Mapping make it possible for collaborations to take the data from a business object of one application and transform it to generate a business object for a disparate application. In the mapping process, collaborations interact with connectors, with the Access Interface, or with both.
The IBM WebSphere InterChange Server system provides comprehensive support for data mapping between business objects, including the following capabilities:
In an IBM WebSphere InterChange Server environment, mapping typically takes place between application-specific business objects and generic business objects. The IBM WebSphere InterChange Server system does not map application-specific business objects directly to other application-specific business objects. Instead, the generic object acts as an intermediary between two application data models, carrying the mapped information from one data model to the collaboration (either through a connector or through the Server Access Interface), then carrying mapped information from the collaboration to a connector for another data model.
Figure 5-1 illustrates the way that data mapping occurs at runtime, using a fictionalized Employee Management collaboration as an example: The Employee Management collaboration receives an employee business object from the source connector, then sends an employee business object to the destination connector. (In this example, a collaboration receives a business object from a connector; a similar mapping process takes place when a collaboration receives a business object from the Access Interface.)
Figure 36. Data mapping at runtime
Figure 5-1 illustrates the following sequence:
The example above used two maps--one from the App A Employee business object to the generic Employee business object used by the collaboration, and one from the generic Employee business object to the App B Employee business object. The Employee data moved in only one direction--from App A toward App B.
If you wanted to exchange the Employee data in both directions between the two different applications, four maps would be required: