MAP

Map. The declarative specification that defines the transformation between two EDI formats.

Definition

A map is the concrete artefact that describes, segment by segment and field by field, how to transform a message from a source format to a target format. The map can be: an Excel spreadsheet shared between teams, a proprietary script (Sterling MAP), an XSLT, a drag-and-drop graph in a GUI tool (Boomi, BizTalk), or a declarative YAML/JSON file. It is the versioned and tested unit of a transformation library.

Origin

The term "map" in its EDI sense comes from early Gentran tools (1983) where the transformation was described in proprietary ".map" files. Today every mapping tool has its own map format, which makes switching tools costly. Initiatives like MapForce (Altova) or Mule DataWeave try to offer a more standard map language, but no real open standard has emerged.

Example in context

An EDIFACT D.96A ORDERS to UBL 2.1 ORDERS map typically contains 200 to 400 elementary rules: "BGM+220+#1+9 → cbc:OrderTypeCode='220', cbc:ID=#1", "NAD+BY+#1::9 → cac:BuyerCustomerParty/cac:Party/cbc:EndpointID schemeID='0088' = #1", etc. UNCL codes are systematically translated to corresponding UN/CEFACT code lists. The map is versioned in Git, tested against a reference payload battery, and deployed in CI/CD.

Related terms

• Mapping — the process the map is the artefact of.
• Converter — component that executes a map.
• Translator workflow — chain of orchestrated maps.