Re: http Post with Large Files

[chucks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Chuck Shih)]

Diane,

I would agree with your assessment - however a "real-time" SMTP would
handle large files as well as http post. I am interested however in
understanding whether the Gas industries requirements went furthur than
just a sending of the EDI documents and getting a 200 OK or 400 bad
request back as part of the http protocol. In other words, was there any
requirements to have a higher level acknowledgement returned during the
http session, such as the 997 or even higher level acknowledgement.

Also, was there only a requirement that during the same session that the
sender be able to continue a "conversation" with the server, for
instance a dial-up client may during the same session, post an EDI
document and then turn around and request any EDI documents that the
server has for it?
   
Diane Biegel wrote:
> 
> Group-
> 
> One of the main reasons http was selected by the gas industry is that
> smtp cannot handle large files well, while http post sends large files
> effectively.  We pilotted last summer, and sent files in the 40k range
> with no problem.  We also transmitted 3 meg files routinely with no
> issues.  We sent 30 meg successfully, although some sites experienced
> problems with their cgi's or their low-speed connections; not a problem
> with the protocol.
> 
> We are in production with EDI via http post, and it works quite well.
> Most EDI files are < 40k.  The industry group felt it could not afford
> smtp for EDI due to the lack of instant notification of receipt, the
> inability to handle large files and the possibility of "last-out, first
> in"(i.e., receiving files out of order).  Our business demands immediate
> response to large $, time sensitive transactions -- ftp or http were the
> only choices to support this.
> 
> Regards,
> Diane Biegel