIM International has created a manual and some extensions to BMEcat 2005, especially for the electrical industry. 2BA follows the ETIM guidelines as far as possible, we are supporting the ETIM Guideline 2.2 supplemented with some elements of version 3.1. Although we can also import a standard BMEcat 2005 file but we prefer a BMEcat 2005 file formatted and extended using the ETIM Guidlines. Unfortunately there is not a complete XML schema available. 2BA has created a schema with the most essential parts.

To be sure that the BMEcat file is specified along the right schema, ETIM International developed a XML Validation tool. This tool will check the BMEcat file on specific elements along the XSD schema.

The BMEcat2005 XSD ETIM 2.2 schema is available here.
The BMEcat2005 ETIM Guideline 2.2 PDF is available here

2BA Extension

Although much can be imported and/or converted from BMEcat 2005 + ETIM to our database we had the need to import some additional or slightly different information. We have made a minimum of additions to the ETIM Extended fields in two categories. The first are extensions to the main PRODUCT and the second some extensions to the ETIM PACKAGING_UNIT.

Extension to BMECAT/T_NEW_CATALOG/PRODUCT/USER_DEFINED_EXTENSIONS

Extension to BMECAT/T_NEW_CATALOG/PRODUCT/USER_DEFINED_EXTENSIONS/UDX.EDXF.PACKING_UNITS/UDX.EDXF.PACKING_UNIT

Import process

First of all we validate the delivered file to the corresponding XML schema. Please take care of delivering a VALID file. Although we try to import invalid files, we will not take any time to fix import problems caused by an invalid file!

From the BMEcat file we try to import every product as a product AND as an base trade item to the 2BA database. We are using, if available, the ETIM packaging information from the MIN=1 and MAX=1 level at creating the base trade item. In the near future we will create multiple trade items from multiple packaging levels in BMEcat.

Example

Please see below an example of one product with the ETIM and 2BA extensions. All Element names should be in capitals.
Don't copy/paste the code, you can download the example source code here.