LibraryDeveloper PortalData Mapping

Altova application development and data management tools include support for visually mapping data to meet a variety of data integration and presentation needs. Find out more about contemporary data integration challenges and how Altova tools help meet them head on by following the links below.

Recent trends in data management such as enterprise information integration (EII) and enterprise application integration (EAI) have the common goal of uniting business data and applications to increase productivity and efficiency. These trends are born in reaction to a longstanding challenge: how can organizations meaningfully integrate data from many disparate systems to better execute and/or understand their businesses? Some of the most prevalent data formats in use today are XML, relational databases, text files, and other flat files, as well as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) systems such as ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT. Each of these systems has unique advantages, yet none are readily interoperable. In addition, these systems generally don’t provide an option to present the data they represent in attractive formats such as HTML, PDF, etc., is a requirement for the dissemination of business and organizational information.

To efficiently interconnect business systems, organizations need the ability to map and translate between the various different data types and presentation formats in use today.

Using MapForce, you can define mappings between any combination of XML, databases, flat files, EDI, Excel 2007 (OOXML) and Web services formats with an easy-to-use visual design interface. When your design is complete, MapForce converts your data to the required format. Or, to automate the conversion, MapForce autogenerates code for use in your custom data integration applications. Code can be generated in any of the following languages:

• XSLT 1.0
• XSLT 2.0
• XQuery
• Java
• C++
• C#

To learn more about how visual mapping with MapForce simplifies and accelerates XML, database, flat file, EDI, Excel 2007 (OOXML). and Web services data integration, visit the MapForce product pages or read the data integration whitepaper (PDF, 3.4 MB).

A vast amount of enterprise data is stored in relational databases and XML-based applications, neither of which generally provides an attractive means for presenting information to customers, partners, and internal business units. XML-based single source publishing strategies have emerged to address this problem, but these solutions often still require the development of multiple transformation stylesheets for each desired output, and they don’t address the need to publish content from relational databases.

Altova created StyleVision to take the pain out of publishing content in XML and databases. In StyleVision, you create a single graphical design that simultaneously produces stylesheets for mapping XML or database data to the most popular presentation formats in use today: HTML, RTF, PDF, and Word 2007 (OOXML).

Learn more about the benefits and challenges of XML-based single source publishing in the “Getting More from Your Content with Single Source Publishing” whitepaper (PDF 838 Kb).

XML has rapidly become the technology of choice for delivering structured data on the Web, working hand-in-hand with HTML, which is used to present the data. This allows the data to be separated from its presentation format, making it much more extensible for use in Web applications. However, organizations today have much of their existing online content stored only in HTML, and efficiently converting HTML content to an XML format has posed a significant challenge.

To access data stored in HTML while preserving a document's style, Altova StyleVision allows you to convert existing HTML pages to XML using a visual drag-and-drop process. The conversion results in an XML Schema instance that reflects the content model, an XML document that holds the actual content, and an XSLT stylesheet with the presentation (style) information.

The Altova data mapping and integration tools listed above are all available individually or as part of the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008. Get up to 8 software tools for the price of 2 with the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008! The MissionKit bundles Altova's intelligent application development and data management tools to meet the needs of software architects and XML developers. Download a free 30-day trial of the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008 to see how Altova’s unique, visual approach to data mapping can meet your integration and presentation needs.