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Informatica Developer:Tips & Tricks for Mapping Designer

Barry WildhagenProfessional Services

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Agenda

• Introduction

• Designer tips & tricks

• Best practices

• Mapping techniques

• Data Stencil Option

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Introduction

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About Me

• Barry Wildhagen

• Senior Consultant

• Informatica Professional Services

• Based in The Netherlands

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About this Presentation

• Increase developer productivity

• More resources available• http://my.informatica.com• http://devnet.informatica.com• Velocity methodology• Product manuals

• Questions

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PowerCenter 8 Architecture

Sources Targets

Repository

Integration Service

Repository Service Process

Repository Service

Domain

Administration Console

PowerCenter Client

This session

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PowerCenter 8 Designer

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Designer Tips & Tricks

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User Interface

• Welcome screen

• Repository Navigator

• Output Window

• Workspace

• Toolbars

• Workbook

• Context menu’s

• Options and Customization

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Using Designer

• Port propagation

• Query

• Tools shortcuts

• Autolink

• Copy/paste

• Create target from transformation

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Best Practices

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General Best Practices

• Naming conventions

• Use comments in objects

• Avoid implicit data conversion

• Reuse as much as possible

• Only connect what is used

• Utilize single-pass reads

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Output Filename Port

• Write records to a dynamically named flat file

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Cache Calculator

• Use the cache calculator for aggregator, joiner, rank, and sorter transformations

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Group Expression

• Add expression transformation after a source qualifier and before a target

• If source or target definition changes, reconnecting ports is much easier

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MX Views

• Views in PowerCenter repository

• Based on OPB tables

• Utilized by Repository Reporting (Data Analyzer)

• Contain a lot of valuable information!!

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Mapping Techniques

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De-normalizing Data With an Aggregator

YEAR,ACCOUNT,MONTH1,MONTH2,MONTH3, MONTH4, MONTH5, … MONTH121997,Salaries,21000,21000,22000,19000,23000,26000,29000,29000,34000,34000..

Turn multiple rows

Into one row…

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De-normalizing Data with an Aggregator

The First or Last function will denormalize data

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Multi-record Lookup

• Regular lookup only returns one row

• Use SQL Transformation to get all rows

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Data Stencil

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Data Stencil

• Captures best practice DI methodologies as reusable templates

• Reusable mapping templates defined in Visio

• Automates mapping creation and addresses productivity

• Allows high level design of mappings

• For DI architects

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Thank You