Patent ID: 7043687

Claim:
A computer implemented method of automatically generating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) documents or messages using an EDI system, comprising: storing a plurality of maps for respectively mapping metadata from different types of source documents to variables of a virtual document; receiving a source data model having a first EDI format corresponding to EDI related data, the source data model including metadata; determining a type of the source data model from the metadata; obtaining a first map from the plurality of maps based on the determined type of the source data model, and mapping the metadata of the source data model to corresponding variables of a virtual document in accordance with the first map; determining a type of a target data model to which data from the source data model is to be transferred to; obtaining a second map from the plurality of maps based on the determined type of the target data model, and mapping the variables of the virtual document to metadata of a target data model having a second EDI format in accordance with the second map.