Some of these issues are related to DataGateWay's GUI implementation, which uses a mix of Motif and Java. Ready, set, edit STC's integration products, including DataGateWay, operate by interpreting text files written in Monk, a variant of the Scheme programming language. This allows users to customize DataGateWay's functions in a variety of ways to accommodate complex message formats. Although some proficiency in Monk is necessary to create new message translations, at most sites developers can use predefined templates and even modify the templates without studying the language. We discovered how powerful the templates were when we simulated sending a day's orders to a fulfillment house.
Users can create and manage as many different message types as are needed.
For databases, DataGateWay can build messages automatically by reading the schema. For text files, the Editor module can read a sample and attempt to translate its structure. DataGateWay can interpret very complex messages, including repeating sets of associated fields. DataGateWay can read and output both fixed-width files and arbitrarily delimited files. Built-in settings for popular delimiter schemes help ease the process.