If you came to SAP Integration Suite from SAP PI/PO, you probably remember the 7.31 mapping editor. Select a target field, press Space, type a few letters of a function name, and the function was there, already connected. It was fast, and you rarely had to leave the keyboard.
The graphical message mapping editor in Cloud Integration (CPI) is powerful, but building and maintaining mappings can involve a lot of repetitive work. Functions need to be dragged into place, pins connected manually, and the layout adjusted to keep larger expressions readable. Reusing an existing mapping often means recreating parts of it from scratch.
We ran into the same issues when working with mappings ourselves, so we built a small tool to make that workflow faster and less repetitive. And we decided to make it available for free.
Why we created it
Mapping work comes with a lot of small, repetitive tasks:
- Adding a constant means finding it in the palette, dropping it into the mapping, entering the value, and connecting it.
- The same logic, such as date conversions, lookups, or concat patterns, often gets rebuilt again and again.
- More complex expressions quickly become difficult to read and even harder to maintain.
- Reusing mappings across message mappings is still largely a manual copy-and-hope process.
- If you open a mapping while the integration flow is read-only, you have to back out, switch to edit mode, and navigate back in.
None of these steps is difficult on its own. But together, they add friction to work you do every day. We wanted to remove that friction and leave the actual mapping decisions to the developer.
What it does for you
Quick functions. Select a target field, press Space, type part of a function
name and press Enter. The search matches prefixes, substrings and camelCase initials,
so fbe finds formatByExample. Standard functions, your UDFs and imported function
libraries are all included, and functions already used in the mapping are listed
first.
Instant mapping. If the target field isn’t mapped yet, the toolkit creates the mapping and connects the function straight away. No dragging.
Constants in one step. Space, Enter, type the value, Enter. The field is mapped to the constant.
Templates: reuse what you’ve already built. Save the mapping of a field, or just one function and everything feeding it, as a template. Keep it local to this mapping or make it global for every message mapping on every tenant. Insert it later connected or not connected, with or without its source fields. This is where most of the time savings come from.
Format. One keystroke (Ctrl+Shift+F) arranges a mapping left to right: sources and constants on the left, each function one column left of what it feeds, the target on the right. You can also format every field in the mapping at once. Inherited mappings become readable again.
Export and import. Download all field mappings of a message mapping as JSON and load them into another one. Fields are matched by their path in the target structure. You choose whether to overwrite mapped fields or fill only the empty ones, and you get a summary of what was added, overwritten, skipped or not found.
Switch to Edit mode without losing your place. Opened a mapping while the integration flow was read-only? Press Space, choose Switch the integration flow to Edit mode, and you land back in the same mapping.
Why it makes sense to explore
Simplify your mappings. Fewer clicks per field means less noise. Formatting makes existing mappings easier to review and maintain, and quick functions keep you in flow instead of in the palette.
Reuse your existing message mappings. The mappings you already have contain solved problems. With templates and export/import you can take the parts that work and drop them into new mappings instead of rebuilding them from memory.
Get more value out of the landscape you already have. There is nothing to install on the tenant, no change to your integration content, and no new backend. The toolkit runs in your browser and works with the message mappings you already run in your existing landscapes. Nothing is sent anywhere, and templates are stored locally in your browser. Changes only persist when you save in CPI, and Cancel discards them, so trying it out is low-risk.
Already in use, and yours to change
The toolkit has already been picked up and added to other plugins, which is a good sign that the ideas travel well. It’s published as open source under the Apache 2.0 license, so you have the full source. Take the code and adapt it to how your team works, or fold it into your own tooling.
If you’d rather shape it than fork it, submit your ideas and improvements. Issues and pull requests are welcome, and we’re looking at more quick actions in the mapping editor and sharing templates within a team.
Try it
- Download or clone the repository: https://github.com/dgraversen/ci-mapping-tool
- Open
chrome://extensions(oredge://extensions) and turn on Developer mode. - Click Load unpacked and select the folder containing
manifest.json. - Open a message mapping in SAP Integration Suite, select a target field and press Space.
There’s also a short walkthrough video:
Watch on YouTube CI Mapping Toolkit: a short walkthrough
One caveat: the toolkit uses internal parts of SAP’s mapping editor UI, which can change with any CPI release. If something stops working after an SAP update, open an issue and we’ll take a look. It isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by SAP.
Want more than the mapping editor?
The CI Mapping Toolkit is a free helper for one part of the job. For managing, testing, documenting and transporting your integrations end to end across SAP Integration Suite and SAP PI/PO, take a look at the Figaf Tool.
We hope you enjoy the toolkit. Tell us what you’d like to see next.
