Oracle E-Business Suite and IBM Sterling integration

What moves between them

Oracle EBS is the source. Purchase order headers and lines flow from EBS into Sterling formatted as EDI 850 purchase order documents and routed to the correct trading partner mailbox. Vendor invoices (AP_INVOICES) flow from EBS into Sterling formatted as EDI 810 invoices. When Sterling receives EDI 997 functional acknowledgements from trading partners, ml-connector polls Sterling's mailbox, extracts the acknowledgement, and updates EBS purchase order status. Vendor master (PO_VENDORS and PO_VENDOR_SITES_ALL) flows from EBS to Sterling so partner identifiers remain synchronized. The flows run on a schedule aligned with your procurement window, typically once per day or per transaction.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores Oracle EBS session credentials and logs in via the token endpoint to obtain an access token, which it refreshes on any 401 response. It polls the EBS open interface views (PO_HEADERS_ALL, PO_LINES_ALL, AP_INVOICES_ALL, PO_VENDORS) at the customer-provided ISG hostname and port, filtering by LAST_UPDATE_DATE to detect new records, and paging with limit/offset to handle large datasets. Each purchase order and invoice is mapped to a Sterling trading partner (looked up by vendor DUNS or EDI interchange ID), and ml-connector submits the EDI document to the mailbox queue at the Sterling instance for that partner. Sterling returns the document ID; ml-connector tracks it in the audit log so manual replay is possible if downstream routing fails. EBS context headers (org_id, responsibility, language) are preserved from configuration, and API credential username and password are handled per customer via encrypted storage. Polling frequency is configurable to avoid both EBS gateway load and stale document queues in Sterling. EDI 997 acknowledgements are polled from Sterling's inbound mailbox, parsed for order number and acknowledgement status, and POSTed back to EBS as updates to the purchase order status fields.

A real-world example

A mid-market wholesale distributor uses Oracle EBS for procurement and accounting and operates an EDI trading partner network through IBM Sterling (UCC/EAN format with major regional customers). Before integration, the procurement team manually created EDI purchase orders in Sterling after EBS POs were approved, re-entering vendor names and part numbers, and manually reviewed inbound 997 acknowledgements in Sterling's mailbox to see which orders were accepted. Month-end close meant matching EBS PO status to Sterling's actual transmission logs. With Oracle EBS and IBM Sterling connected, new purchase orders flow from EBS approval straight to Sterling as EDI 850 documents routed to the correct partner mailbox, eliminating re-keying. EDI acknowledgements return to EBS automatically, so the procurement team sees real-time partner acceptance status in EBS. Vendor invoice processing moves at the same pace, with EBS invoices flowing to Sterling as EDI 810 documents for partner reconciliation. Reconciliation is now automated, and the procurement and finance teams no longer maintain separate copies of the same data.

What you can do

• •Send purchase orders from Oracle EBS to IBM Sterling as EDI 850 documents routed to the correct trading partners.
• •Transmit vendor invoices from EBS to Sterling as EDI 810 documents for partner invoice reconciliation.
• •Read EDI 997 functional acknowledgements from Sterling and update purchase order status in EBS.
• •Keep vendor master data synchronized between EBS and Sterling so trading partner mailboxes are always correct.
• •Poll Oracle EBS and IBM Sterling on a procurement schedule with automatic token refresh, full audit trail, and error replay.

Questions

How does ml-connector handle the fact that Oracle EBS has no webhooks and IBM Sterling uses polling, not push events?

ml-connector polls both systems on a schedule tied to your procurement window (typically daily or per-transaction). It queries EBS open interface views filtered by LAST_UPDATE_DATE and pages through results with limit/offset. For Sterling, it polls the mailbox API GET /B2BAPIs/svc/mailboxMessages/ at your configured frequency. Both systems are pull-only, so polling is the only viable approach.

Does ml-connector handle the token refresh for Oracle EBS sessions?

Yes. ml-connector obtains a session token from the EBS login endpoint with the provided Basic Auth credentials. EBS session tokens expire after 30-60 minutes; ml-connector tracks token age and refreshes on any 401 response. The token is stored encrypted and includes the required application context headers (org ID, responsibility, language, security group) from your EBS instance configuration.

What happens if an EDI document posted to Sterling fails validation or routing?

ml-connector tracks the document ID in the audit log and can replay the record if needed. If Sterling routing fails (partner mailbox misconfigured or EDI format invalid), ml-connector alerts you via the audit trail. You can re-transmit the document after correcting the partner configuration in Sterling without re-running the entire flow.