EDI API Server Quick Start

You can run the API Server locally on your laptop or server in a single Docker container. The server does not connect to external services, and you need a license key to run it.

This guide gets the container running and converts your first EDI file. For Docker Compose, environment variables, mount points, TLS, and production configuration, see the API Server Installation guide.

Prerequisites

  • Install Docker Engine or Docker Desktop. Docker Desktop is available for Windows and macOS. Docker is usually enabled by default on all Linux systems.
  • Request a trial license and download the edi-license.txt license file.

Start the API Container

Create a working folder with an etc subfolder, then copy edi-license.txt into etc:

mkdir etc
cp <path-to-edi-license.txt> etc/edi-license.txt

Pull the Docker image and create the container:

docker pull myarch/ediconvert:2.15.0
docker create --name ediconvert -p "5080:5080" --restart unless-stopped \
  -v ./etc:/app/etc:ro myarch/ediconvert:2.15.0

Start the container:

docker start ediconvert

The server takes a few seconds to start. Follow the logs until you see Started HdiApplication:

docker logs ediconvert -f

Press Ctrl+C to stop following the logs; this does not stop the container.

On Linux, your Docker installation may require sudo before each Docker command.

Verify the Installation

Open http://localhost:5080/api/about in your browser or run:

curl http://localhost:5080/api/about

The response includes the API version and license information.

Convert an EDI File to JSON

The main conversion endpoint is /api/edi/json.

Submit your conversion request using curl. You can download a sample EDI file from our GitHub repo.

curl -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  --data-binary @<path-to-your-edi-file> \
  http://localhost:5080/api/edi/json

The API returns the converted EDI data as JSON. See the API User Guide for CSV output, NDJSON streaming, error handling, and more request examples. The API examples repository also includes Python and curl clients.

Open the Bundled EDI Viewer

The container includes an EDI Viewer for exploring EDI files without the file and claim limits of the public viewer.

Open http://localhost:5080/edi-viewer after the container starts.

Stop or Restart the Container

docker stop ediconvert
docker start ediconvert

Installation without Docker

To run the API server directly as a Java application, follow the installation without Docker instructions in the full installation guide.

Next Steps