Better than Ever: Softshare Delta 5.0!

Interface Enhancements

As you'll see in the enhancements PDF, Softshare Delta 5.0’s new interface is easy on the eyes, and extremely functional as well. All of your diagnostic and debugging tools are now at your fingertips right from the map development window, along with helpful search, file, and server panes. The interface is completely customizable, with each pane fully dockable so that you may fasten any pane to any area of the interface, or float the pane over the interface. You could even dock panes to a second monitor. And with the addition of multiple-document support via easily-accessible tabs (i.e. tabbed document interface), Delta 5.0 has eliminated “modality” within its interface; you no longer need to close one window or interface to open another—it’s all right there!

Mapping Enhancements

• Prologue and epilogue rules. Two new types of rules that are available are prologue rules and epilogue rules. Prologue rules run before any source-driven rules fire. Epilogue rules run after all source data is exhausted (i.e. after target data is committed).
• Targetless rules. Targetless rules allow you to insert rules that, rather than creating target nodes, perform some type of source data processing instead. Previously, this type of processing required complicated workarounds or the calling of a sub-map or external script.
• Conditional variable assignment. In prior versions of Delta, variable assignment rules would run regardless of whether conditions prevented parent object creation. Now you can specify that Delta should only execute the variable assignment rule if the rule's parent object is created.
• Auto-initialization of variables. You now have the ability to auto-initialize variables with a value of your choosing and at a location of your choosing (either at the beginning of the map or upon the creation of a target object you specify).
• Exceptions. Exceptions work in conjunction with Softshare ECS and are designed to signal problems in the mapping process or in the data itself in a production environment. When an exception occurs in Delta 5.0, ECS delivers a custom notification to the administrator for prompt attention.

Debugging Enhancements

• Global breakpoints. In addition to breakpoints and conditional breakpoints, Delta 5.0 also features global breakpoints. Rather than being tied to a particular rule, global breakpoints are triggered when an expression that you specify evaluates to TRUE, regardless of where the map currently is.
• Watch expressions. Now you can “watch” more than just the value of an element. In Delta 5.0, a watch can also be an expression, allowing you to watch the evaluations of computations that aren’t part of the map rules themselves.
• Source data inspection. At any point while stepping through a map, you can click the new source inspection icon to open the map’s source data. When opened, Delta highlights where in the source data the map currently is.
• Map output comparison. During testing, you can keep prior copies of map output and then initiate a differential comparison (i.e. file diff) to compare two output files.
• Improved map validation. Delta 5.0's map validation feature has been improved to include validation checking for undefined variables and incorrect function usage. In addition, Delta 5.0 can be set to auto-validate your map rules before each test run.

Data Driver Enhancements

• Batch EDI mapping.You can now expose batch, envelope and group objects in your EDI models. With these higher-level objects available, you can source rules off of the envelope or group which allows you to map multiple source EDI transactions to a single target document, such as an XML document—and vice-versa.
• Improved XML performance. XML performance, handling, and display are faster and more manageable in Delta 5.0.
• Improved fixed-width data file modeling. When designing fixed-width models, you can now set start and end positions for each of the data elements (previously, you could only specify width).
• New database mapping method. This new method allows you to create any arbitrary SQL query and map fields and parameters into the target statement.
• Better control of database transactioning. Another new feature is better control over when database transactions are created, committed, and aborted during database mapping. This new control comes in the form of three brand new functions that can be used against database providers that support database transactioning.

Solution Manager

Solution Manager is an integrated component of Delta 5.0 Enterprise that manages solutions and their associated resources in a central repository. For example, a solution could consist of a map along with its associated source and target models, trading partners, and ECS output channel. The ability to identify solutions and store them as collections of resources in one central data repository gives you an incredible amount of control and oversight over your maps that wasn’t available in prior versions of Delta. For example, with Solution Manager you can:

• Easily deploy solutions to any ECS server
• Implement versioning and tracking of edits made to a solution or resource
• Roll back to an older version of a solution or resource
• Export/import solutions as either solutions or Delta run-time packages
• Instantly see and repair resources that aren't resolving for a particular ECS server

System Requirements

Softshare ECS 6.0

To learn more about the new ECS 6.0 version, visit the ECS 6.0 enhancements Web page or download the enhancements PDF.