US Patent 7093195 Standards-based formatting of flat files into markup language representations

A method of building an application response message can include receiving a master file specifying a message format for populating a particular data object of an application. The master document can specify element names which correspond to fields of the data object. A technique for mapping particular data items specified by at least one flat file to the element names specified in the master file can be determined; and a markup language representation of the data object can be generated according to the determined mapping technique and the specified message format.