Should we avoid Graphical mapping and stick with Java mapping?

Question

After developing mappings in XI for a month, I just don't see any good reasons to use Graphical mappings over Java mappings. Maybe some experienced users here can give me some valid reasons why we should choose Graphical mappings. Here is what I think:
Disadvantages of Graphical mappings:
1. No way to perform automated unit testings. This is probably the biggest reason I hate it. You can do some tests manually when you work in Integration Builder. But there is no way you can write some unit testing utilities to automate the task.
2. Complexity. Even for some simple requirements, your Graphical mappings can become complicated and hard to understand. A lot of times, I find myself staring at several dozens of graphical nodes and try to understand what it does.
3. Impossible to reuse. This is totally against the DRY (Don't repeat yourself) principle. For example, to generate messages for JDBC adapter, it is common to have two identical fields for primary keys: one in the access node and another in the key node. If you change the mapping logic in one, you have to remember to change the other.
Advantage with Java mappings:
1. Fully automated unit testing. You can create JUnit tests along with your Java mapping classes and use Maven or other build tools to perform automated unit testing.
2. Your choice of XML parsing and binding. With Java mapping, you can choose any open source framework for XML parsing and binding. For example, with XMLBeans, I can convert XML input message to a Java object, transform to another Java object and write to output message. And each Java object is generated from its corresponding XML schema.
3. Highly reusable. We can use fundamental object-oriented designs to create highly reusable mapping components.
4. Better version control. Since the mappings are just Java classes, we can use CVS or SVN to track code changes.
5. Better build tools. We can fully utilize build tools like Ant and Maven to automate the build, unit tests, or even generate documents and mapping web sites.
So do you guys agree? Maybe I am still new to XI or I am missing some important things. But at this point, I just don't see why I should use Graphical mappings. Is there anyone developing XI interfaces completely with Java mappings?
Thanks in advance for any comments!
Kenny Cheang

Answer 1

Hi Suraj,
> Since its graphical the blocks will take space, but
> there is always an adavntage of processing time.
> Ebven though it may appear bigger, it will take less
> time as compared with Java code (for the same
> mapping).
Could you explain more why the graphical mapping has better performance? I thought the graphical mapping is compiled into a Java class in the runtime anyway.
> Yes thats there, but same goes with Java mapping too
> right (if you haven't mentioned it as constants)
I mainly think about inheritance. If I have to build 10 interfaces and they all have some common behavior, I can create a base interface class to encapsulate the common logic. But with graphical mapping, you have to duplicate them in each interface.
> Disadvantages of Java mapping:
> 1. Performance
Same as above. I just don't see why Java has worse performance. I actually think Java should have better performance. You can optimize the code anyway you want. In some cases, you have to use queue functions in graphical mapping but it's not necessary in Java.
> 2. All might not be well versed with Java Code(though
> everyone may know basic java) .
I am not asking everyone to abandon graphical mapping. I am just wondering which one is better when you have skills for both.
> 3. Lot of standard functions are available in GM
> which you can choose, but you have to remember the
> exact code for those in Java mapping.
You can create functions in Java too. All you have to do is to remember the function name.
Kenny