ProductsMapForceEDI to XML Mapping

Altova MapForce® 2008 allows you to map EDI messages to XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007, and Web services. Full support for the EDIFACT and ANSI X12 standards means that you can seamlessly integrate this data with other systems. Transforming EDI to XML has never been easier than with this graphical data mapping tool.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a widely used collection of standards for exchanging information electronically between information systems. There are several EDI standards in use today, the most prevalent being ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT. ANSI (American National Standards Institute) X12 has become the de facto EDI standard in the United States as well as much of North America, while UN/EDIFACT (United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration Commerce and Transport) is the most prevalent international EDI standard. The use of EDI has allowed organizations across diverse industries to increase efficiency and productivity by exchanging large amounts of information with trading partners and other companies electronically, in a quick, accurate, and standardized way.

As organizations increasingly use the Internet to exchange information with customers and partners, the challenge has become integrating and converting between EDI and XML, as well as other common content formats, such as databases, CSV or text files, and other EDI systems to enable efficient interconnected e-business applications. Translating EDIFACT or X12 to XML can sometimes be an arduous, time-consuming, and costly process. However, with MapForce, organizations can leverage their investment in EDI while integrating data from XML applications and other sources, and building Web services.

MapForce simplifies EDI data integration by allowing you to easily define mappings between EDIFACT or X12 and XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007, and other EDI systems, as well as Web services operations using an intuitive visual mapping interface. This allows your organization to reap the benefits of exchanging information electronically – without increasing costs or the complexity of your application infrastructure.

Full support for the ANSI X12 and EDIFACT standards in MapForce allows you to use any of the over 300 transaction sets included in the X12 standard and the hundreds of messages covered by EDIFACT in your mapping design. You can even map from EDI to EDI, to, for example, convert EDIFACT files to an X12 format for your global business partners.

In addition to supporting the most current EDIFACT configuration files, MapForce supports the EDIFACT versions for all previous years starting with standard 93a. These are available as a free download from the MapForce components page.

Because users often need to customize the EDIFACT or X12 messages according to their specific implementations, MapForce includes a user-friendly EDI configuration file format that allows you to add new transactions or modify and enhance existing messages quickly and easily.

Developing an EDI to XML mapping in MapForce is as easy as opening the EDI collection(s) and other data formats you wish to integrate in the mapping window, then dragging connecting lines from the corresponding elements in the source(s) and target(s). MapForce includes a configurable option to automatically connect matching child elements, as well.

Click picture to enlarge/reduce screenshot

 View a Flash demo of converting EDI to XML and other formats in MapForce

You can also add data processing functions to your mapping to manipulate or filter data between the source and target data models. For example, you might want to perform logical comparisons, mathematical computations, or string operations, and make other modifications to the data. In the screenshot above, data processing functions appear as the boxes in between the lines joining the XML source and the EDI target.

Learn more in the Data Processing Functions section.

Once you have finished defining your EDI mapping and data processing functions, simply click the Output tab to see the results of your mapping project instantly. Mappings to EDI produce either EDIFACT messages or X12 transaction sets, depending upon which standard you choose to work with.

Learn more in the Output View section.

MapForce can also generate code for use in ongoing projects. When you need to convert data on a recurrent basis, MapForce autogenerates the application code required to programmatically marshal data from the source(s) to the target content model(s) for use in a customized server-side data integration or Web services application. Program code can be generated in Java, C++, or C# and can easily be used in any software application.

Learn more in the Code Generation section.

Experience the power of MapForce® 2008 for EDI data integration. Download a free trial today!