ProductsMapForceEDI Mapping

Altova MapForce® 2008 allows you to map EDI messages to XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007, and Web services. Full support for the UN/EDIFACT and ANSI X12 standards means that you can seamlessly integrate this data with other systems to meet the changing demands of business partners and customers, internal requirements, and global data transmission mandates.

EDI standards have been the dominant format for e-commerce data exchange for decades, and give organizations a fast and accurate method of transmitting transaction data without the need for human interaction. However, as a message transmission paradigm, EDI is source format and system agnostic, and requires translation and purposing for delivery to proprietary systems at its final destination. The reality that EDI precedes such prevalent integrated business technologies as ERP, CRM, many database formats, and many other supply chain enabling technologies, makes data transformation an important component of any EDI implementation.

Graphical EDI Mapper

MapForce is a graphical EDI mapper with native support for all of the prevalent business data formats in use today, including XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007, Web services, as well as the EDIFACT and X12 EDI transaction sets. Its highly intuitive interface enables EDI implementation specialists to visually design and execute mappings, or even generate code in Java, C++, or C# for recurrent transformations.

Because XML and database structures employ human-readable data, EDI specialists can inherently understand these mapping components without knowing the intricacies of the data format(s). This can help organizations greatly reduce errors by bringing implementations in-house, rather than relying on transformation code written by third parties.

MapForce simplifies EDI data integration by allowing you to visually define mappings between EDIFACT or X12 and XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007, and other EDI systems, as well as Web services operations. 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 UN/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 EDI Mappings

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 formats in MapForce

Filtering and Processing Data

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.

Viewing Output

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.

Generating Program Code

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 customized server-side data integration or Web services applications. 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.

EDI & XML

As a global leader in the XML tools and technologies market, Altova is in a unique position to strengthen EDI and XML data integration initiatives with technologically advanced and user-friendly features.

Read more about EDI and XML mapping in MapForce here.

Experience the power of MapForce® 2008 for EDI data integration. Download a free 30-day trial of MapForce.