data transformation Archives

Tag Archive for: data transformation

How to Create a Chained Data Transformation

July 5, 2023/in Data Integration, Tools /by Erin Cavanaugh

Data mapping plays a vital role in modern data-driven organizations, enabling efficient data management and integration. Altova MapForce is a powerful, graphical data mapping tool that supports endless data transformation scenarios, including one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and chained data conversion.

While there are applications for each of these approaches, chained data mapping is especially helpful for complex data processing tasks where multiple stages of data manipulation are required. Here’s a look at the benefits of a chained data conversion approach – and a video of how MapForce makes the process easy and straightforward.

Decorative image: three business people working on laptops

How to Convert Data in MapForce [Video]

June 6, 2023/in Data Integration, Software, Tools /by Erin Cavanaugh

Altova MapForce offers a powerful, yet easy-to-use, approach to converting and transforming data. Whether you need to write XML to a database, convert JSON to EDI, or map Excel to multiple different data formats, MapForce has you covered.

From simple one-to-one conversions to complex ETL scenarios, the MapForce approach is to represent data structures as graphical components. To associate fields, drag and drop connecting lines. A comprehensive library of data filters and functions is available for transforming data before writing it to the target.

Decorative image showing a person working on a laptop with data formats supported by Altova MapForce in the background

We have recently revamped our series of Introduction to MapForce videos. Each short how-to gives a demo of a common MapForce scenario.

Start at the beginning to learn how MapForce works:

And follow along to learn:

An overview of MapForce features and functionality
How data transformation works
XML to XML transformation
Database to XML mapping (including filters and querying the database)
Mapping XML to databases (including database table actions)
One-to-many data integration (featuring Excel to JSON and XML and value-map functions)
Chained data transformation (including if-else conditions and data sorting functions)

You can follow along with the examples in these how-to videos by downloading a free, 30-day trial of MapForce. Check back for new MapForce videos, which are added often.

Tags: data conversion, data integration, data mapping, data transformation, demo videos, ETL, MapForce, videos

Drive VDA EDI Conversion and Transformation with MapForce

May 3, 2023/in Data Integration, EDI /by Erin Cavanaugh

EDI (electronic data interchange) messages are used in a variety of industries for transmitting business information such as invoices, shipping notices, and purchase orders—which were traditionally recorded on paper—electronically. EDI transactions are structured according to standards that describe the format of each message. Adherence to a standard format enables the messages to be transmitted electronically between the computer systems of trading partners without human interaction.

Different industries take advantage of specialized EDI formats that are relevant to their business, and one such popular format is VDA EDI, which is used by the German automotive industry.

To work with VDA messages efficiently, companies often need to transform them to other formats, for instance, for storage in a backend database, or convert them to other EDI message formats for compatibility among systems. Altova MapForce makes this easy, with support for VDA as well as several other popular EDI standards. Let’s see how it works.

Decorative image showing an automobile engine