MapForce 2010 Enterprise Edition is the latest release of Altova's graphical data mapping, conversion, and integration tool. MapForce is intended to make it easy to map data between any combination of XML, database, flat file, EDI, Excel 2007, and/or Web service. Once mapped, it can then transform the data immediately or it can generate code for the execution of recurrent conversions. There are also standard and professional versions available and if you would like to view the differences, you can check out the feature comparison list.
What is MapForce 2010? It is a product that provides a graphical interface for defining and executing mapping between data sources. As indicated above, these mappings can involve a wide range of file types. To map data you first define the source data; that is where the data is coming from, and then you define the destination source; where the data is to go. From there you have various options at hand.
Since the information contained within these sources can be completely different, there may be some filtration that needs to go on in between the two end points. For example, if in your source you have a first name and a last name, but in your destination you have a full name. There is a concatenation function that will allow you to merge these two pieces of information together and they will end up as one in the destination. In fact there are a lot of functions that will help you get the data from one place to the other in the right format. There is even a visual function builder to put together user defined functions in a visual way to create just about anything you can think of.
Once you have the mapping done, you can then preview your results to make sure that everything is ready to go. At that point you can do the conversion on the spot, or, if it is something that you will need to do repeatedly, you can generate code in C++, C#, or Java that can be integrated into a program. You can even customize your generated output code using the Spy programming language (SPL).
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