New in MapForce 2008 release 2

Support for multiple new data formats, database mapping enhancements, and other usability features add power and flexibility to MapForce® 2008.

New features in MapForce 2008r2 include:

• Mapping Excel 2007 (OOXML) data
• Support for data streams for code generation
• Sample XML Schema generation based on an XML instance
• Support for SOAP 1.2
• Support for SQL SELECT statements
• Inline Primary Key / Foreign Key creation
• Project generation for Visual Studio 2008

Mapping Excel 2007 (OOXML) data

    MapForce now includes support for the OOXML data format in Microsoft Excel 2007 (XLSX). This enables users to import speadsheet data directly from its native format for their mappings, rather than using the FlexText utility to parse the data beforehand.

When you insert an Excel 2007 file (such as the one shown on the left below) into a MapForce mapping, it is displayed as a graphical mapping component. Useful buttons on your mapping structure allow you to select the worksheet(s) to be mapped. You can even select a specific range of cells from within the worksheet and specifiy the datatype for each, adding annotations that will be displayed in the mapping design. You can now import any variety mapping components including XML schemas, database structures, EDI, flat files, other Excel 2007 workbooks etc. as target and/or source files to complete your transformation.

Support for data streams for code generation

MapForce now supports data streams as input or output in generated Java and C# code. This enables you to apply your mapping code to Web servers and other data exchange scenarios where transmissions are conducted and processed in packets rather than files.

Sample XML Schema generation based on an XML instance

MapForce now allows you to define XML mappings when there is no XML Schema available. Based on the structure of your XML instance document, MapForce will generate a sample XSD behind-the-scenes and display the result as a graphical mapping component in the design pane.

Support for SOAP 1.2

MapForce now provides full support for SOAP 1.2 messages for mapping to and/or from Web services and creating new Web services.

Support for SQL SELECT statements

MapForce now supports the use of any SELECT statement as input, to be used as the basis for mapping components. A useful right click menu allows you to autogenerate SELECT statements based on selections you make in the Insert Database Objects dialog. The SQL SELECT statement dialog is available from the Insert Database Objects Dialog or by right-clicking a database component in your MapForce mapping and choosing Add/Remove Tables. This dialog has auto-completion support allowing you to choose tables, views, functions from a pre-populated list.

Inline Primary Key / Foreign Key creation

MapForce now enables users to insert primary or foreign keys directly within a mapping when they are missing from the underlying database, making these useful relationship references available for your data transformation. MapForce refers to these references as Table Relations, and includes a set of easy-to-use dialogs where you can create these relationships for your mappings.

Project generation for Visual Studio 2008

MapForce users generating C# or C++ code can now automatically generate a Visual Studio 2008 project file.