General Designer Information
Projects
The designer uses projects to store all of the structure and mapping definitions.
Projects may be stored on the local file system, or they may be provided
as part of the project. A "canned" project will contain a specific EDI version
for example, which can be referenced by other projects.
Project references to other projects are indirect, so you can change the
EDI version you are using for example in one place.
A project contains the following types of objects:
- Structures - The definition of a collection of data elements (fields), which is
the basis for a map. Each structure may have representations that specify
database, XML, flat or EDI. Structures can be composed of other structures
using structure inheritance. Structure element definitions may include
validation rules and descriptive text for data elements.
- Maps - A mapping of one structure to another using expressions.
- Namespace Containers - A collection of XML namespaces and their preferred prefixes.
A namespace container can be shared by structures using XML.
- Databases - The definition of a database instance.
- Functions - Functions are used to define expressions. Many functions are built
into the product. User functions can also be defined.
- Inter-Project References - Objects in one project can reference another.
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The inter-project reference object controls which project is actually
referenced. For example, referencing a structure in version 2.0.2 of GS1 would
reference a project called "GS1-202". Locally
this would be a reference to "GS1", and in the inter-project reference
it would be bound to "GS1-202". This allows the version of a standard
to be changed in one place, quickly and easily.
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Editors
When actually doing data mapping, a user needs to have the specifications
of the input and output document, example data, and the specification
of the transformation between the document. Our product is the only
product that facilitates having all of this information in one
place, and quickly allows you to navigate and search to find what you
need.
Maps, structures, user functions and namespace containers have editors.
Any number of editors can be opened at any time and there is lots of
navigation support for bouncing back and forth between editors to
quickly find out something. In addition, dependency management
provides automatic re-validation as things change between editors.
For example, if an element is added to an open structure, when switching
to an open map editor that uses the structure, the element will appear
in the map.
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Expressions
Expressions are sets of invocations of functions that perform
the work of the transformer. They consist of calls to functions
and references to map elements. Each expression returns exactly
one scalar or string result.
Expressions are represented in a convenient tree view for easy manipulation
and editing.
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Expressions may also be shown and manipulated as text.
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Expressions are categorized by type and associated with elements
of a structure of map. The expression types are:
- Value - Defines the value of an output map element.
- Loop - Determines how a looping element will loop.
- Optional - Defines the conditions for an optional element to appear.
- IO/Database - Specifies points of I/O or database operations.
- Validation - Specifies validation conditions on a per-element basis.
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Search
An extensive search capability is provided.
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Undo/Redo and Back/Forward
The designer has full undo/redo capabilities. There
is no limit to the depth of the undo stack.
The designer also has back/forward buttons that work just as
in a browser.
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