Main Phases

In phase 1, the input data are received by so-called Input Agents.

In phase 2, the data is then parsed into the source structure. There are many tools available to automatically generate a suitable source structure (the same applies to the target structure).

Each profile has a source structure and a target structure. In phase 3, the mapping is performed, that is, data is transferred from the source structure to the target structure by defined rules. In the target structure, the data can also be manipulated with so-called functions.

In phase 4, it is possible to write data from the target structure into a database.

Sometimes it is necessary to carry out further manipulations of the target data after the mapping, e.g. to convert the target data into an XML format. This can be done with so-called Integration Units in phase 5.

Phase 6 is then responsible for storing or sending the generated output data. This is done in so-called Response Routes.

Note: In principle, the phases 2 to 5 are optional. Sometimes, for example, you only want to receive and store data or forward it. Phase 6 is optional as well. You could, for example, store or send the data in the previous phases.

Intermediate Phases

In addition to the main phases of a profile, there are intermediate phases that allow further data manipulations for special cases.

Preparsers allow the manipulation of input data before they are parsed (i.e. before phase 2). For example, it might be necessary to remove or convert special characters before parsing. However, one could also convert special and unknown input formats into input formats supported by Lobster_data.

Postparsers can manipulate the parsed data directly after phase 2, but this application is very rare.

After phase 5 or after phase 6, postexecuters can give a final touch to the generated output data. An example would be the Base64 encoding of the output data. Note: We call data after phase 3 and 4 target data and output data after phase 5 and later. This is to distinguish between the data created by the mapping and the final data.