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DataStage TX (Mercator) Architecture
DataStage TX Mercator architecture has two main facilities:
Mercator Type Designer
The Type Designer is a facility for viewing, maintaining, and creating data object definitions in a graphical form called a Type Tree.
The type tree provides visual cues for understanding the structure of an object and supports point-and-click techniques for drilling down to uncover an object's complete definition. A type tree is a repository of one or more data object definitions. A data object definition, called a type, describes data object structure in terms of their syntax, their components, and the rules that apply to those components.
The Collection of all Type Trees comprises the graphical object repository. Mercator Design Studio includes predefined type trees for all EDI standards for rapid implementation.
To See a Tutorial on Creating a Type Tree
Mercator Map Designer
The Map Designer is used to create maps, which consist of rules for data-content transformation, data validation and intelligent routing. This process is facilitated by convenient "from" and "to" windows, drag-and-drop techniques, and spreadsheet-like rules. Mapping rules are added using logical statements. Rules can be combined and nested to any level. They are augmented by a rich set of pre-defined functions for operations such as conditional testing, tables lookups, mathematical functions, character string parsing, and data extraction.
Once a map is created, it can be compiled and tested locally on the PC. Mercator provides sophisticated debugging tools that simplify testing. Once tested, a compiled map is ported to the appropriate server - any of 20 different supported server platforms. Porting is a simple process: the target environment is selected from a pull-down list, and the compiled map is converted automatically to the platform's format.