FTX

Free Text. The EDIFACT segment that opens an escape hatch for free-form text, qualified and limited to five lines of 70 characters.

Definition

The FTX segment, per UN/EDIFACT D.96A, is used "to provide free form or coded text information". Its structure splits into five elements:

1. 010 — 4451 Text subject qualifier (an..3, M) — UNCL 4451: AAI general information, DEL delivery information, PUR purpose, REG regulatory information, etc.
2. 020 — 4453 Text function, coded (an..3, C) — text function (UNCL 4453).
3. 030 — C107 (TEXT REFERENCE), conditional: 4441 free text coded via a referenced code list.
4. 040 — C108 (TEXT LITERAL), conditional: up to five occurrences of element 4440 (Free text, an..70).
5. 050 — 3453 Language, coded (an..3, C) — ISO 639 language code.

Origin

FTX is a historical service segment, present since EDIFACT v1. D.96A freezes the current structure (five slots of 70 characters), archived by ediverse.io as trsdftx.htm. The GS1 EANCOM subset discourages FTX in automated flows (humans can read it; machines cannot).

Example in context

Free-form delivery note:

Reads as: DEL qualifier (Delivery information), free-form text in two fragments (the second is concatenated to the first to reconstruct "DELIVER BETWEEN 9 AND 11 AM — DOOR CODE 4287").

Related terms

• IMD — companion segment for free-form item descriptions.
• Qualifier — UNCL 4451 and 4453 are textbook qualifiers.
• Segment — the general concept.
• ORDERS — message where FTX carries delivery instructions.