Business Documents

In a DML Mapping Project, the Business Document describes the composition and structure of the input and output messages for the Mappings.

Each DML Mapping consists of a Mapping Flow that contains specific instructions on how to route, map, or otherwise handle units of input data. To enable the Mapping Flow to locate the units of data, you link the Map to an object that holds the data of the input message in a formally organized structure. In Mapping Services, the structure for holding message data is a Business Document.

For more information on Mapping Flows and Maps, see Mapping Flows and Maps.

For most Mapping Flows, in addition to the input Business Document, you require one or more output Business Documents.

The following graphic shows the role of Business Documents in the processing sequence.

Input

During message processing, the Map Engine extracts the data from the input message and writes the data to the appropriate node of the input Business Document.

Output

The Map Engine uses the instructions contained in Maps to process the data held in an input Business Document. The application then writes the results of this processing to the nodes of an output Business Document. The integration application can then parse this data to a standard or customized file type of a message flow.

Output / Input

In some processing contexts, a Business Document may serve both as an output and an input Business Document. For example, when a Mapping Flow contains two Maps that are executed successively, the output Business Document of the first Map may serve as the input Business Document of the second Map.

Related topics

Business Document structure

Business Document types

Create Business Documents

Manage Business Document structure

Import Business Documents

Use Business Document Validation Rules

Business Document data encoding

Use Business Document libraries