I thought I'd repost this due to some recent emails asking how to change the "link properties" in a map. This could be accomplished using the Table Looping functoids but I was looking for a quick and dirty solution. This is a great little trick I picked up from some BizTalk devs in my early days!

In the cXML schema I've been working with lately (see my older post), there is a record called “Extrinsic” which is used to add custom trading partner identification information. Since this record can appear several times with different information, mapping to it can be somewhat of a challenge. I found the best way to accomplish this was to setup a small looping structure and change a few default link properties. First I connected a looping functoid from each of the source records I need to map, to the cXML Extrinsic record. Next I connected the source records to the Extrinsic record itself and to the “name” attribute as shown below.


Figure 1: Small Loops

The last step is to change the link property (for the links leading to the name attribute) from the default value of “copy text” to “copy name” as shown below. This does exactly what is says. It copies the name of the source record instead of the text in the source record.


Figure 2: Link Properties 

The result is shown below. Using this simple technique can really save a lot of time over using the scripting functoid.


Figure 3: Output Extrinsic Records