GUI and Mapping Syntax

Transforms are created principally by using a drag and drop paradigm and are displayed as a powerful humanly readable mapping syntax that can be understood by both programmers and domain specialists.

Whilst many tools opt for an entirely graphical approach in trying to solve mapping problems, TM combines the power of an easy to use GUI/drag and drop approach with a unique standards based mapping syntax.

It's not until you have tried to solve more complex real world data transformation problems that you can realise just how useful TM's mapping syntax really becomes. It's then that you realise that the graphical only tools fall disastrously short and that simple understandable mapping statements are an invaluable addition.

While the majority of transform statements will be constructed automatically via the "drag and drop" process of designing the transform, they may also - and occasionally must - be entered by hand.

In order to cater for this highly flexible approach the GUI has been configured to be as user friendly as possible, giving clear views of both the models and transformations at once, as shown below:

SML (simple mapping language) provides the most powerful and flexible solution to Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) and data integration tasks since it offers a complete syntax with which to describe the transformation of data from a source to target data model. Additionally, SML is easy to learn and is supported by a complete online help and documentation set.

SML has been developed to simplify the process of describing the transformation of data from a variety of source to target data stores. It hides many of the differences between different types of data stores, and makes it possible to concentrate on the data without worrying about the details of how the data is stored.

Furthermore, SML has over 330 built-in functions and coding patterns, which are powerful enough to describe quite complex transformations between source and target models.

TM also gives you the ability to create and use User Defined Functions (UDF) and Java functions can be used in order to cope with scenarios where pure SML is insufficient. An example of a transform written in SML appears below:

In this example a transform of data from an XML file to an XML file is presented. The source file contains details about books and their authors. From the data in the source model, we wish to filter all the details for those books written by the author Brown only.

See a presentation of the Filter by Content Transformation Project here.

See other presentations of TM projects here.