Data Mapping
In a process, data association can be used between data (object/input/output) and task to transform the data structure to the task structure. To achieve that goal, two concepts need to be addressed, the input/output of a task and the data mapping.
Input/Ouput
In a process, every task has inner input and inner output. It represents what is needed by the task to execute. Every input and output are a data which has a structure. It can be a simple string, or a more complex data structure composed of multiple fields.
The inner input and inner output explicit what is required by the task to be able to work.
If we look at the Twitter connector “Standard search API”, we can see that the task requires six different inner inputs.
Inner inputs and inner outputs are listed in the task as Inputs and Outputs.
Mapping
We have explained above that at a task level, there are inner inputs and inner outputs. It represents what data is needed by the task to be able to execute its work properly.
But in the process, data must be provided, and it is where input mapping and output mapping occur. It represents the mapping between the inputs and outputs of a task and the data existing at the process level.