TRANSFORMER

Transformer

Transformer is an ETL tool (extraction, transformation and loading) that reads data from a source, processes it according to user-defined rules, and formats it uniformly, before writing it to a target repository for storing or to a database or a file that can be the basis for further processing. It can be used to build and maintain metadata structures in the BMP system by loading the organization structure and the node structure. It can also be used to load users and groups from LDAP.

The Transformer is built up of different panels: Transformer model, Transformer design, Properties, Imports, Resources, Progress, and Preview.

Transformer model

Contains a list of the different Transformer projects and project groups that have been created.

Transformer design

This is where you configure your Transformer project, by right clicking and adding source, target and the different processes that you need to perform.

A Transformer project is made up of a source, a target and one or more processes that are configured and connected in a certain order. A Transformer project must at least contain a source and a target.

Right-click the Transformer design panel and choose from a number of sources, processes and targets. Place them in the desired order in the panel, corresponding to the order in which they should be executed.

You can 'Drag and Drop' some resources from the Resources panel to the Design panel to use as your source. This includes .xls files and .xlsx files (Excel source), .csv files (CSV source), .ods files (OpenOffice calc source), SQL resources (SQL source) and MDX resources (MDX source).

Connecting elements

Connect the elements by placing the mouse cursor over the connection dot on the first element's right side. Then click and hold the left mouse button while dragging the cursor toward the left side of the element you wish to connect to. Release the mouse button when the connection is correct. A process must be connected to the previous element before it can be configured.

You can copy one or more elements by marking them and using Ctrl+C, then moving the cursor to the desired position in the same project or in a different one and clicking Ctrl+V. The configurations and connections will also be copied.

See the sections concerning the various sources, processes and targets for more information on how to configure them.

Some Transformer elements may not be available, depending on your license agreement.

Auto-layout

When you right click the Transformer design panel one of the menu items is Auto-layout.

Use Auto-layout to adjust the layout of the objects in the design panel. While developing a project it may be necessary to tidy up so you can get a better overview over the structure. Right click in the Design panel and click Auto-layout.

There are two choices under this menu:

Right direction – creates a right directed structure of your objects
Down direction – creates a downward structure of your objects

You can also use Ctrl+Right arrow or Ctrl+Down arrow to adjust the layout.

Properties

Shows the properties of each object in the model and design panels.

Imports

A list of the jobs that have imported data into the database.

Resources

A panel containing the Resources that have been uploaded to the system.

Preview

Displays result details for an element of the Transformer project.

Select the element in the Transformer design panel, select the Preview tab, and then click Refresh ().

The Result subtab displays information on the element as follows:

Metadata - displays the fields in the source or the dataset for each process, and their formats (String, Number, Date, or Boolean)
Sample data - displays a sample of the data that is included in the project at any stage
Dropouts - displays a sample of the data that doesn't meet the criteria specified in the project
Warnings - displays warning messages, if available
Errors - displays error messages, if available

If the element is an Excel or an OpenOffice Calc data source whose configuration includes Rich text as HTML as selected and a data target that's a plain text property, Corporater BMP displays the corresponding data with HTML tags.

If the element is a Rich text conversion process and the data source includes formatted data and a data target that's a rich text property, Corporater BMP displays any carriage returns (\r) in the source data as HTML <br> tags.

Progress

A panel containing a Progress bar for each Transformer run started in a session, to shows the progression of the run.