Create choice to manage conditional processing of your message definition.

A message is based on three node types as defined in the Message Definition chapter.

To identify a node or a set of nodes that can have several alternatives in its structure and/or value, you need to enclose the set of related alternatives within a Choice node and each alternative branch into an Option node.

A Choice node is a virtual node identifying alternative branches. Each alternative branch is a possible option and is represented by an Option virtual node as illustrated in the following example:

Figure 2.22. Example of a choice

There are two Choice nodes, one for the buyer's information, that accepts either a company structure with a VAT number value, or a person structure with firstname, lastname and address values. The other Choice node is for the price of an Item, it can accept either a price with a 0% or a 21% VAT.

In this latter case, both alternative branches have the same structure, but they have different static values (0 or 21) for their VAT node (static value nodes are green).

It is mandatory that each Option of a Choice is uniquely identifiable compared to each others. They could be identified by having different structures (like the buyer's Choice example) or by having the same structure with different static values (like in the price Choice example).

Choice and drag and drop mapping

Choice nodes are not mappable, only Option nodes can be mapped (using drag and drop).

Figure 2.23. Option mapping

Figure 2.24. Mapping of nodes within an option node