TranScan: ISO8583!

International Standard ISO 8583

"Services of the financial industry include the exchange of electronic messages relating to financial transactions. Agreements on applications specifications are generally at a private level. This Internation Standard is designed as an interface specification enabling messages to be exchanged between systems adopting a variety of applications specifications. The application specification can remain at a private level. Designers of such applications have complete design freedom within the overall constraint that messages must be convertible to the interface format in order that international interchange may take place.

This International Standard uses a concept called bit map, whereby each data element is assigned a position indicator in a control field, or bit map. The presence of a data element in a specific message is indicated by a one on the assigned position; the absence of a data element is indicated by a zero in the assigned position.

Message formats used in individual systems are subject to the commercial relationships between the parties contracting to each system. The data formats specified in this International Standard are designed to ensure that compatibility between systems conforming to this International Standard is always feasible."

TranScan/8583, like the ISO 8583 specification, is versatile and complete. The standard, in an effort to allow private applications freedom, has also allowed for the creation of a variety of dialects, including, but not limited to: ACI, ADP/EFS, AMEX, AS2805, Deluxe, EBMS, Eurocard, Hypercom, JCB, MasterCard, Plus, Shazam, and Visa. Without an effective protocol analyzer deciphering these cryptic dialects can be a nightmare. TranScan/8583 is the line monitor / protocol analyzer that can translate raw data to useful message field format (and a variety of other) views, and allows for switching between all of these dialects with a single keystroke.