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Adeptia Connect offers you two kind of interfaces (textual and graphical) to create and use mapping rules while mapping the source and destination elements. The interfaces are known as "Textual Rule" and "Graphical Rule". The graphical interface makes it easy for you to see the graphical representation of elements and allows you to perform mapping by connecting source element to any target element or to any mapping functions.  Applying mapping rule is also very convenient as you can see the functions graphically and use the context menu options to connect to both source and target elements.

This section guides you on how to use the Graphical rule option while mapping and also introduces the different components of this option.

Table of Contents
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Elements of Graphical Rule

The Mapping Expression area has a floating menu that contains two options for you to switch between the Graphical and Textual rule. You can drag this floating menu anywhere in the Mapping Expression area. 

Graphical elements are components which are used to represent any source, destination, mapping function, or parameter elements visually in Mapping Expression area. The following types of annotations described type, behavior, and functioning of the graphical interface and their elements. 

  • Inputs
  • Label
  • Context Menus

Inputs: This shows the number of inputs a mapping function or a target element can have. Also, you can drag a line from input element to this section to use that as input in this mapping function/target element.

Label: It tells the name of the element.

Element Type: This displays the type of element being used in the mapping rule. The following list explains the types of elements:


Element typeDescription
f(x)A mapping function, variable, custom method, key function, context variable, connection variable, etc.
S A source element
D A destination element
T  An XSL Template
VM A Value Map
C A Constant value


Context Menus:  Context menus are used to perform below actions:

    • Start connecting lines to map an element to another element(s).
    • Remove an element/box from the graphical mapping workspace.
    • More Menu will have below options
      • Information about mapping element
      • Remove incoming mappings from the elements
      • Add selected graphical mapping element's syntax/expression as a local variable.




Applying mapping functions using Graphical Rule

Mapping Expression tab gives you two interfaces, Textual and Graphical to perform the mapping. By default, the Graphical Rule is active.

Note
You can switch to the Textual Rule interface by clicking the Textual Rule icon in the floating menu. A warning message is displayed asking for your confirmation, click Yes to switch to Textual Rule. To perform mapping in Textual Rule interface, click refer to this document.

You can use the option, Graphical Rule, available under the Mapping Expression tab in the web mapper. 

  1.  Ensure that the source and destination layouts are loaded and all their elements are listed under their respective nodes.
  2. Select a destination element which you want to map. 

    Tip
    Until you select a destination element first, the Mapping Expression tab will be grayed out.


  3. Click Mapping Expression tab at the left bottom of the screen.
    The destination element that you have selected will be visible in the mapping expression area.

  4. Double-click a source element that you want to map with the destination element. 
  5. Click a mapping function that you want to use and select the desired sub-function and use it to map the source and destination elements. For example, using Concat sub-function.

    Note
    You can also add a parameters in the mapping expression area by double-clicking the parameter's name in the Parameters panel.


  6. Click String mapping function and select Concat sub-function. 
    Once you have all the corresponding graphical elements (source elements, destination element, and mapping sub function) available in the mapping expression area, do the following:

    Tip
    You can drag and reposition the graphical mapping elements anywhere in the Mapping Expression area.
    1. Click each of the source elements and select the  icon from the Context Menu to connect the source with the respective Inputs of Concat sub-function. 
    2. Click the Concat sub-function and select the  icon from the Context Menu to connect with the destination element. 
      The source elements are now mapped with the destination element using Concat sub-function and the mapping is visible in the mapping panel.

      Tip
      You can reposition the entire mapping within the Mapping Expression area by clicking anywhere and moving the cursor.


You will be notified of an error message in the Comments section if the mapping function and destination element does not have the proper mapping. 

Color coding of connecting lines

The color of the connecting lines depend upon the following three factors:

ColorDescription
GreenLines connecting two elements will be green in color if the both elements are visible in the current space of Mapping Expression area. 
GrayLines connecting two elements will be gray in color if any of the two elements is not visible in current space of Mapping Expression area. 
OrangeLines connecting two elements will be orange in color if any of the elements is selected. 


Note
You can scroll up and down to view the hidden fields/elements in the Mapping Expression area.

Adding a constant

You can add a Constant while mapping the source and destination elements. This option is visible only when you are applying the graphical mapping rule.

Perform the following steps to add a Constant:

  1. Click Add Constant button located at the bottom of the Mapping Expression window. 
    A graphical notation for the Constant will be added to the Mapping Expression area. 
  2. Double-click the Constant notation. 
    Add Constant window appears.
  3. Enter a constant value in the Constant Value field. 
  4. Select the Add Quotes check box if the value is String type.
  5. Click Ok.
  6. Click the Constant notation and select the  icon from the Context Menu to connect with the destination element. 

Using Lookup Mapping for reference target field

When

user will select a target element in target schema which

the destination element of target layout is a reference field,

Lookup menu item in floating menu will appear. See the below screenshot.
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  • User can switch between mapping view as per the need by clicking on menu items in floating menu.
  • For the reference field, default mapping view will be Lookup mapping and behavior will be as it is now.

    the Mapping Expression feature gives you an additional option Lookup Mapping in the floating menu. 

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