a method and apparatus is provided in which the exchange of data between businesses is facilitated by an electronic interface that comprehends the data mapping and translation requirements of disparate computer application systems . an electronic commerce appliance tracks the data exchanged between an initiator system and a recipient system and determines whether to map , translate , or reject the data before transmitting to or upon receipt by the recipient system . the electronic commerce appliance makes the determination whether to map , translate , or reject data based upon data mapping requirements posted to a data mapping database accessible by both the initiator and recipient systems via the internet or other communications network .