Configuring the mappings

The job mappings specify to which items in the destination system items from the source system are imported. To combine the values of multiple source properties into one destination property value, simple expressions can be specified.

Notes

• The job mappings must be updated manually if the configuration of the source or destination systems changes.
• By default, document types and reference types are automatically synchronized between Meridian Enterprise and Meridian Explorer.
• There is a single property mapping configuration for all source and destination systems of the same publishing job. Also, the system takes advantage of matching property names in the systems when possible. This means that if there is an unmapped property in one of the source systems that matches an unmapped property in one of the destination systems, it will be imported even though no explicit mapping has been configured. This also means that to configure unique property mappings between specific systems, you may need to create separate publishing jobs. For the best results when mapping properties between multiple source or destination systems, they should have the same properties.

• We recommend that you not map properties that are specified in a destination vault's Field-Path definition unless the Identify by Global ID if document path is not available option is enabled as described in Configuring the miscellaneous options. This is because their values have already been determined by the location of the document. Errors can occur and the publishing job may fail if the destination folder and the Field-Path definition property values do not match.

To configure the system mappings:

1. In Meridian Enterprise Server Configurator, in the Data Exchange group, click Jobs. The All Jobs page appears and lists the existing publishing jobs. The jobs are grouped by the name of the computer (cluster node) to which they have been assigned.
2. Double-click the job for which you want to configure the mappings. The job's configuration pages appear.

3. In the menu, click PROPERTY MAPPING or TYPE MAPPING (if the job is a Meridian Explorer synchronization job). A list of the current mappings appears, grouped by property set if the items are properties. To configure the mappings for other item types (a Meridian Explorer synchronization job), click OBJECT TAG or PROJECT in the page header.

   The icons and columns are described in the following table:

   Mapping icons and columns

   Column or icon	Description
   	Item is mapped and included
   	Item is not mapped
   	Item is mapped but excluded
   DESTINATION	The item names in the destination system
   SOURCE	The item names in the source system
   EXPRESSION	An expression that calculates the value of the item in the destination system

   • If no mappings appear, they have not yet been defined, such as for a file system destination, for example. You must define them either by creating each one manually or by creating matching properties from the source system as follows:
     1. In the toolbar, click Edit Destination Properties. The EDIT DESTINATION PROPERTIES dialog box appears.
     • To create matching destination properties from the source system:
       1. Click CREATE FROM SOURCE. A new destination property definition is created for each source system property and is added to the list. Duplicate property names appear in red text and must be renamed to be unique. Unique property names appear in green text. You will only be able to save the property definitions when all property names are unique.
       • To change the settings of a property, click its row to make it editable and then use the following instructions for editing the settings of a manually created mapping.
       • To remove a property from the mapping, select the row that you want to remove and then in the toolbar click Remove.

     • To create a new mapping manually:

       1. In the toolbar, click New. A new property row appears in the list with default settings.
       2. Type a unique name in the NAME column and select the appropriate data type from the DATA TYPE list.
       3. Click Update to save your settings.
     2. Click OK.The new mappings appear on the page.
   • To exclude an item from publishing:
     • Select the item name and then click Exclude. The icon changes to indicate the item's new status.
   • To include an item in publishing:
     • Select the item name and then click Include. The icon changes to indicate the item's new status.
   • To change the mapping of an item:
   1. Double-click the item name. The item expands to show its mapping options.

   2. Click options or type values for each column using the descriptions in the following table.

      Column	Description
      DESTINATION	Select a destination item from the list.
      SOURCE	Select a source item from the list.
      EXPRESSION	To edit the expression, see step 7.
      SEPARATOR (multi-value properties only)	Type the character that separates individual values in a multi-value property. For unprintable characters, type newline or tab Note    The default character is the comma (,). Older versions of Publisher stored this setting in a registry key. If a different character was used before upgrading to this version of Publisher, then this setting should be changed to match the old setting and the character that is actually used in the source metadata.

   3. Click Update to save your changes to the item mapping.
   • To assign an expression to an item mapping:
   1. Select the item name that you want to assign the expression to and then in the toolbar, click Edit Expression. The EXPRESSION dialog box appears and lists the available properties in the source system.

   2. In the Expression pane, type an expression to be evaluated during publishing. The expression may use any .NET compliant methods (except Parse) and operators in the C# language syntax. The result of the expression will be the property value in the destination system. Double-click a property in the list to insert it into the expression. The result of the expression must be compatible with the data type of the destination property. If necessary, you can convert data types, for example, using the ToString method.

      Following are examples of text and date expressions:

      {Title 1} + " " + {Title 2} + " " + {Title 3}
      {PropertyName}.SubString(0, 1)
      {NonStringProperty}.ToString() + " days"
      {ProjectEndDate}.AddDays(-30)
      

   3. To validate the expression, click CHECK. Errors in the expression appear in the Errors pane. Correct all errors until the Errors pane is empty.
   4. When you are finished editing the expression, click SAVE. The expression appears in the EXPRESSION column.
4. Repeat steps 3 for each mapping that you want to change.
5. When you are finished configuring mappings, click SAVE.