January 2013

Process Multiple Input Files in a Single Data Mapping

January 29, 2013/3 Comments/in Applications, Data Integration /by David McGahey

Typical data conversion tasks require processing numerous input files that arrive in batches. Altova MapForce includes features that let you handle groups of files with minimal intervention.For instance, we recently copied a set of files from the memory card of a digital camera with GPS support. Each .LOG file is a CSV containing GPS coordinates for a single route.

Directory list of source files for data conversion

We quickly designed a mapping to convert the CSV data to XML-based .gpx format and processed all three files to generate three output files in a single execution:

List of automatically generated output files

Expect the Unexpected – Altova MissionKit Solves a Number Format Mystery

January 10, 2013/in /by David McGahey

Every time you receive data from an outside source, there is a chance it won’t arrive in the form you expect. This can require special accommodations for the rare and unlikely to make a real-world data mapping and transformation solution robust and reliable.

We processed literally dozens of .gpx files, containing hundreds of coordinates each, through the MapForce mapping we wrote about in the blog post Web Service as a Look-Up Table to Refine GPS Data. Then one day we ran a new file and encountered the error below, which caused the mapping to fail:

Error message during mapping of Web services data

Reaching into the Altova MissionKit to combine features of MapForce and XMLSpy, we quickly diagnosed the issue and developed a solution we can also reuse in future mapping projects.