Original publication date: August, 2001
Softshare has just released Delta 3.0. This new version of Delta is filled with great new features and enhancements that make Delta's user-friendly mapping interface even friendlier!
Delta 3.0 is available by CD-ROM only. To order Delta 3.0, call Softshare's Sales Department at 800-346-6703. If you're currently a Delta user, the cost to upgrade to Delta 3.0 depends on when you purchased Delta and whether or not you're on a software maintenance plan.
At the "Product Suite New Features" page found on Softshare's eService Web site, www.softshare.com/eservice , you will find detailed explanations of Delta 3.0's new features and enhancements. However, if you're looking for instant gratification, a few of Delta 3.0's most exciting new features are highlighted here:
In addition to supporting source-driven mapping, Delta 3.0 also supports target-driven mapping. Target-driven mapping allows you to reorder the objects in your source model so that they more closely match their counterparts in the target model. This can be incredibly helpful when the layouts of your source and target data are so incompatible that they cannot be easily reconciled (if at all) through source-driven mapping.
If your map’s target model is an EDI document, Delta 3.0's Softshare IntelliMap feature is available. This feature accurately places EDI segments in their correct positions in your EDI output, regardless of the order in which the segments were created. Similar in concept to target-driven mapping, this feature is helpful when Delta's source-driven mapping creates EDI segments out of order.
If the rule operation you require is not performed by one of Delta's built-in functions, you can write your own function. Delta 3.0 supports two scripting languages for this purpose: VBScript and JavaScript.
If you need to initialize a variable before any map rules are run or if you want to ensure that a variable does not get reset during map execution, Delta 3.0 allows you to create global variables. Global variables are initialized above the root of your map, ensuring that they never get reset during map execution, no matter how many times Delta cycles through a map’s ruleset. When tracking values across several ruleset cycles (such as the number of documents produced during a single map execution session), the ability to keep a variable’s continuity is crucial.
As new EDI versions are released, it is common for companies to embrace these new specifications. However, when the version of an EDI document is updated by you or your trading partner, Delta’s models and maps must be updated as well so that they can continue to accurately translate that EDI document. Recognizing this, Delta 3.0 has an EDI model migration feature that lets you automatically convert an EDI model (and any maps that incorporate that EDI model) to a different EDI version, without having to re-create the model or maps.