An Adapter is the middleware which enables your back-office system to interface to the eHub. It can be located either on a server on your company network or in the F4F Datacentre. Some companies already have their own middleware, in which case it is best hosted by F4F.

It performs a number of key tasks to enable documents from your back-office system to reach the eHub … and vice versa. The main ones are:

Encryption / Decryption: F4F issues private-public key pairs for the F4F community, backed by F4F’s own Security Certificates, enabling 128-bit encryption of business documents to prevent unwarranted access to the data.

Transformation: This process converts files between the F4F XML format used within the B2B platform and the file format required by the sender or recipient. The Adapter executes mapping programmes developed using XSLT.

Code Lookups: This service consults a table of code pairings, which may be held locally or accessed via a WebService, to ensure that key data items such as Product Codes are converted dynamically from Buyer’s to Supplier’s … and back.

To understand how the Adapter works, you need to be familiar with the key components:

These components are assembled in the Adapter by configuring the base software, which can be done either by F4F or by your own staff.

F4F offers Adapters which interact directly with the leading ERP systems and databases, which minimises the amount of work which needs to be done by a company to begin exchanging documents electronically. For those companies who use other proprietary or in-house developed IT systems, the Adapter drops and collects files from an agreed directory structure on your network.