About Mapping

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The following concepts are essential to an understanding of mapping.

Translation

When you have an electronic document in one format and the document is needed in a different format, you must transform the data in your document from one format to another. You use the Translation service to transform data. The translator creates temporary files during its operation. These temporary files are only stored during processing, and the length of time for which these files may exist varies from milliseconds to a few hours, depending on the amount of data and the type of translation that is performed.

Note: Temporary files are encrypted to ensure the security of these files.

Mapping

To translate data from one format to another, you must specify how the data in one format relates to data in another format.

To relate one format to another for the translator, you must define a set of instructions in the Sterling B2B Integrator Map Editor. These instructions indicate the relationship between the two formats.

Source Map

In the Sterling B2B Integrator Map Editor, you specify mapping instructions for translation in a source map (a file with the extension .mxl—this is the default extension, when the map is saved as an XML-formatted file—or .map). The source map displays mapping instructions graphically. The data format that you are translating from is represented in a visual layout on the left side. The data format that you are translating to is represented in a visual layout on the right side.

Note: To save your source map as an XML file (.mxl file extension), you must have the Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) installed on the same computer as Sterling B2B Integrator Map Editor. If you do not have Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) installed, you cannot save source maps as .mxl files and must use the .map extension.
Note: One benefit of using the .mxl format is that you could potentially manipulate it using other text editors.

The data formats that you can map using theSterling B2B Integrator Map Editor are:

  • Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
  • Positional
  • Variable-length-delimited
  • Japanese Center for Informatization of Industry (CII)
  • Extensible Markup Language (XML)
  • Structured Query Language (SQL)

The translator cannot use a source map to translate data. The source map must be compiled into a translation object, which the translator can use to translate data.

Translation Object

To use the instructions in a source map, you must compile the map. A compiled map has a different extension, .txo, and is called a translation object. It provides instructions for translating one format to another in a way that can be interpreted by a translator. The translator does the work of converting a file from one format to another.

Sterling B2B Integrator Map Type

The IBM® Sterling B2B Integrator map type is a type of map. Use this type of map to translate documents. Other IBM products use other types of maps, which can be opened and then converted to maps used by this product. See Define Map Details for more information about designating a map as the Sterling B2B Integrator type.

Each map has two sides. Each side represents a data format: the input side represents the data format you are translating from, and the output side represents the data format you are translating to. Each part of a data format is represented by specific map components.

XML Encoder Object

The XML encoder object is a compiled map that translates positional, variable-length-delimited, CII, and EDI data formats into XML. It has the extension .ltx. To create an XML encoder object, you select Compile XML Encoder from either the input or output side of an EDI or positional file.