In my last blog, Mapping - A Key Component Of B2B Integration, I focused on the different IBM® mapping tools and the products they typically work with. This time, I will talk about the transformation and translation products.
While mapping is the tool to define how data will be formatted from a source file to a destination file, transformation and translation is the process of executing the instructions in the map to produce the destination file.
Transformation and translation are often used interchangeably, although I personally think of them as slightly different.
Translation is the process of converting format A into format B. Basically, just moving the data around, so that it is in the format the receiving party or system expects and can process.
Transformation is the process of not only converting the data to another format, but performing table lookups, validation, and calculations, so that the data is in the format, and has the content the receiving party or system expects and can process.
I think of translation as a subset of transformation.
As you might guess, it is very rare to just translate data without any table lookups or conversions, so almost all of IBM's products, as well as other developers, are transformation products.
The IBM® transformation products in the B2B Integration pillar are Transformation Extender or ITX (formerly WebSphere Transformation Extender or WTX), Gentran (Gentran:Server and Gentran:Director Pro), WebSphere Data Interchange (WDI), and B2B Integrator.
When it comes processing, the only differentiator between the products is processing speed and volume capacity. Gentran:Director Pro is an entry level product for companies with a low volume of transactions while Transformation Extender and B2B Integrator are for enterprise level companies with a high volume of transactions. Gentran:Server and WebSphere Data Interchange are somewhere in between.
In some cases, speed and capacity can be scaled by implementing a clustered environment. A cluster is a group of servers and other resources that act like a single system and enable high availability and, in some cases, load balancing and parallel processing. Transformation Extender, Gentran:Server, and B2B Integrator all support a clustered environment.
All of the products have similarities that are found in almost, if not all, of the enterprise level transformation products on the market. They can process any-to-any format documents as well as standards-based documents and they can perform database lookups, convert data, and perform calculations.
In my next blog, I will focus on the IBM communication solutions associated with the B2B Integration product line.
