Home > XML IDE - XML Editor > XML Editor Key Features > XML Mapping > XML-to-XML Mapper

Download a Free Trial >

See What's New >

Buy Now >

XML-to-XML Mapper

Stylus Studio® is the ultimate XML data integration tool (illustrated below — click to enlarge), offering a comprehensive feature list of powerful visual XML mappers for getting data from-and-to virtually any data format. Stylus Studio®'s XML Mapper employs a standards-based approach to XML mapping, electing to implement the underlying XML mapping code in either XSLT or XQuery rather then relying on proprietary DOM-like program code generation schemes which cannot be easily customized, and are not scalable.

True XML Mapping: Visual Editing of XQuery and XSLT

A key differentiator of Stylus Studio®'s XML Mapper is that it operates on standard XSLT or XQuery files which is a sharp contrast to other XML tools which internally express XML mappings as proprietary mapping formats which in-turn are not editable. Using our XML Mapper, you can load any existing XSLT stylesheet or XQuery expression and immediately use our visually intuitive, drag-and-drop XML mapping features to accelerate the development of custom XML mappings. Furthermore, our powerful XML mapping tool features an optional split-screen interface (illustrated below) that displays two synchronized panes: in the top pane, a visual abstraction of the XML mapping being performed, and in the bottom pane, the underlying XSLT or XQuery source code used to implement the desired XML mapping. As you visually define XML mappings in the XML Mapper by specifying various flow control blocks and connecting inputs with outputs, the underlying source code view is automatically updated with the XSLT or XQuery code required to perform your desired mapping operation. Similarly, you can manually edit the source code (either the XSLT and XQuery code) and Stylus Studio® automatically updates the visual model. Stylus Studio® is the only XML Mapper available in the marketplace today which supports this true XML mapping capability.

Universal Data Mapping Input Architecture

Our XML Mapper can handle virtually any input and output format, and perform the mapping in XSLT or XQuery. The following input formats are supported by our XML Mapper:

• XML Instance Document
• XML Schema
• Document Type Definition (DTD)
• Relational Database
• Live Web Service Data
• EDI/X12, HL7, EDIFACT, IATA, EANCOM or any other non-xml data format

Of course, Stylus Studio® supports advanced multi-data-source data integration scenarios involving multiple input sources, for example, you could easily create an XML mapping which aggregates data from say, both a relational database, and live Web Service data simply by adding two data sources to the XML mapping project.

Create/Change Target XML Schema on the Fly

The target output format of an XML mapping can be loaded from any custom DTD or XML Schema. If you don't already have a target XML data model in mind, you can define the targeted output format on the fly by dragging and dropping desired data components into the target pane and specifying how that data should be represented in the output format. For example, in the following illustration, we are defining that the "subject" XML data element in the source document should appear as a new child element of the "book" element in the target XML output format.

Support for Programatic Data Manipulation

Our XML mapper is completely customizable and provides a full range of options to perform specific data manipulation operations. For example, you can create function blocks to perform flow control (iteration), conditional processing (logical comparisons), mathematical computations, using the various advanced, standards-based data processing aspects of the XQuery or XSLT data transformation and query languages. You can also execute custom data processing logic expressed externally in programming languages such as Java through the use of XSLT or XQuery functions. The following illustration shows an XML Mapping project implemented in XQuery — here we are adding a FLWOR Block (For, Let, Where, Order by, Return) to the visual XML mapping to compute a join of repeating data elements.

Preserve Mapping Project Layout

Our XML Mapper includes the ability to preserve the visual layout of an XML mapping project. This is a powerful feature given that our XML Mapper operates on raw XSLT or XQuery files and unlike other XML mapping tools, we do not require any additional proprietary configuration files. How did we manage to do this? We save your the visual layout information of an XML mapping within an XML comment field at the bottom of your XSLT stylesheet or XQuery expression file — this additional data is ignored by XML processing components thus does not cause any compatibility problems.

Integrated Debugging, Editing, and Performance Benchmarking

One of the great benefits of our XML Mapper that its much more then all the other over-priced specialty XML Mapping tools on the market — we crush the competition by providing a comprehensive XML IDE with full support for standards-based XML mapping as well as all of the extra related tools, including powerful XML editors and XML utilities that you'll undoutably need to develop a real-world XML data integration application. Some of the synergistic XML tools that come to mind include our fully-integrated XSLT Debugger, XSLT Editor, XSLT Profiler, as well as our XQuery Debugger, XQuery Editor, and XQuery Profiler — all requirements for developing an advanced, scalable and bug-free XML data integration application, and the best part is that we don't charge extra for these features!

Stylus Studio®'s XML Mapper helps you get data from one or more input format(s) to any specified used-specified output format. Our intuitive visual approach to XML mapping works seamlessly with any input/output formats, XML transformation language used (XSLT or XQuery), or even what XML processing components or platform you elect to use in your XML data integration application. Whether you are extending an existing system or starting a new application from scratch, our XML Mapper simply works because our synchronized visual and XML code-based editing features operate on standard XML technologies. Stylus Studio®'s XML Mappers provide a highly extensible, scalable and cost-effective solution for standards-based XML data integration applications.

Prev: "XML-to-HTML Mapper" Next: "XML to PDF"

Download a 15 Day Free Trial Now >

See What's New in Stylus Studio® X16 XML >

Buy Stylus Studio Now >

Stylus Most Wanted