ACORD messaging standard
The ACORD messaging standard defines the structure and content of messages that are exchanged between companies in the insurance industry.
ACORD AL3 text messages can be modeled by using DFDL or MRM Tagged/Delimited String Format (TDS). ACORD XML messages can be modeled by using XML schemas. Predefined XML schemas for ACORD XML are available from the ACORD website.www.acord.org.
The following information is specific to MRM.
Each group with an ACORD AL3 message has a header consisting of a one-digit number, three letters, plus a three-digit total length count. These first seven characters can be modeled as a tag. The data within the headers is fixed length. Therefore the header type used for the overall message can be modeled as follows:
Data Element Separation = Tagged Fixed Length
Length of Tag = 7The Transaction Group contains other groups, and is therefore modeled in the same way as the overall message. The Message Header Group and the Message Trailer group consist of fixed-length elements, therefore the type used can be modeled as:
Data Element Separation = Fixed Length Two Data Element Separation methods are suited to handling ACORD AL3 messages:
- Fixed Length AL3 supports basic handling of ACORD AL3 messages, including situations where the message groups conform to a different version of the ACORD AL3 standard. This is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of the product; an alternative will be provided.
- Tagged Encoded Length supports handling of more sophisticated situations, including messages containing message groups unknown to the message dictionary.
The following sections describe their use: