ProductsMapForceEDI MappingEDI Source Data

Altova MapForce® 2008 enables you to easily maintain the integrity of your EDI data by visually mapping it to a wide variety of other usable file formats, including XML, databases, flat files, other EDI standards, Excel 2007 (OOXML), and Web services.

EDI formats are standards for electronic data exchange and are specifically suited for exchanging information between disparate systems. Mapping and transforming these transactions to other usable document types for transfer, storage, and management purposes is a very common business requirement.

MapForce provides strong support for the ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT EDI standards, and its intuitive visual mapping interface facilitates mapping to a multitude of other formats, allowing this valuable data to be interpreted and consumed by distributed systems.

MapForce’s powerful data integration capabilities extend beyond simple EDI mapping operations, enabling you to generate program code in Java, C++, or C# for application integration and recurrent transformations.

The examples below illustrate just a few ways that MapForce can be used to cut costs and add efficiency to your EDI implementation with mapping support for XML, databases, flat files, other EDI formats, Excel 2007 (OOXML), and Web services.

MapForce provides full support for mapping using EDI as a source format including:

• EDI to XML
• EDI to databases
• EDI to text/flat files
• EDI to EDI
• EDI to Excel 2007 (OOXML)
• EDI to Web services

Mapping EDI to Databases

Mapping EDI to database formats is essential for storing and accessing your transaction information. While an increasing number of databases support storing EDI messages in their native formats, it is necessary to transform this data into a valid database structure in order for it to be available for search and retrieval.

MapForce supports all major databases, including:

• Microsoft® SQL Server® 2000, 2005
• IBM DB2® 8, 9
• IBM DB2 for iSeries® v4
• IBM DB2 for zSeries® 8, 9
• Oracle®
• Sybase®
• MySQL®
• Microsoft Access™
• Any via ADO or ODBC

To create an EDI to database mapping, simply insert an EDI message from MapForce’s complete EDI collection for X12 and EDIFACT. You will then be prompted to specify a sample EDI file that can be used to view the output of your mapping.

When you initially install MapForce, it comes with the appropriate definitions for the latest versions of the UN/EDIFACT and X12 message standards, but you can also download an EDI collection of previous versions of these standards from the Altova Web site as needed.

Once you insert a database structure as the target component, you can simply drag lines to connect matching nodes using MapForce’s visual design interface.

MapForce’s extensive library of data processing functions can help you to amend data fields with additional proprietary information that needs to be added to your database tables. For example, in the mapping above, a simple concatenate function is used with a constant to generate a ForeignKey from two EDI message segments with a hyphen as a separator.

Clicking the Output tab shows the result of your mapping. In the case of a mapping with a database structure as a target, MapForce will generate a SQL script that can be run against your database from directly within MapForce to execute the transformation and update the database tables.

In this simple example, we have converted the EDI X12 850 Purchase Order transaction set below

into the following SQL script:

MapForce’s sophisticated code generation support enables you to automatically execute the same mapping using Java, C++, or C#, and integrate it into your own applications and business processes. The generated code can be used royalty-free, so you don’t incur any runtime license fees. This is especially useful when handling a large number of incoming or outgoing EDI messages, and allows you to add additional automation to your e-commerce and data integration workflows.

MapForce also supports mapping multiple sources to multiple targets so that you can combine disparate data formats in your transformations.

Mapping EDI to XML

XML continues to be one of the most versatile and widely used document formats in businesses across the globe. Its unique ability to be repurposed for any conceivable output format or delivery mechanism makes it an ideal file format for a wide variety of uses.

Using either a proprietary XML Schema or DTD or an XML Schema generated by MapForce from an XML sample file, MapForce enables you to easily map EDI messages to valid XML structures.

To begin an EDI to XML transformation, insert a structure from MapForce’s extensive EDI collection. In the example below, we are using an EDIFACT ORDERS structure as the source mapping component. You will then be prompted to specify a sample EDI file which can be used to view the output of your mapping.

Once you have defined your source component(s), you can assign a target XML structure for the mapping. Then, using MapForce’s intuitive visual design interface, simply drag connecting lines to associate relevant EDIFACT segments to the associated XML node.

MapForce includes a library of advanced data processing functions with special processing operators for EDIFACT, which enable you to automatically reformat specific datatypes. For example, in the mapping above a to-datetime function has been used to generate a datetime datatype on-the-fly by combining the result of two strings.

Clicking the Output tab shows the result of your mapping. In the case of a mapping with an XML structure as a target, MapForce will generate valid XML data based on your target schema.

In this simple example, we have converted the EDIFACT ORDERS message below

into the following XML markup:

For recurrent transformations, which are especially useful when handling a large volume of incoming or outgoing EDI messages, MapForce’s sophisticated code generation support will enable you to automatically execute the same mapping using Java, C++, or C#, and integrate it into your own applications and business processes. The generated code can be used royalty-free, so you don’t incur any runtime license fees.

Find out how MapForce® 2008 can help you transform your EDI source data. Download a free 30-day trial of MapForce.