Overview

The ceric and cotto command-line tools are the core components of mini-eric, providing direct access to the ERiC API for processing German ELSTER XML documents and Otto API to download objects.

What is ceric?

ceric is a C++ application that interfaces with the ERiC API to process XML documents. It supports three main use cases:

• Draft: Validate and preview XML documents without transmission

• Send: Process and transmit documents with PDF generation

• Transmit: Transmit documents without PDF generation

What is cotto?

cotto is a C++ application that interfaces with the Otto API to download objects (text or binary). It supports only one use case:

• Download: Download content for the given UUID

Key Features

• JSON Output: All results are returned as standarized JSON for easy parsing

• Error Handling: Detailed error codes and messages

• Flexible Configuration: Support for custom paths and parameters

• Multiple Data Types: Support for various ELSTER data types

• Cross-Platform: Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows

Basic Usage

# ceric use cases
ceric --pathXml <file> --dataType <type> [--usecase <draft|send|transmit>] [--pathVendor <dir>] [--pathStorage <dir>] [--timestamp <value>]

# cotto download use case
cotto --objectUuid <uuid> [--pathStorage <dir>] [--fileExtension <ext>]

Supported Data Types

See Data Types

Use Cases

Draft (Default)

Validates XML and generates PDF preview without transmission:

ceric --pathXml info.xml --dataType Kontoinformation

Send

Validates XML, transmits to ERiC server, and generates PDF:

ceric --usecase send --pathXml info.xml --dataType Kontoinformation

Transmit

Validates XML and transmits to ERiC server without PDF generation:

ceric --usecase transmit --pathXml info.xml --dataType Kontoinformation

Download

Downloads data from OTTER server using object UUID:

cotto --objectUuid 41a42915-d8ba-45c7-89e6-6b875a853fc4

JSON Output Format

ceric and cotto always output a single JSON object to stdout, which follows the Response schema:

{
  "$schema": "ceric-response.json",
  "exitCode": "0",
  "message": "OK",
  "pathStorage": "/path/to/storage",
  "pathXmlWithHeader": "/path/to/storage/file-with-header.xml",
  "pathOutputFile": "/path/to/storage/eric-202501011230450100.pdf",
  "timestamp": "202501011230450100",
  "ericCode": "0",
  "ericMessage": "Success",
  "processResult": "<xml>...</xml>",
  "serverResponse": "<xml>...</xml>",
  "otherOutput": "Additional output text"
}

Environment Variables

For a complete list of environment variables and detailed configuration instructions, see Environment Variables.

Variable	Default	Description
PATH_CERTIFICATE	bin/eric/test-softorg-pse.pfx	Path to certificate file for send/transmit operations
CERTIFICATE_PIN	123456	PIN for certificate access

Error Handling

ceric uses structured exit codes for different error categories:

• 1-19: Command line and argument errors

• 20-29: File I/O errors

• 30-39: Validation errors

• 100-109: ERiC/certificate initialization errors

• 110-119: ERiC header creation errors

• 120-129: XML validation errors

• 130-139: File output errors

• 140-149: ERiC processing errors

• 150-159: Buffer/content errors

• 160-169: ELSTER server errors

• 170-179: Download use case errors

• 190-199: Internal errors

Next Steps

• CLI Reference - Complete command-line reference

• Use Cases - Detailed use case examples

• Error Codes - Complete error code reference

• Examples - Usage examples