IBM Sterling Integrator Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is the difference between 4.3 and 5.2?

2. what is the difference between Public key and Private Key?
3. What is the difference between FTP and SFTP and FTPs?
4. In Which envelop you will find the Test Indicator at which element?
5. What is the difference between Restart and Resume?
6. Difference between services and Adapter?
7. What are the services you are used?
8. What are the services you are used for configuring the FTP?
9. What is Primary Document and What is Process Data?
10. What is Encoder Service?
11. Expalin Inbound and Outbound BP Flow?
12. What is DOMto Doc and DOCto DOM?
13. what are the levels in EDI message format?
14. what are transactions you have worked?
15. what are protocols using for communication?
16. what is the complex transaction set you have worked till now?
17. what are the difference between ANSI X12 message and EDIFACT messages?
18. How you will validate flat file structure?
19. what are the levels in EDI 856 message format?
20. Can you please tell me something about EDI 850 or EDI 810 or EDi 856 messages?
21. which field having purchase order number in EDi 850message?
22. what are the different types of purchase orders (EDI 850)?
23. where you can identify the purchase order number in Advance shipment notice (EDI
856) message?
24. can you please explain some thing about ISA and GS envelopes?
25. Tell us about your system architecture?
26. Explain about AS2 partner setup?
27. What are the services and adapters are used recently?
28. why we are using LWJDBC adapter in BP?
29. What is EDI de-envelope service?
30. Explain the EDI Flow in any Sector?
31. How the EDI translator will work?
32. If you want to add 6 days with your date what function you should use?
33. In the given string how will you count the characters of the string?
34. what is the use of select in the standard rule?
35. what is code list?
36. What is the difference between Internal code List and External Code List
37. Difference between promote and split?
38. Envelop structure in X12 and EDIFACT?
39. Types of Errors?
40. what is Conditional Relationship Error?
41. what is Syntax Token?
42. what is Accumulator?
43. what is Standard Rule?
44. what is Extended Rule?
45. what is Use Constant in Standard Rule?
46. what is the use of Trim Function?
47. What is the difference between Normal segment and Floating segment?
48. What is the length of ISA Segment?
49. What is user Exit Function?
50. Explain the structure of 850 and where you find the Hash Total and which is the detail
level?
51. What are the levels of ASN in that which one is optional?

Questions and Answers

1. What Are The Advantages Of Ibm Sterling B2b Integrator ?

Sterling B2B Integrator is designed to be configured strategically

around the specific processes crucial to your company’s success.

Its systematic and managed approach supports your integration

requirements for both transaction-oriented and batch processes and
works with both pre-existing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
protocols and Internet-based XML protocols.

2. Sterling B2b Integrator 5.2 System Requirements ?

System requirements for IBM® Sterling B2B Integrator vary with

your business needs and system environment. Contact your Sterling
B2B Integrator sales representative to help you evaluate
performance and system usage requirements.

Contributing factors include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Number of transactions processed.

2. Amount of data being transferred.

3. Whether you run Sterling B2B Integrator with or without

perimeter servers.

4. Whether your environment is clustered (multiple node) or

non-clustered (single node).
 The following sections list the platforms and databases that are
supported by Sterling B2B Integrator:

5. Platforms
6. Databases

The following sections list minimum system requirements, and other

information,needed to install and run Sterling B2B Integrator on
particular platforms:

7. IPv6 Capabilities
8. UNIX/Linux Requirements

9. Windows Requirements

10. iSeries Requirements

The following sections list additional information that is needed to

install and run Sterling B2B Integrator: v JCE Requirements (All
Platforms)

11. JDBC Driver Requirements (All Databases)

12. Perimeter Server Requirements (UNIX/Linux and
Windows)

13. Internet Browser and Plugin Requirements (All

Platforms)

14. Map Editor and Graphical Process Modeler System

Requirements

15. Supported Third Party Software

3. What’s New In Sterling B2b Integrator ?

Sterling B2B Integrator 5.2 Enhancements

Soft Stop of Sterling B2B Integrator

Sterling B2B Integrator 5.2 now has the ability to gracefully stop the
system—allowing existing processes the opportunity to complete,
be transferred to other cluster nodes or be saved for resumption
after restart. This saves time by eliminating the need to manually
examine and resume processes after a restart.
The softstop functionality combined with a rolling restart of nodes
will allow for minimal interruption of processing. You can initiate the
soft stop command from either the UI or from the command line.

The soft stop UI provides the ability to interactively step through the
shutdown process allowing for:

16. The transfer of a running business processes to other

cluster nodes or to the database for recovery
17. The ability to control the completion of queued business
processes on the local node

18. The ability to show the status of adapter activity and

open sessions Performance Tuning Utility

Sterling B2B Integrator 5.2 includes an updated utility that

calculates the tuning parameter values for you. You can use the
Performance Tuning utility to tune and configure Sterling B2B
Integrator according to your needs.

Queue settings can be changed, as well as memory allocations, JVM

settings, and pool settings. Additionally, future Sterling B2B
Integrator patches will not overwrite the performance tuning
changes made by the Performance Tuning utility.

Sterling B2B Integrator License Files

You no longer need to contact IBM to acquire a license file prior to

product installation. Product functionality is grouped into large
offering areas. During installation, you must select the product
offerings applicable to your purchase and a bundled license file will
be used.

Sterling Standards Library 8.0

Applying Sterling B2B Integrator, Release 5.2 automatically includes

Sterling Standards Library 8.0. Your specific standards
implementation will depend upon the terms of your licensing
agreement.

Sterling Standards Library version 8.0 adds support for the following
X12 5010

HIPAA transactions:
 v 5010 220A1 834
v 5010 221A1 835
v 5010 222A1 837
v 5010 223A2 837
v 5010 224A2 837
v 5010 279A1 270
v 5010 279A1 271

4. Sterling B2b Integrator For Financial Services Overview ?

Sterling B2B Integrator for Financial Services is the solution that

enables banks, broker-dealers, investment managers, and market
infrastructures in payments, securities, treasury and trade to
optimize financial sector process integration—both internally and
with external enterprises and communities—for secure end-to-end
management of financial data exchange.

This product leverages components of Sterling B2B Integrator to

enable file transfer and translation capabilities using financial-
industry transport types and messaging formats. Enhanced
reporting and notification tools provide improved insight into
business processes, furthering your goal to create a sustainable
competitive advantage. Available components include pre-built
support for financial standards and protocols, services, adapters,
code lists, pre-loaded DTDs and schemas in the Map Editor, and
tools such as Reporting Services and the SWIFT Editor.

With Sterling B2B Integrator for Financial Services, you can

integrate existing systems with a gateway solution offering visibility
and simplified error/exceptions management, including routing of
files and messages into legacy systems. This complete and
streamlined automation of processes can help you reduce costs,
increase revenue, and improve customer satisfaction while
leveraging Sterling B2B Integrator security features to provide
secure, non-repudiated exchange of B2B information.

Depending on your needs, Sterling B2B Integrator for Financial

Services can be a simple file transfer solution for financial
documents, a translation engine supporting financial standards and
those of your back office systems, or a complex full gateway
solution involving all types of file transfer, intelligent routing,
translation, and transmission activities. Your solution can be
configured to be fully convertible between payments networks,
platform agnostic, and deployed behind the corporate firewall. If
needed, IBM® Support can help you customize Sterling B2B
Integrator for Financial Services to enable full payload inspection
and customized visibility into documents processed. Sterling B2B
 Integrator for Financial Services is highly scalable to suit your
evolving needs.

Sterling B2B Integrator for Financial Services makes process

continuity of business finance part of your organization’s integrated
value chain, shared by the business partners and financial
institutions that make up your B2B communities.

5. Sterling B2b Integrator For Financial Services Supported

Standards And Protocols ?

The diversity of communications systems and standards makes it

difficult to respond to customer demands for better and more
comprehensive service. Sterling B2B Integrator for Financial
Services’ built-in support for financial standards reduces the
information technology costs involved in custom coding and enables
you to more cost-effectively integrate disparate systems to
overcome information silos. Pre-defined financial standards are
automatically loaded into the Sterling B2B Integrator Map Editor
graphical mapping tool, including code lists. With Sterling B2B
Integrator for Financial Services, you can translate and move data
among many different environments.

The following financial services standards are supported, but are not
limited to:

19. FIX, FIXML, FpML, IFX

20. ISO 8589, 20022, and 150222, including TWIST

21. XBRL

22. NACHA ACH

23. SWIFTNet FIN MT messages (2005 & 2006) and

SWIFTNet MX messages (including those specific to SWIFT
Solutions)

24. TARGET2

25. EBA STEP2

6. What Are Various Types Of Extended Rules ?

Pre-Session extended rules: These rules define variables that have

global scope and can be accessed from any other extended rule in
 the map. They are processed before the translation object is
processed.

Post-Session standard rules: These rules run after the translation

object is processed and have no permanent scope.

On-Begin extended rules: The On-Begin rules are processed before

the start of the group iterations and before any variables in the
group are instantiated.

On-End extended rules: The On-End rules are processed after the
end of the group.

7. Explain About Update Standard Rule ?

 The Update standard rule: move data from a field in the

map into process data, to update process data so that the
data can be used elsewhere in the BP, to record document-
specific parameters during translation, and to check for
duplicate data.
 Document extraction: load values into the Sender ID,
Application Sender ID, Receiver ID, Application Receiver ID,
and Accepter Lookup Alias field values in the Document
Extraction table, so that the Document Extraction service
can put these values in process data, along with an
associated output document.

 process data: service-independent XML DOM associated

with a BP that holds data associated with the BP, which you
interact with using XPath.

 correlation data: record document-specific correlation

parameters during translation.

 Transaction register: specify a field for which you want to

check for duplicate data (using the Update standard rule
Transaction Register function) and then invoke it (using the
Select standard rule Transaction Register function) to verify
whether the field contains duplicate data.

 Transaction XREF: cross-reference the application data to

generated transaction.

8. Explain About Select Standard Rule ?

 The Select standard rule: associate a field with a TP code list, a
section in process data, a document envelope, and use the
transaction register [Link] envelope: support
TRADACOMS enveloping to enable the map to extract values from
the envelope definition and use them in the map. Trading partner
code list: list of codes that are dynamic, related to trading partners,
and stored in the Application database. Process data: service-
independent XML DOM associated with a BP that holds data
associated with the BP, which you interact with using XPath.
Transaction register: specify a field for which you want to see if it
contains duplicate data (using the Update standard rule Transaction
Register function) and then invoke it (using the Select standard rule
Transaction Register function) to verify whether the field contains
duplicate data.

9. Explain About Promote Function ?

The Promote function extracts one iteration (instance) of one of the

following map components :

 Group
 Repeating record

 Repeating element

 Repeating composite

Promote is a specialized version of the Split function. For example, if

you have a group with 50 iterations and you select Promote, you
then have two groups: one group with an iteration of 1 and a group
that iterates 49 times.

The Promote function is available only if a group or repeating

record, element, or composite is selected.

Promote function enables you to map unique data from a document

and to type a specialized definition.

10. Explain About Split Function ?

The Split function can be used to split the following objects into two
groups:

 Group
 Repeating record
  Repeating element

 Repeating composite

After the split operation is performed, the individual iterations of the

two groups that were created by splitting a group add up to the
original number of iterations of the group before the split.

The Split function is available only if a group or repeating record,

element, or composite is selected.

Use the Split function when you need more than one instance of a
map component that occurs multiple times.

11. Where To Use Temporary Records And Fields ?

You can add temporary records and fields at any hierarchical level in
a map. However, when you use temporary records and fields, you
must locate them after the map component that contains the
necessary data.

You must use a record tag that you would never receive in your
Input file, and the recommended default is $$$.

If you are creating a temporary record for an XML file, use the tag
XXX, because $$$ is not permitted as a tag in XML.

The translator does not run standard or extended rules on

temporary records.

12. When To Use Temporary Records And Fields ?

 Use temporary records and fields

 When you cannot use a simple link or if you must extract
only specific occurrences of a record from your data file.

 If you must map from a repeating map component to a

single map component, or vice versa.

 If the Input hierarchical level in a map does not match the

Output hierarchical level.

 If you only want to populate an Output field with data if a

specified qualifier is used or if specific criteria is met.
  If you must use extended rules in addition to creating
temporary records and fields.

Project Management Interview Questions

13. Explain The Process In Migration Map Development?

We will analyse the business rules on the mapping for the customer
in the production system then we will create the specification.

We will test the map by taking existing production system input file
and run that in SI then compare existing production system to
corresponding output file.

14. Explain The Execution Of A Map In Si Map Editor?

In map editor, what are all the conditions and variables listed in the
pre session rule that will execute first because presession rules will
get execute at the beginning of the translation.

And then it will check the group or record if is there any on begin
rule that will execute next.

Then it goes in to fields in the record, if is there any Standard rule/

Extended rule we apply for the field that will execute Extended rule
for the field will be executed.

At the end of the record, on end rule will be executed if we write any
conditions there.

15. How Does Encryption Works ?

Encryption is a method of changing plaintext (text that is readable

by humans) into ciphertext (text that is meaningless to humans).
There are many different ways of encryption, some stronger than
others. Two main categories of encryption are symmetric and
asymmetric.

In symmetric cryptography, the same key that encrypts a file also

decrypts it. In asymmetric cryptography, which is what PGP uses,
one key (the public key) encrypts the file, and the other key (the
private key) decrypts it. So, if user A wants to send an encrypted
message to user B, user A would first obtain user B’s public key.
 This is possible because public keys are meant to be widely
distributed. Then user A encrypts the message using user B’s public
key. The encrypted message can now only be decrypted with B’s
private key, which only he possesses. Not even user A, who wrote
the message, can decrypt what he has encrypted, because he does
not possess user B’s private key.

This ensures that the message is unreadable by anyone other than

user A. Encryption and signing are often combined.

In this scenario, user A would use user B’s public key to encrypt the
message, then use his own private key to sign the message. This
will ensure that no one but user B can read the message, and when
user B receives it, he can be assured that the message was not
altered. To read the message, userB would first use user A’s public
key to verify that the signature matches.

Then user B would use his private key to decrypt the message that
user A wrote.

16. What Are The Uses Of Pgp ?

The most commonly used aspect of PGP is the signing and

encryption of email or files. “Signing” a document is a way of
verifying the integrity of the original work.

The method is as follows:

26. Make a digest or “hash” of the file or email. A hash is an

algorithm that produces (theoretically) a unique output
(the hash) from a given input (the message).
27. Add the hash to the end of the message.

28. When someone wants to verify that the message has

not been modified, they run the hash algorithm on the
message and compare it to the hash at the end of the
message. If the signatures match, the message has not
been altered.

17. How Does Pgp Work ?

When someone starts using PGP, they generate a Key Pair. These
are really just text files that look like gibberish to a human. The keys
can be created at various levels of strength – 512, 1024, or 2048 bit
strengths are used. The higher the number, the stronger the
 encryption value of the key. One key of the pair is the Private key –
this key should always be kept safe and never given to anyone. The
other key is the public key – this key should be given to as many
people as possible.

18. What Is Pgp?

Pretty Good Privacy was originally developed by Phillip Zimmerman

to provide a means of secure communication in an insecure
electronic environment. “Pretty Good” is an understatement – the
framework it is based on, PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) and its
encryption standards (it can use Diffie-Helman or RSA algorithms of
varying strengths), have been subjected to rigorous cryptanalysis.

PGP has since grown into a more versatile application under the
direction of its current owner, Network Associates ([Link]).
Until the most recent release PGP has been completely open source,
allowing anyone to review the code and suggest improvements.

19. What Is The Risk For Using As2 ?

There is no more risk involved with transactions over AS2 then there
would be with any form of normal e-Business transactions. If there is
any risk with AS2, it is far outweighed by the cost savings implicit in
its operation.

20. What Is Required To Exchange Data Using As2 ?

 A dedicated persistent Internet connection

 A web server with your EDIINT software

21. What Are The Benefits Of Using As2 ?

AS2 provides faster, almost instantaneous data transfers directly to

your network and reduces the points of failure in data transmissions.
Using AS2 eliminates day-to-day value-added network (VAN)
charges and long distance dial-ups. AS2 also provides increased
reliability and sped, improving supply-chain efficiency. Listed below
are some of the main benefits of using AS2:
  24×7 availability
 Designed to push data securely and reliably over the
Internet

 Fast and reliable connectivity

 Encryption ensures that only the sender and receiver can

view the data

 Digital signatures ensure authentication

 AS2 detects if the document was altered during

transmission

 Non-repudiation of receipt confirms that the intended party

received the data

 Faster turn-around time for business processes

22. How Does As2 Work ?

AS2 provides an Internet solution for securely exchanging EDI over

the Internet using Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) and
the hypertext transmission protocol (HTTP) instead of the simple
mail transport protocol (SMTP) as the transport protocol. AS2
specifies the means to connect, deliver, validate, and reply to
(receipt) data in a secure and reliable way. AS2 does not concern
itself with the content of the EDI document, only the transport.

AS2 essentially creates a wrapper around EDI flat files that enables
sending them over the Internet, instead of using a dial-up
connection to a value-added network (VAN). AS2 is a real-time
technology that provides security and encryption around the HTTP
packets.

23. What Is Ediint ?

EDI over the Internet (EDIINT) is a working group of the Internet

Engineering Task Force (IETF). Formed in February of 1996, EDIINT
was chartered by the IETF to create a set of secure protocols for
sending EDI data over the Internet. The two EDIINT standards that
have been certified are AS1 and AS2.

24. What Is Primary Document ?

 Primary document is the core document in the business process
such as Purchase Order.

25. Explain About Light Weight Jdbc Adapter ?

It enables us to Retrieve data from a JDBC database or Update a

JDBC database as part of a business process with in the Sterling
Integrator.

26. Explain About Document Extraction Service ?

It can be used to split individual documents out of a batch file to

make each one a separate document.

Related services: EDI encoder, EDI envelop, for Each.

Configuration:

29. Document name prefix:

30. EDI encode document:

31. EDI envelop document:

32. Error on unrecognized data:

33. Halt on trans error.

27. Explain “messages Only” In Bp Configuration ?

Only the messages you explicitly specify in the messages will be

sent. Please note that you might be missing such important
Parameters as the PrimaryDocument etc. You have to care for
everything yourself!

28. Explain “obtain Process Data First, Then Messages” ?

First all the parameters/ variables from Process Data will be sent,
then your variables on top of it overlaying the values in Process
data.

29. Explain “obtain Message First, Then Process Data” ?

 This will send your parameters to the service but will overlay them
with whatever is in Process Data at that time.

30. Explain About Translation Service ?

Performs translation of primary document using a specified map and

replaces the primary document with the result of the translation.

For example if we want to translate a file from positional to

delimited, first we are using SI map editor to translate a file from
positional to delimited and create a new business process that puts
the data into the primary document and then start the translation
service. The translation service translate the primary document into
positional to delimited.

Configuration:

 Map name: give the name of the map.

31. Explain About File System Adapter Service [fsa] ?

FSA is used to collects (import) files from the file system and
extracts (exports) files to the file system. The collected file becomes
the primary document in a business process.

Configuration: e5 fille system adapter.

 Action : collection (or) extraction

 Assigned file name : [Link]

 Assign file name: assign specific name.

 Bootstrap: no, (If yes we have to give the BP name in the

initial workflow id parameter and that BP runs as a child
BP).

 Collection folder: path

 Extraction folder: path

 Filter: only for collection. [*(all), *.txt (collects only .txt

files), *.dat (collects only .dat files)]

32. Explain About X12 Deenvelope Service ?

 It handles deenveloping of inbound x12 interchanges and also
generates 997 and TA1 acknowledgements. For example an inbound
purchase order is received inside an x12 interchange. The EDI
envelops are parsed and the document envelops that match the
envelop data are retrieved. With the document envelops this service
know what to do with the purchase order, such as kicking off a
business process that perform some business logic.

33. Explain About X12 Envelop Service ?

It handles the enveloping of outbound x12 interchanges. For

example, an outbound purchase order is to be sent inside an x12
interchange. The document envelops that match the sender id,
receiver id, acceptor lookup alias specified in the EDI encoder
service are retrieved. If required by the ST envelop, translation is
performed using the map specified by envelop. The ST,GS,ISA
envelops are applied to the output of the map.

34. Explain About Edi Encoder Service ?

It determines which transaction level envelop will be used on the

document. If translations are specified in an envelop, this service
determines which map to use.

Configuration:

 Accepter lookup alias:

 EDI Standard:

 Mode: immediate (or) deferred.

 Receiver id:

 Sender id:

35. Explain About Time Stamp Utility Service ?

The time stamp utility service enables you to create time stamp
values to the business process for the current time.

Configuration: time stamp utility.

 Format: mmss
 Scale: milliseconds.
36. Explain About Assign Service ?

Assign service is used for to store values into a variable; values can
be constant value or process data value. We can place values into
process data.

Configuration:

 Append : false
 Constant :

 From:

 To:

37. Explain About Bp Metadata Info Service ?

It provides the complete details and properties of the business

process and these properties will be available in process data. Some
of the properties are

 BPID
 Process name

 Description

 State

 Status

 Type

 Correlations

38. What Is Adapter ?

It will connect to the external system with sterling integrator.

39. What Is Xpath ?

Xpath is an expression language used to navigate the xml data.

40. What Is Correlation ?

Correlation is used for document tracking.

Correlation data enable you to record document, a specific

correlation parameters generated during the translations by the
correlation service or by the document tracking function.