Data transfer action overview
Data transfers actions (DTAs) have particular importance in integration
projects. These are actions that transform data from one structure to
another. For example an order stored in one supplier’s database will usually
be different to an order stored in another's, and a DTA will be required
to share this information. A DTA is expressed in terms of a source
and a target data source, taking
data from the source and mapping it to the target data source. The system
will even handle transfers between data sources on different hosts via
the Remote data source service, see
Services overview for more.
The system is designed to automatically handle complexities of data
sources so that in-depth knowledge of the particular grouping or hierarchy
structure is not required. Entities and fields from a source data source
can be mapped to a target data source by simply using an intuitive graphical
drag and drop Mapping window. See Data source definition
and Data source structure
for more discussion of entities and fields, but in brief these key concepts
are as follows:
Entities
(tables) represent elements such as a customer, address, invoice, order,
or an order item.
Fields
(columns) are individual data elements within an entity, for example name,
street, quantity, product code or price.
Mappings:
define the relation in a data transfer between source and target data
sources, i.e. between their entities and fields.
Select the Mapping tab card on the data transfer action properties screen
and you can drag and drop from source to target fields and entities to
define relations between the data sources, see Mapping
for more. The system understands the difference between hierarchical and
non-hierarchical data sources and even a modestly skilled user can quickly
complete entity and field level mappings. More complex mappings can be
created using Scriptlet
actions based on the in-built Jython scripting language and the Calculator, to perform
transformations, manipulations and data scrubbing as data is moved from
one data source to another. In addition template functions allow complex
transformations to be handled, such as combining fields, adding text to
fields, key generation, reference to lookup tables and converting product
codes, account numbers, or characters. Synchronization rules based on
date or time stamps in the data source can also control whether updates
or inserts occur, see the Calculator
properties for more discussion.
There are several examples of data transfer actions illustrated in this
Help system. The major discussion is included in the folder Example data
transfer which includes Example CSV source,
Example JDBC target and Example
JDBC mapping. In
addition there are two examples in How
to provide a web service, see 4.
Create the DTA for request and 5.
Create the DTA for response as well as 4.
Create the DTA in How
to consume a web service. Other
examples are provided Telnet
application data transfer.
Related topics include Actions
overview, Action types,
Data transfer action properties,
New data transfer, Data
source overview, Example CSV source,
Example JDBC target, Example
JDBC mapping, Telnet
application data transfer
from the toolbar and then choose the Actions tab and Data
Transfer Action from the New
artifact window. Alternatively select the Data Transfer Action node
under Actions 
in the Explorer tree and
choose New Action from the right-click menu or else use the New icon 
from the toolbar, see New
action.
from the toolbar. You will
then see the action Properties window in the Details pane. This window
provides access to all the other windows needed to define a data transfer
action, including properties of source and target data sources and mappings
between them, see Data transfer
properties for more.