2022.2

mappingworkflow,consistingofmultiplesteps(extractions,loops,conditionsandmore)(see"Data
mappingworkflow"onpage221and"Extractingdata"onpage229).
Whenthisprocessiscomplete,theresultisaDataModel.Thismodelcontainsthenecessaryinform-
ationtoaddvariabledatatoOLConnectDesignertemplates.(see"TheDataModel"onpage260for
moreinformation).Ithasagenericformatwithanemphasisoncontent,freefromanyrestrictions
imposedbythefiletypesortheoriginofthedata.Thisallowsasamelayoutoroutputtobepopulated
withdatafromdifferentsourcesandformatswithouttheneedtomodifyit.
DataMapper basics
Connect’sDataMapperletsyoubuildadatamappingworkflowtoextractdatafromavarietyofdata
sources.Thedatamappingworkflowconsistsofmultiple'steps'whichprocessandextractdatafrom
eachrecordofadatasourceandstoreitinanew,extractedrecordset.Thedatamappingworkflowis
savedinadatamappingconfiguration.
1. Create a new data mapping configuration.
RuntheDesignerandstartcreatingadatamappingconfigurationbyselectingadatasource.
See"Datamappingconfigurations"below.
2. Configure settings for the data source.
Thedatasourcecanbeafile(CSV,PDF,TXT,XML,JSON)oraparticulardatabase.Configure
howthedatasourceisreadbytheDataMapperandcreatearecordstructure.See"Datasource
settings"onpage223.
3. Build the data mapping workflow.
AdatamappingworkflowalwaysstartswiththePreprocessorstepandendswiththePost-
processorstep.YoucanaddasmanystepsasyoulikeandedittheDataModeloftheextracted
dataasrequired.See"Datamappingworkflow"onpage221and"TheDataModel"onpage260.
What's next?
UsethedatamappingconfigurationintheDesignermoduletocreatetemplatesforpersonalizedcus-
tomercommunications.Tolearnmore,see"TheDesigner"onpage412.
InWorkflow,adatamappingconfigurationcanbeusedtoextractdata.Theextracteddatacanthenbe
mergedwithaDesignertemplatetogenerateoutputintheformofprint,emailorawebpage.SeeWork-
flowand"OLConnecttasks"onpage169.
Data mapping configurations
Adatamappingconfigurationfilecontainstheinformationnecessaryfordatamapping:thesettingsto
readthesourcefile(DelimiterandBoundarysettings),thedatamappingworkflowwithitsextraction
instructions('Steps'),theDataModelandanyimporteddatasamples.
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