Patent ID: 7840610

Claim:
A method for generating a storable map definition for a client, the method comprising: accessing a source data structure and a destination data structure, wherein the source data structure comprises a plurality of source attributes and the destination data structure comprises a plurality of destination attributes; using a map apparatus to automatically identify a match of an identified source attribute and an identified destination attribute, the map apparatus implemented on a processor and a memory, the match identified according to predefined tolerance parameters comprising affixes, case sensitivities, data types, and synonyms, and using the map apparatus to generate a storable map definition configured to map a source value for the identified source attribute to a destination value for the identified destination attribute; delivering the storable map definition to a user, the storable map definition comprising the identified source attribute, the identified destination attribute, and a transformation action associated with each identified source attribute and identified destination attribute, the transformation action configured to transform data in the identified source attribute of the source data structure to data in the identified destination attribute of the destination data structure, the source data structure and the destination data structure residing on disparate data systems, wherein the transformation action specifies an action to convert at least one data value in the identified source attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified destination attribute; using the map apparatus to generate a storable reverse map definition from a mapping defined in the storable map definition; using the map apparatus to automatically generate a reverse transformation action for the storable reverse map definition, the reverse transformation action based on a transformation action included in the storable map definition, the reverse transformation action specifying an action to convert at least one data value in the identified destination attribute to one or more data values in data fields of the identified source attribute; and delivering the storable reverse map definition to the user.