ETL Designer User Interface

Upon starting the Visual Importer ETL software, the user will be presented with the main window. This is where the main tasks are controlled such as processing cycles, and other processing tasks taking place in the processor.

The system menu allows the user to access the essential setting and tools.

The “Quick Access Tabs” gives the user easy access to various functions of the application:

The titles of the tabs are self-explanatory, the default tab is “design”.

1. Selected object properties
2. Refresh object tree
3. Create a new object
4. Delete selected object
5. Cut
6. Copy
7. Paste
8. Incremental Search
9. Expand selected tree node
10. Collapse selected tree node

The “Objects” tree lists the main categories for the provision of objects. For instance, the “Directories” category contains icons representing the location of files and related information belonging to an individual item. For example, by clicking on the “Excel Files” icon you will access the directory area where all the Excel files are stored for processing.

You may also find icons representing individual database connection services. For instance, you can see connections available for both MS SQL Server and Oracle.

Other object types include ODBC connections. You can see from the illustration that the DEMO system has been configured, and as a result, the ODBC connections created are listed in the objects tree. The Visual Importer ETL provides the Objects tree so the users have easy access to the main objects.

Below is a list of possible objects with the short descriptions:

Icon	Name	Description
	Projects	Provides a way to group objects together
	Directories	Defines path to flat files, Excel files, MS Access databases or DBF files
	JDBC Connection	Defines JDBC connection properties
	SQL Server CE Connection	Defines MS SQL Server CE connection properties
	SQL Server Connection	Defines MS SQL Server connection properties
	ODBC Connection	Defines ODBC connection properties
	Oracle Connection	Defines Oracle connection properties
	Ole DB	Defines Ole DB connection properties
	MySQL	Defines MySql connection properties
	PostgreSQL	Defines PostgreSQL connection properties
	SQLite	Defines SQLite connection properties
	Interbase/Firebird	Defines Interbase/Firebird connection properties
	MongoDB	Defines MongoDB connection properties
	FTP Connection	Defines FTP Server connection properties
	SMTP Connection	Defines SMTP connection properties
	POP3 Connection	Defines POP3 server connection properties
	IMAP4 Connection	Defines IMAP4 server connection properties
	SalesForce	Connection Defines SalesForce connection properties
	BrightPearl	Connection Defines BrightPearl connection properties
	Google Spreadsheet Connection	Defines Google Spreadsheet connection properties
	IP Socket Connection	Defines IP Socket connection properties
	Lookups and Lookups Groups	Provides an easy access to user defined data entry screens
	Imports and Imports Groups	Defines mapping between Data source and Data target
	Reports and Reports Groups	Reports design
	SQL Scripts and Scripts Groups	Defines SQL statements to perform against target Databases
	Email templates and groups	Creates general email templates.
	Packages and packages groups	Combines complex Actions together like Ftp downloads File operations, emails, Check files, SQL scripts and Transformations.

The Visual Importer ETL also has the ability to group objects together into “groups”. The purpose of doing this is so that objects of a specific type can be viewed as a branch of the object tree. Whenever a new object is added it will be placed under the appropriate branch for its type.

To create a new object group select appropriate object type for example transformation and click “new”.

Depending on the object type, the appropriate dialogue will be presented. In this example, the Transformation Group has been selected. The dialogue, in this case, requests a description and comment about the object to be created. Some of the fields in a dialogue of this type will be mandatory and will therefore have to be entered. However, comments will be optional, and just provide the user with the ability to specify more detail about an object and what it does.

1. Number of records
2. Number of errors
3. Records per second
4. Start Date time
5. Time Left
6. Progress bar

For large implementations, the incremental search is a very useful option.

To edit the object double click on the name

Also: Replace String Wizard