Mapping
In scenarios spanning different application systems, or even different organizations and enterprises, it is most likely that the structure of the data exchanged between two process components differs on both sides of a connection due to business-related reasons. To enable a seamless exchange of data, the data structures on both sides of a connection have to be transformed into each other.
Mapping determines the following aspects:
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How structure nodes (or elements) in a source structure are assigned to structure nodes in a target structure
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Which conversion rules apply for the transformation between source elements and target elements
Mapping describes transformations at the level of the business data that is exchanged between process components. This can also include special formats for particular business entities, for example, the format of a time field in a message. Transformations at the level of the technical transport protocol are handled by adapters (that form the connectivity capabilities of SAP NetWeaver PI).
The following figure illustrates a simple mapping step. Note that the figure illustrates what happens both at configuration time and at runtime, and shows systems connected to each other rather than process components. But keep in mind that mappings can already be defined at design time.
More information: Mapping Objects