ProductsMapForceEDI MappingEDI Translator

Altova MapForce® 2010 acts as a graphical EDI translator, enabling you to maintain the integrity of your EDI data by visually translating 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 translating these transactions to other usable document types for transfer, storage, and management purposes is a very common business requirement.

MapForce provides strong support for translating the UN/EDIFACT, ANSI X12, and Health Level 7 (HL7) EDI standards, and its intuitive visual mapping interface facilitates translation to a multitude of other formats, allowing this valuable data to be interpreted and consumed by distributed systems.

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

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

MapForce provides full support for translating EDI including:

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

Translating EDI to Databases

Translating 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 translate 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, 2008
• IBM DB2® 8, 9
• IBM DB2 for iSeries® v5.4
• Oracle® 9i, 10g, 11g
• Sybase® 12
• MySQL® 4, 5
• PostgreSQL 8
• Microsoft Access™ 2003, 2007

To create an EDI to database translation, simply insert an EDI message from MapForce’s complete EDI collection for EDIFACT , X12, and HL7. 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 EDIFACT, X12, and HL7 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 translation 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 the translation of 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.

Translating 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 translate EDI messages to valid XML structures.

To begin an EDI to XML translation, insert a structure from MapForce’s extensive EDI collection. In the example below, we are converting an HL7 v2.6 message to the latest, XML-based version of the standard, v3 (the XML Schema files for HL7 v3 are available for free download on the Altova Web site). To do this, we start by inserting an ADT A28 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 - in this case, we will use the corresponding XML Schema for HL7 v3. Then, using MapForce’s intuitive visual design interface, simply drag connecting lines to associate relevant HL7 segments to the associated XML node.

	Click to enlarge

MapForce includes a library of advanced processing functions that enable you to add necessary changes and additions to output content on the fly to comply with data requirements.

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 an HL7 v2.6 ADT A28 message into the following XML markup (the message has been truncated for brevity):

For recurrent EDI translations, which are especially useful when handling a large volume of incoming or outgoing 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® 2010 can help you translate your EDI source data. Download a free 30-day trial of MapForce.

* “HL7,” and “Health Level Seven” are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven, Inc.