Case Study: MapForce EDI Conversion Optimizes Business Transactions

National Frozen Foods Corporation, a family owned company, works with many vendors to get their products from the warehouse out to the market. Communications between the warehouse and vendors are sent via the X12 dialect of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), a standard data format for business transactions.

The company had been using the EDI format for its B-2-B transactions, but relied on outside consultants to convert their internal flat file format (EIF) into EDI for processing. Such outsourcing proved to be expensive, often untimely, and introduced bugs, which then required additional development costs. Recognizing the need to create a more efficient documentation workflow that would cut costs and save time, National Frozen Foods decided to bring their EDI conversion in-house.

The solution they chose - Altova MapForce - is a visual data mapping and code generation tool that allows you to map and convert any combination of XML, database, flat file, EDI, Excel 2007, and/or Web services data formats.

With its built-in EDI support, flat file conversion, and code generation capabilities, along with its ease-of-use, MapForce helped National Frozen Foods successfully bring their EDI implementation in-house.

Using the MapForce FlexText module, NFF can directly parse the internal flat file format using a convenient graphical user interface:

The company can now maintain a codebase that can be easily modified and re-used for future transactions and thus eliminate their need for outsourcing.

For more information, access the full case study and more screenshots or download a free 30-day trial of Altova MapForce.

Creating Open XML (Excel 2007) Spreadsheet Documents

Altova CEO, Alexander Falk posted the following article on his XML Aficionado blog today on how to use MapForce to create Excel 2007 documents programmatically:

• XML Aficionado: Creating Open XML (OOXML) Spreadsheet Documents

Altova at JavaOne

Altova exhibited at JavaOne 2008 this year, talking with attendees about their projects and challenges, and showing them demos of relevant features in the Altova product line. In particular, booth visitors were interested in learning about Altova's support for Java code generation in multiple tools, as well as the new Microsoft® Office 2007 / Office Open XML (OOXML) support that was recently added across the product line.

Here is a short video of Altova's David McGahey doing a product demo in the Altova booth.

Several other videos from the Altova booth at JavaOne are available on YouTube.

Altova Delivers Release 2 of XMLSpy 2008 with Important New Features

Altova, (www.altova.com) creator of the industry-leading XMLSpy XML Editor and other leading XML, data management, UML, and Web services tools, recently announced the availability of Altova XMLSpy Version 2008 Release 2 (v2008r2). The latest release of XMLSpy provides many new enhancements to help users optimize their XML development processes, including support for very large files, multiple features for optimizing XSLT development, a new Find in Schemas window, and much more.

Producing Word 2007 (Open XML) from XML and database data

This article originally appeared on the XML Aficionado blog of Altova CEO, Alexander Falk.

The latest release 2008r2 of StyleVision gives users important new functionality for creating advanced stylesheets to publish XML and database data in Word 2007, which uses the new Open XML (OOXML) data format, as well as simpler processes for publishing the same source content in other formats. And, to further ease the transition for developers and designers working with OOXML, we have just reduced the price of StyleVision considerably. As adoption of Open XML increases, StyleVision developers will be ready with a powerful tool for publishing XML and database data in what is sure to be the most predominant end-user document format, now that Open XML has been approved as an ISO standard.

Here is how the process works:

1. Open your existing XML document or connect to an existing relational database to populate the source pane in StyleVision:
   
   
2. Drag & drop elements from the source pane into the design pane and apply styles to them, thereby creating a meta stylesheet for producing the desired output formatting:
   
   
3. Click on one of the preview tabs underneath the design pane to preview the output in any of the supported output formats (Open XML for Word 2007, HTML, PDF, and RTF) - all outputs are automatically created from one and the same visual design:
   
   
4. Save the generated output file(s) as well as the specific stylesheets that have been auto-generated to render your data in the desired output formats again and again...
   

StyleVision can access data from database tables,views, or you can directly enter a SQL SELECT statement to query only for particular data from a database. This makes StyleVision ideal for flexible database reporting, too.

If you are interested in further details, you can read more about the new features of StyleVision 2008r2 here.

Altova Adds Word 2007 (OOXML) Capabilities to its Graphical Stylesheet Design Tool and Cuts the Price to Ease Adoption

Altova, (www.altova.com) creator of the industry-leading XMLSpy XML Editor and other leading XML, data management, UML, and Web services tools, today announced the availability of Altova StyleVision Version 2008 Release 2 (v2008r2). The latest update to StyleVision provides users with numerous features and enhancements, including capabilities for generating output in Microsoft® Word 2007, which uses the Office Open XML (OOXML) file format, support for grouping functionality when designing XSLT 2.0 stylesheets, and much more - all at a significantly reduced price point compared to previous versions.