ISBN-13 Testing Update December 7, 2006 Dear POS Vendor, This message describes important information about Pubnet's As part of a combined effort between Pubnet and BISG, this e-mail is part of an ongoing series of communications intended to inform all trading partners about the current status of ISBN-13 testing on Pubnet. As you know, the EDI subsystems of EVERY company in the book industry MUST be upgraded by January 1, 2007. As we near the sunrise on ISBN-13, we thought we would provide you with a current update on the state of partner certification. In this e-mail: 2) Pubnet ISBN-13 Testing Update Notes
1) ISBN-13 Certified Partners as of December 6, 2006 The following trading partners have completed ISBN-13 testing on Pubnet and have been certified as compliant. POS systems that have been certified compliant:
Vendors that have been certified compliant:
Major Book Chains/Retailers that have been certified compliant
Smaller Retailers with custom POS systems that have been certified compliant
The following partners have contacted us and will shortly begin testing or have already begun testing with Pubnet: Currently testing with:
In the process of scheduling testing:
If your company is not listed above, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately to ensure testing can be completed by the January 1, 2007 sunrise on ISBN-13. Testing will basically consist of verifying document delivery and ID code/position changes that are consistent with BISG/Pubnet recommendations as well as receiving partner approval. If you notice that some of your key trading partners are not listed above, we encourage you to contact them directly to inquire about their plans for ISBN-13 readiness. 2) Pubnet ISBN-13 Testing Update Notes Pubnet began ISBN-13 testing in the 4th quarter of 2005. As testing has progressed, we have needed to clarify some elements of the testing plan outlined by BISG and Pubnet to satisfy situations that were not anticipated in the original transition plan. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate information about 3 key issues that emerged through the real-world testing process. Element positions During testing, we've found that some partners have designated the ISBN-10, ISBN-13 and GTIN-14 elements as fixed positions within the PO1 segment. While best practice is to send the items in that order within the segment during the transitional phase, parsing of the elements should not rely on them being fixed. The reason for this is because the 10-digit, 13-digit or 14-digit information can appear anywhere within the PO1 segment, provided that it is qualified correctly in the preceding element. For example: PO1*497583*4*UN*14* *EN*9780140179170 * UK *09780140179170 *IB*0140179178 * B5* GREAT JONES STREET *B6*DELILLO, DON*B7*HOUGHTON MIFFLIN*B4*P is the same as: PO1*497583*4*UN*14**IB*0140179178 *EN*9780140179170 * UK *09780140179170* B5*GREAT JONES STREET.*B6*DELILLO, DON*B7*HOUGHTON MIFFLIN*B4*P Substitutions & Acknowledgment codes When the transition plan was originally devised to add support for ISBN-13, the committee failed to come up with a plan to support substituted ISBNs in the ACK segment of a POA. Upon discovery, this was immediately rectified with the addition of two new codes to complement the current "AI" alternate 10-digit ISBN code in use today:
Here again, best practices are to apply them in AI/RR/SR order, but systems should not expect them to be returned as a fixed order of elements, similar to the PO1 segment described above in the "Elements" section. An example of this may be found below: ACK|IA|1|UN|||| AI|0835247414 |RR|9780835247412 |SR|09780835247412 |B6|BOWKER STAFF||||||||||||||BI|ACK|AC When to promote ISBN-13 code after certification After a partner has completed ISBN-13 certification testing, we've found that many have immediately rolled out their code to support these documents. Because there are a number of organizations that have not started their migration to ISBN-13 yet, rolling out the new ISBN-13 document sets have, in effect, broken some non-compliant translators. To prevent problems such as this going forward, we ask that partners follow one of the following paths before rolling ISBN-13 code changes into production: 1. Review readiness partner by partner. Check the Pubnet Web site to see which partners are listed as certified compliant to ensure that you send ISBN-13 compliant documents ONLY to those partners that have clearly designated a readiness for them beforehand. Click here to see the current list of certified partners. OR 2 . Wait for community readiness. Do not roll out ISBN-13 code changes until all of your trading partners are listed as certified on the Pubnet web site or you have contacted them directly to confirm their readiness. Click here to see the current list of certified partners. OR 3 . Return identifiers in documents as trading partners send them. As trading partners begin sending EN or UK or both identifiers, you can respond to that particular partner with the same identifiers used. This approach provides maximum flexibility and can be adopted at any time, regardless of partner readiness. You can expect additional update e-mails from Pubnet as we complete the process for ensuring that all Pubnet trading partners are certified ready for ISBN-13. As a reminder, the EDI subsystems of EVERY company in the book industry MUST be upgraded by January 1, 2007. If you have not done so already, we encourage you to review Pubnet's transition guides:
If you have any questions about any of the information in this e-mail, about testing in general, or to begin the testing process, please let us know! You can contact Pubnet support at Support@Pubnet.org / 1-800-PUBNET-1, or feel free to contact me directly.
Don Nelson Toll free: 800-323-3288 x0221 |