Cloud Mapping Designer (CMD) - FAQs 1. Where can find detailed information about the cloud mapping designer? You can refer to the Informtica Cloud User Guide. You can refer to following chapters Mappings Mapping transformations macros Mapping configuration 2. What are the transformations available in the Cloud mapping designer? The transformations available in cloud mapping designer are Transformation Source Target Aggregator Filter Joiner Description Reads data from a source. Writes data to a target. An active transformation that performs aggregate calculations on groups of data. A passive transformation that performs calculations on individual rows of data. An active transformation that filters data from the data flow. An active transformation that joins data from two sources. Lookup Looks up data from a lookup object. Defines the lookup object and lookup connection. Also defines the lookup condition and the return values. A passive lookup transformation returns one row. An active lookup transformation returns more than one row. Mapplet Normalizer Inserts a mapplet into a mapping. A mapplet contains PowerCenter transformation logic that you can create and use to transform data before it is loaded into the target. Can be active or passive based on the transformation logic in the mapplet. Processes data with multiple-occurring fields and returns a row for each instance of the 3. Is Debugger is available in CMD? The debugger is not available in CMD. There are other ways to troubleshoot the mapping. You can create a mapping configuration task and configure the following options In the schedule option a. Choose Execution mode as Verbose. Use this mode only for troubleshooting as this will output lots of data into the log and slow down performance b. Use Error handling options in the Advanced Session Properties
4. Does Cloud mapping designer support Dynamic lookup? No, the cloud mapping designer does not support dynamic lookup. 5. Why don't I see field level links between transformations as in PowerCenter? In a CMD, transformations can be connected using a link to specify the sequence of transformations that need to be applied on the data flow. In CMD, there is a single link from the upstream transformation to the subsequent transformation. By default, the downstream transformation inherits all incoming fields from an upstream transformation. But you can use field rule to exclude incoming fields. You can also rename incoming fields to avoid name conflicts. 6. How to avoid the naming conflict when transformation (like joiner) end up with two fields with the same name? A name conflict occurs when fields that come from transformations that are connected to a single joiner transformation has the same name. When you validate a mapping, the Mapping Designer notifies you of any field name conflict. To resolve a field name conflict, you can rename incoming fields in bulk. To avoid field name conflicts, you can create field rules to rename fields from upstream transformations. You can rename fields individually or in bulk. When you rename fields individually, you select the fields you want to rename from a list of incoming fields. Then you specify the name for each of the selected fields. When you rename in bulk, you can rename all fields by adding a prefix, suffix, or pattern. 7. How to delete a transformation or a link? Use the Delete icon on the mapping designer toolbar to delete the selected transformation or link. 8. How can I validate a mapping? Use the Validation icon on the mapping designer toolbar to open the validation panel to perform mapping validation. 9. How to run a task using the mapping created using cloud mapping designer? To run a task using the mapping create a mapping configuration task. 10. Can the source and target connections and objects be parameterized? Yes, the source and target connections along with the objects can be parameterized. 11. Can I modify the parameters once created? Parameter attributes like name, label, description cannot be modified. You have to delete and recreate the parameter. 12. Can we create task flow for CMD mapping tasks?
You create a task flow to run multiple tasks in a specific order. You cannot directly include a mapping in a task flow. You have to create a mapping configuration task and then include it in task flow. 13. I get a validation error in expression when using un-connected lookup transformation? When validating the a specific expression that refers to a un-connected lookup, you will get a validation error. You can ignore this as long as the mapping level validation succeeds. 14. What is the difference between a mapping and a Mapping Configuration Task (MCT)? A mapping defines a reusable data flow logic. Use the Informatica Cloud Mapping Designer to configure mappings. In order to run a mapping as a task, you create a mapping configuration task using MCT. 15. What is a parameterized mapping? A mapping defines a data flow logic that you can use to create mapping configuration tasks. To make the mappings reusable by parametezing the mapping. This provides additional flexibility in how you can use the mapping. Parameters act as placeholders for information that you define in the mapping configuration task. For example, you can use a parameter for a source connection in a mapping, and then define the source connection when you configure the task. 16. Can I create a task for a mapping using the API? Yes, you can use the mttask resource POST request to create and update mapping configuration task. 17. Why don t I see a Source Qualifier in a mapping? For users who have used the PowerCenter to create mappings, you would have noticed that there is a source qualifier transformation is created when a source object is pulled into the mapping. In PowerCenter the source object contains only the metadata of the source and does not contain the information about the physical location like server or database name. So a source qualifier transformation is needed to associate the source to the connection object. Also another function of the source qualifier is to convert the source specific data types into Informatica data types. For example convert oracle varchar2 to. But in cloud mapping designer, instead of the source object, we create a source transformation that combines the functionality of the storing the source metadata as well as storing the physical information about the source by being associated with a connection. 18. Are the CMD mapping parameters same as PowerCenter parameters? While there are similarities between the parameters in PowerCenter and CMD, there are key differences that make the parameters provided in CMD more powerful. In PowerCenter mapping parameter represents a constant value that can change between mapping runs, such as connections, source file directories, source table names. The value for the parameters is provided when the session is run using a parameter file.
In CMD, parameter is a placeholder for a value or values in a mapping. While you can create parameters for the PowerCenter use cases mentioned earlier, you can also create parameters for the logical aspects of a data flow. You define the value of the parameter when you configure the mapping configuration task. For example, You can parameterize the incoming fields into a transformation based on data type or pattern Parameterize the field mapping to the target from the previous transformation So, using the parameters in CMD, we can create generic mappings for slowly changing dimension mapping that can be used with any OLTP source and DW target. But creating this type of generic mapping templates are not possible using PowerCenter parameters. 19. What can be parameterized in a mapping? You can create different types of parameters. The type of parameter indicates how and where you can use the parameter. The different types of parameters are Parameter Type Description Represents a connection Represents a data object, such as a source table or source Data object file Represents an expression Represents a string value to be used as entered Represents a field Represents field mappings for the task. You can create a mapping full or partial field mapping. Parameter Type Data object Data object Data object Mapping Location where the parameter can be used Source connection Lookup connection Mapplet connection Target connection Source object Lookup object Target object Full expression in the transformation Full join condition in the Joiner transformation Full lookup condition in the Lookup transformation All transformations: rule bulk rename by pattern
mapping mapping All transformations: name for the Named s field selection criteria Filter condition value in the Filter transformation Joiner condition value in the Joiner transformation in a filter condition in the Filter condition in a join condition in the Joiner transformation in a lookup condition in the Lookup transformation mapping in the Mapplet transformation mapping in the Target transformation 20. How do I create a Salesforce lookup? You can create a Saleforce lookup by using the lookup transformation. In the lookup transformation configure the Lookup Object Details to point a Salesforce connection and object. 21. What are expression variables? You can use variable ports in an expression or aggregator to temporarily store data. Unique features of variable are It can be referenced in other variable or output ports so you can break down complex formulae into multiple steps by using variable and storing the value of each step in a variable The value of the variable port is persistent across rows The value assigned to a variable port is stored and is available when the variable is referenced in the subsequent source row before it is re-evaluated. To take advantage of this, the variable used to store the value from previous row should be referenced in another variable which appears before the display order. This is because; the application evaluates all input ports first. The application evaluates variable ports after input ports based on the display order. The application evaluates the output ports last For example, a source file contains the following rows State California California California Hawaii Hawaii New Mexico New Mexico New Mexico
The output required is New State State flag California Y California N California N Hawaii Y Hawaii N New Mexico Y New Mexico N New Mexico N The transformation has the following ports: Port Port Type Description State Passthrough n/a The name of a state. v_new_state_flag Variable IIF (PREVIOUS_STATE = STATE, 'N', 'Y') The new_state_flag for the current State. When the value of the current State column is the same as the Previous_State column, the application sets the variable to 'N'. Otherwise, it sets the New_State_Flag to 'Y'. v_previous_state Variable State out_new_state_flag Output v_new_state_flag The value of the State column in the previous row. When the application processes a row, it moves the State value to Previous_State. The application returns New_State_Flag for each row. You might use variables to complete the following tasks: Temporarily store data. Simplify complex expressions. Store values from prior rows. Compare values.
22. How does a Lookup transformation work? The Lookup transformation retrieves a value from the lookup object based on a value in the source. For example, if the source has an employee ID, you can retrieve the employee name from the lookup object. You have to configure the lookup condition, to compare the employee ID from the data flow with employee ID values in the lookup object. The application builds a cache in memory when it processes the first row of source data. The application stores condition values in the index cache and output values in the data cache. The application queries the cache for each row that enters the transformation. If the data does not fit in the memory cache, the application stores the overflow values in the cache files. 23. What applications can I create a lookup for? You can perform a lookup on files, database tables, Salesforce, and SAP tables.