The mappings file is used to perform simple translations between a source database and a target database.

i.e If we have a database X with a table called protein, with a field called primaryAccession, we are able to map that onto our core model which would have a matching object named Protein.

Thus the file might contain the following...

Protein=protein Protein.identifer=protein.primaryAccession

Note: The core model (class) appears on the LHS of the assignment, while the original source item appears on the RHS.

This saves us having to write specific line of code in the DatabaseXTranslator class to handle the protein & it's primary accession (or other) field(s).

Currently the mapping is a mandatory file (required for the translation step) and resides in the resources directory of a data source, though it can be empty.

i.e. .../sources/DATASOURCENAME/main/resources/DATASOURCENAME_mappings

TODO: Fill this section in further...