Data mapping is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is the first step in creating a data transformation between a data source and a destination.
For example a company that would like to transmit and receive purchases and invoices with other companies might use data mapping to create data maps from a company's data to standardized ANSI ASC X12 messages for items such as purchase orders and invoices.
X12 standards are generic Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards designed to allow a company to exchange data with any other company, regardless of industry. The standards are maintained by the Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC X12), with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited to set standards for EDI. The X12 standards are often called ANSI ASC X12 standards.
In the future, tools based on semantic web languages such as RDF, the [Web Ontology Language] (OWL) and standardized metadata registry will make data mapping a more automatic process. This process will be accelerated if each application performed metadata publishing. Full automated data mapping is a very difficult problem (see Semantic translation)..
Hand-coded, graphical manual
Data mappings can be done in a variety of ways using procedural code, creating XSLT transforms or by using graphcial mapping tools that automatically generate executable tranformation programs. These are graphical tools that allow a user to "draw" lines from fields one set of data to another. Transformation programs are automatically created in XSLT, Java programming language or C++.
Using auto-connect features
Some graphical data mapping tools allow users to "Auto-connect" a source and a destination. This feature is dependant on the source and destination data element name being the same.
Semantic mapping
Semantic mapping is similar to the auto-connect feature of data mappers with the exception that a metadata registry can be consulted to look up data element synonyms. For example of the source system lists FirstName but the destination lists PersonGivenName the mappings will still be made if these data elements are listed as synonyms in the metadata registry.
Examples of commercial data mapping tools
The following are a listing of some commercial data mapping tools.
See also
- ISO/IEC 11179 - The ISO/IEC Metadata registry standard
- Metadata
- Metadata publishing
- Semantic mapper
- Semantic translation
- Semantic web
- Semantics
- XSLT - XML Transformation Language