Using map documents

Map Designer Express supports creation of a map document, which allows you to see all transformations in a single map or between two maps. While checking a map, you might want to view all of its transformations in a single operation, rather than opening and viewing each attribute separately. To do so, you can create a map document that contains all transformations. A map document provides you with an automated way to document native-map transformations.

This section provides the following information:

What Is a map document?

A map document consists of two HTML files that describe all transformations of a map (or set of maps):

In both these HTML files, mapDoc is the user-specified name of the map document.

The map document can include information for all attributes, only those attributes that have map transformations, or only those attributes that do not have map transformations (unlinked attributes). If you specify all attributes, the map document also contains a list of unlinked attributes in the source and destination business objects.

The following sections describe the format of the two HTML files of a map document.

Map-table file format

The map-table file, mapDoc.HTM, describes the map transformations in a tabular format:

Single-map map table

A single-map map table describes the mapping flow in a single map; that is, it describes the transformations between a source and destination business object. The single-map map table has the following columns:

Figure 26 shows the HTML file that contains a single-map map table.

Figure 26. Single-map map table

Note:
If you enabled the Comment check box Create Map Document dialog, the map table contains a fourth column called Comment, which shows the comment for each of the destination attributes in the table.
Multiple-map map table

A multiple-map map table describes the mapping flow between two maps; that is, it describes the transformations in the inbound map (between the application-specific and generic business object) and an outbound map (between the generic and application-specific business object). The multiple-map map table has the following columns:

Figure 27 shows the HTML file that contains a multiple-map map table.

Figure 27. Multiple-map map table

Java-Code file format

The Java-code file, mapDocJavaCode.HTM, provides more detailed information about the map. It contains the Java code that performs the transformations. This code is in standard program format. The Java-code file is useful when you want to view all map transformations in a single operation, rather than opening and viewing each attribute separately.

Creating a map document

Perform the following steps to create a map document:

  1. Open the Create Map Document dialog by selecting Create Map Documents from the File menu.

    Result: Map Designer Express displays the Create Map Document dialog (see Figure 28).

  2. Select the map-document configuration options from the Create Map Document dialog:
  3. To initiate creation of the map document, select one of the following options:

Figure 28 shows the Create Map Document dialog.

Figure 28. Create Map Document dialog

When you create a map document, Map Designer Express creates the map document as a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) file (mapDoc.HTM) and a related Java code file (mapDocJavaCode.HTM) where mapDoc is the map-document name you specified in the Map Document Configuration dialog.

Viewing a map document

You can view a map document in any of the following ways:

Result: Map Designer Express invokes your browser to display the HTML map-document file that you selected.

In addition, you can view the Java code associated with a particular transformation by clicking the entry in the Mapping Action column of the map table. Your browser displays the corresponding Java code segments that implement the mapping between the associated source and destination attributes.

Printing a map document

Perform the following steps to print a map-document file:

  1. View the desired file in your HTML browser.

    For more information, see "Viewing a map document".

  2. Print the displaying HTML file from the browser.

    Select the Print option of the browser's File menu, use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+P), or select the Print icon from the Standard tool bar.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2003