pp108 : Modeling Data Transformation

Modeling Data Transformation

This topic describes the various ways of modeling data transformations.

Data Transformation

Data is often received in different formats and needs to be converted into other formats supported by the target applications. Complex mapping rules need to be defined while these formats are converted. Facilitating the data integration and reuse from diverse applications and multiple data formats is a challenge for the enterprise computing arena. Data transformation addresses this challenge.
Data mapping is the first step in data transformation. Data map is a model that captures the transformation logic between the source and target data models. It is the process of mapping elements of a source data model to elements of a target data model. Data transformation converts data from a source data format into a target data format using XQuery expressions or eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations(XSLTs).
The Data Transformation Modeler provided by Process Platform, enables the visual transformation of data from one format to another through a drag-and-drop mechanism and engages the power of XQuery functions and operators. Process Platform Data Transformation Modeler's thin client-based environment offers extensive design time capabilities. It allows you to map, simple as well as complex data between two source and target data models, and provides a library of standard mathematical, scientific, and logical functions to manipulate data during the transformation. Creating a Data Transformation Model is a one-time operation, and the same model can be reused for subsequent data transformations between business objects of the source and target schemas.
Data transformation models can also be built as Web services which are treated as resources and reused across multiple processes and integration solutions. They can be used in a business process as a Web service or can be used to transform data received as an incoming message into the business process. The target can be a node, an attribute, or a function block. You can also import an existing XSLT into the Transformation modeler for data transformation.

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