When building a Type Tree, it is a good practice to develop a Validation Map to confirm that the input file matches the tree design. This is not something that needs to be moved into production and is not a necessary step in the development process. However, the advantage of building a Validation Map is that you can catch problems in your Type Tree before you begin building your map. You should only do this on the Type Trees you have built from scratch. Type Trees that have been imported from another source such as R/3 can be trusted and do not need a Validation Map.
1. Open Mercator Map Designer.
2. Choose “Create a new map source file” and click OK.
3. Name the file using a project, team, and application identifier.
4. Change the folder to Mercator folder and your team subfolders as appropriate. Click Save.
5. Click the New map icon.
6. Name the map *_Validation where * is descriptive of your project, team, and application.
7. With the From card selected, select the Card menu then New. Fill in the following fields:
• CardName = In_* where * is descriptive of the application
• TypeTree = the tree you are testing (use the drop down arrow to point and click to the Type Tree file location)
• TypeName = the file level of the tree you are testing (use the drop down arrow to point and click to the correct level)
• FileSourcePath = the input source of the data you are testing
8. Click OK.
9. With the To card selected, select the Card menu then New. Fill in the following fields:
• CardName = Out_* where * is descriptive of the application
• TypeTree = the tree you are testing (use the drop down arrow to point and click to the Type Tree file location)
• TypeName = the file level of the tree you are testing (use the drop down arrow to point and click to the correct level)
• FileTargetPath = Output.txt, which will create a text file in the same folder where the map is stored.
10. Click OK.
11. Drag In_* to the Rule next to Out_*.
12. Save the map.
13. Click the Build map icon.
14. Click the Run map icon.
15. Click the View run results icon to make sure the input mapped properly.
