ProductsMapForceData Integration

Altova MapForce® 2011 is an advanced data integration application with support for integrating data with virtually any formats including XML, databases, flat files, EDI, Excel 2007+, XBRL, and Web services. With additional support for automating data integration, MapForce is an ideal middleware product for connecting distributed applications in any enterprise, Web-based, or even Cloud architecture.

Simple Data Integration

The data integration process can often seem overwhelming, and this is often compounded by the vast number of large-scale, complex, and costly enterprise integration applications available on the market. MapForce seeks to alleviate this burden with powerful data integration capabilities built into a straightforward graphical user interface.

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MapForce allows you to easily associate target and source data structures using drag and drop functionality. Advanced data processing filters and functions can be added via a built-in function library, and you can use the visual function builder to combine multiple inline and/or recursive operations in more complex data integration scenarios.

Integrating Data from/into Multiple Files

MapForce lets you easily integrate data from multiple files or split data from one file into many. Multiple files can be specified through support for wildcard characters (e.g., ? or *), a database table, auto-number sequences, or other methods. This feature is very useful in a wide variety of data integration scenarios; for example, it may be necessary to integrate data from a file collection or to generate individual XML files for each main table record in a large database. The screenshot below shows an example in which two files from a directory are integrated into a single target file.

As a complement to this feature, MapForce also allows you to use file names as parameters in your data integration projects. This lets you create dynamic mappings in which this information is defined at run-time.

Re-usable Data Mappings

Whether it is an XML or database schema, EDI configuration file, or XBRL taxonomy and beyond, MapForce integrates data based on data structures regardless of the underlying content. This means that you can re-use your data integration mappings again and again as your business data changes.

Simply right click the data structure and choose Properties to access the component settings dialog to change your data source and, consequently, the output of your data integration project.

If you need to make some changes to your mapping along the way - to accommodate for underlying schema changes, for instance - MapForce offers a variety of automation features that help ease this process. For example, when you re-map a parent element, you will be asked if you would like to automatically reassign child elements or any other descendent connections accordingly.

Data integration output is created on-the-fly, and can be viewed at any time by simply clicking the Output tab in the design pane.

Automated Data Integration

For XML mappings, MapForce automatically generates data integration code on-the-fly in XSLT 1.0/2.0 or XQuery, based on your selection.

MapForce data mappings can also be fully automated through the generation of royalty-free data integration application code in Java, C#, or C++. This enables you to implement scheduled or event-triggered data integration/migration operations for inclusion in any reporting, e-commerce, or SOA-based applications.

MapForce data integration operations can also be automated via data integration API, ActiveX control, or the command line.

Full integration with the Visual Studio and Eclipse IDEs helps developers use MapForce data integration functionality as part of large-scale enterprise projects, without the hefty price tag.

Legacy Data Integration

As technology rapidly advances in the information age, organizations are often left burdened with legacy data repositories that are no longer supported, making the data difficult to access and impossible to edit in its native format. Here, MapForce provides the unique FlexText utility for parsing flat file output so that it can easily be integrated with any other target structure.

FlexText enables you to create reusable legacy data integration templates for mapping flat files to modern data formats like XML, databases, Excel 2007+, XBRL, Web services, and more.

In addition, legacy data formats like EDI can easily be integrated with modern accounting systems like ERP and relational databases, or even translated to modern formats like XML.

Data Manipulation

Data integration projects often require a certain amount of data manipulation - the insertion of data processing functions, filters, constants, or other operators to make the data consumable by the target system.

MapForce provides intuitive features that enable you to modify your data integration components. These include a visual function builder, fully scalable data processing functions with built-in function libraries, filters and conditions, and more. This enables you to easily manipulate input data to integrate disparate formats.

Functions, filters, and constants can be accessed in the MapForce function library or toolbar and are represented as additional mapping components that can be integrated into your mapping design.

Chained Transformations

Chained transformations enable you to create complex mappings in which the output of one mapping becomes the input of another. This is a powerful feature that adds to MapForce's ability to execute fully automated transformations. Each chained component becomes a modular entity in an interdependent transformation sequence, allowing for conversions to be made on-the-fly.

Chained transformations can be created using any number of mapping components connected to a final target component. Preview and code generation features can be displayed/generated for intermediate components, as well as for the final mapping result.

Intermediate mapping components have a "pass-through" button in the title bar. This button lets you define the set of data that gets passed on to the following component.

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For example, the mapping above shows a screenshot of a chained mapping where the pass-through button is active and sample data is assigned to the first component (Employees.xsd). The output preview offers two separate sets of data: XML that conforms to the Contacts.xsd schema and incorporates a subset of data mapped from the Employees.xml sample file, and XML that conforms to PersonList.xsd using data from the Employees sample file. In both cases, the data has been amended with the relevant constants and functions that are shown in the MapForce design pane.

Learn how MapForce® 2011 can help you develop advanced data integration. Download a free 30-day trial of MapForce.