Internal mapping files are prepared by the SDNF system administrator. They tell the interface where on the computer network the external mapping files may be found. The format of the internal mapping files is described in
Internal Mapping Files.
External mapping files are files which determine how the interface handles the data for going to the target package, or coming from the source package; for example, the Profile, Profile Orientation, Unicode and Material mapping files. The format of the external mapping files is described in
External Mapping Files.
The sequence of environment variables is set to the locations of the internal mapping files. The interface will search all the folders pointed to by these variables and locate all files with the suffix .map in each sub-folder called
SDNFMaps. The
.map files will be imported during system initialisation as internal mapping files. The internal mapping files then become the basis for locating the external mapping files.