What is testing
Ontech Solutions provide a testing facility to customers using Vision EDI, if you intend to send any electronic files into Vision EDI for your warehouse you need to complete testing prior to doing so.
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Testing is Mandatory |
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You will need to submit for EDI testing if
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What is in this section
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To use this service see https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VEDI/pages/843907075/Testing+Inbound+EDI#Step-by-Step-Guide-to-Testing or to ask general questions on any of the EDI formats, then please send an email to editest@visionsuite.co.uk
We aim to respond to your request within 3 working days but it is a first come service and it can become quite busy certain times of the year.
Where to Send Test XML
For Stage 1 & 2 please attached an xml file to an email and sent it to editest@visionsuite.co.uk
For Stage 3 you will be set up with an API token if you have chosen this transport route.
Blackout periods for testing
We do not offer this facility during the following periods
Year | Last day for submission of new test files | Received after “last day” will receive a reply from |
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2023 | Friday 15th December 2023 | Monday 8th January 2024 |
2024 | Friday 13th December 2024 | Monday 6th January 2025 |
2025 |
Before you start
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You must
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You may find that
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You MUST NOT
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Switching from Email to API
Testing still has to be carried out even for existing approved XML customer in order to send via API. Further details of this can be found in Stage 3 testing mentioned below or click the link to be taken directly to the information: https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VEDI/pages/843907075/Testing+Inbound+EDI#Stage-4---API-Testing
The process is
If you do not already have a token then Contact your warehouse and request a token to be issued, you will then receive an username and token via email.
Email editest@visionsuite.co.uk and request the TEST API to be opened for you to test. When ready it will then be confirmed to you that you can send TEST API to the system
You then should send your inbound orders via email and API, assuming there are no issues your account is set to live shortly afterwards, and at that time you should no longer send in through email.
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The date of the change over needs to be agreed in advance. |
Modifications to Existing Approval
Any changed whether you have moved site or you wish to add additional order types requires submission of the pre-testing form along with examples of the changes, this should be done by email in the first instance.
If everything looks fine and your current submissions are standing in good order you will receive the modification immediately, where there are issues with the test or ongoing issues with your incoming files then you will be asked to look at those first.
Limits of Testing
We allow for each stage of the testing to be run 5 times for the customer, should the customer fail for the fifth time then Ontech will contact the Vision customer as further tests are charged at £75 per test.
Outbound Files Testing
Generally where the customer exists already within the warehouse we suggest that if the customer wants to test some of the files going to them that they use the live system and have the files enabled from the live system, this can be done in the VCIS system or through your warehouse operator.
In theory your live system files will provide you with a real update of what's happening on the account, the only thing they will not be able to give you is a link to your incoming sales order line number field if you are using this to link the sales order to the order picked or the pre-advice to the goods received.
End to End Testing
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Many warehouses will not offer an End to End test facility as the setup of this is complex and resource intensive and the benefit is minimal. When you use the API you are sending to the LIVE system with a TEST marker so the inbound does all the verification against what you have within the actual warehouse without effecting live trading and if you are already trading with the stock in the warehouse then output API is already available to pull the data from live system. |
Where there is a need for an end to end testing, based on the test files being sent then this can only be carried out when stage 4 checks have been completed and a sales order file can be processed, picked, and then information sent back to the customers relating to what items have been picked. If you need a full end-to-end test, let us know as early as possible this will have to be agreed by the warehouse, as there is a significant cost involved in running this completely.
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Important : It will take up to 2 months to arrange and set up an environment which is suitable for an end to end testing. |
Step by Step Guide to Testing
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Stage 1 - Initial Check
As you begin testing we will need to know some information, please click and download the form below, complete this and email it back to the editest@visionsuite.co.uk email along with your first test files.
Sales Orders pre-testing form
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Pre-Advices pre-testing form
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You do not have to request a testing slot or time, when you are ready to begin testing then files should be sent to editest@visionsuite.co.uk. Ensure that the pre-testing form is included with the first file sent to us. Any general queries can be sent to the above address. Turnaround time is within 3 working days of receipt. |
What to send
You should send one order of each order type which you ticked on the pre-testing questionnaire.
If you are using different delivery methods then you need to include an example of each delivery method you plan to use.
The optional items on the final page of the pre-information need to be included in the initial test files, not everything is needed on every order but examples of you being able to submit what you need to within those optional fields is essential for smooth operations
If you are only changing your account within the warehouse then submit the form only, we will check to ensure that your current incoming EDI are not causing any issues and will decide whether you need to test or whether we can just change you to send into the new account.
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General Checks
Visual File Check
If the test data fails at any stage then the tests cannot be continued the customer will be instructed as to the reason for the failure and a new data sample will have to be provided. |
Stage 2 - Real Data Checks (Bulk Testing)
Assuming your orders are reaching us and the content is good then we will ask for some real world examples to be sent, it will be a number of orders of each type and for each delivery method and we will ask you to ensure all the optional fields that you plan to use are being used.
You also need to ensure that they are all to differing customers / addresses.
What to Send
You will be asked to send around a proportion of a weeks worth of orders, if your planned incoming number is low then this will be proportionally higher than a customer who has large volumes.
This data needs to be as real as possible, preferably information from live orders you are currently sending out to customers.
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At this stage its very important that we are provided with a number of test files to allow us to see if in a normal week processing any issues occur, we find that generally at this stage it is your customer data setup that has issues and this stage always highlights some generally annoying problems which need to be corrected. We therefore ask you to provide initially at least three days of test data which should be a representative sample of not less than 75% of the normal daily orders, we may extend this to be full weeks worth if we have problems with the first batches. This stage can take a while to set up as we need to update test system data in order to perform a full test receipt and to minimize product and rotation errors. What we are looking for at this stage of testing is the following :
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If you are sending orders via API you proceed to step 3 otherwise if you are sending via email then you proceed to step 4
Stage 3 - API Testing
Access will be provided to the main system to allow you to send through the API, the system will then respond to your inbound files, as they should be generally good the responses should mainly be positive.
If you can have real orders sent to the API this will speed up the process of the final approval, if not then sending the batch you send with Stage2 is a good starting point.
When you send these API tests and have sent the required number please inform us by email that you have completed and we will review the test inbound messages.
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We appreciate that you will initially test the API with some orders and perhaps fix some issues so to ensure we do not pick up the early tests provide us with a start date to look at the incoming files from to ensure those early tests do not influence the overall results. |
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You can not just start at this stage as the error processing on API is very strict and will keep providing you issue by issue until you get it correct, this can be very frustrating. To use the API you must test and pass sales order testing prior to testing pre-advices |
Stage 4 - Approval to use in Production system
Ontech will liaise with the warehouse and the testing customer to agree on a go-live date, this date will normally be at least 3 - 5 working days after stage 3 has been completed.
An email authorizing you to go live will be sent with any provisions or conditions stated on it, you will only be able to send those orders types you have requested during testing phase, anything outside of this will require further tests.
Once a date has been agreed then the customer would then deal with the warehouse directly for any issues or problems as it is the warehouse who manage the day to day operations of their own EDI system