User manual BUSINESS OBJECTS DATA INTEGRATOR 11.5.2.0 FOR WINDOWS AND UNIX RELEASE SUMMARY

[. . . ] This document summarizes the new features for Data Integrator versions 11. 5. 0. 0 through 11. 5. 2. 0. For important information about this product release including installation notes, resolved issues, and known issues, see the Data Integrator Release Notes. Business Objects has also recently released two new products that complement Data Integrator and offer more Enterprise Information Management solutions: · · Composer Metadata Manager See the Business Objects web site or contact a Business Objects sales representative for more information. Data Integrator information resources Consult the Data Integrator Getting Started Guide for: · · · An overview of Data Integrator products and architecture Data Integrator installation and configuration information A list of product documentation and a suggested reading path After you install Data Integrator (with associated documentation), you can view the technical documentation from several locations. To view documentation in PDF format: · · Select Start > Programs > Data Integrator version > Data Integrator Documentation and select: · Release Notes--Opens the Release Notes PDF, which includes known and fixed bugs, migration considerations, and last-minute documentation corrections · Release Summary--Opens this document, which describes the latest Data Integrator features · Technical Manuals--Opens a "master" PDF document that has been compiled so you can search across the Data Integrator documentation suite · Tutorial--Opens the Data Integrator Tutorial PDF, which you can use for basic stand-alone training purposes Select one of the following from the Designer's Help menu: Data Integrator Release Summary 5 Overview · · · · · · · Release Notes Release Summary Technical Manuals Tutorial Other links from the Designer's Help menu include: DIZone--Opens a browser window to the DI Zone, an online resource for the Data Integrator user community) Knowledge Base--Opens a browser window to Business Objects' Technical Support Knowledge Exchange forum (access requires registration) Select Help from the Data Integrator Administrator to open Technical Manuals. To obtain additional information that might have become available following the release of this document, or for documentation for previous releases (including Release Summaries and Release Notes), visit the Business Objects documentation Web site at http://support. businessobjects. com/ documentation/. Overview The features presented in Data Integrator XI Release 2 accommodate several key areas: · · · Trusted information Productivity Scalability Each new feature (or product) supports a key area. [. . . ] · Determine which Desktop Intelligence documents are affected. For information about setting up the metadata integrator for Desktop Intelligence documents, see the Data Integrator Getting Started Guide. For information about metadata for Desktop Intelligence documents, see the Data Integrator Metadata Reports User's Guide. Validation transform enhancements In conjunction with the new Data Quality dashboard metadata reports, the validation transform now includes the following features. · Validation transform options--These options enable data-quality statistics and/or sample-data collection for Data Quality dashboards. 10 Data Integrator Release Summary Productivity · Validation rule properties--When defining a validation rule, you can now create a name for the rule (instead of using the automatically assigned column name) and optionally add a description. More descriptive names are useful when creating your business rules for Data Quality dashboards. In addition, you can disable data-quality statistics collection at the job level with new options on the job execution properties pages in the Designer and the Administrator. For more information about Data Quality dashboards, see Chapter 5, "Data Quality Dashboard Reports, " in the Data Integrator Metadata Reports User's Guide. Variable-length character processing enhancements Data Integrator provides the following updates to conform to the ANSI SQL92 varchar behavior: Treats an empty string as a zero length varchar value (instead of NULL). When you use the operators Equal (=) and Not Equal (<>) to compare to a NULL constant, the comparison always evaluates to FALSE. Uses new IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators in Data Integrator scripting language to test for NULL values. Treats trailing blanks as regular characters, instead of trimming them, when reading from all sources. Ignores trailing blanks in comparisons in transforms (Query and Table_Comparison) and functions (decode, ifthenelse, lookup, lookup_ext, and lookup_seq). · · · · For more details, refer to "varchar" on page 244 of the Data Integrator Reference Guide. If you are upgrading from a previous version of Data Integrator, the default is to use the existing varchar behavior for backward compatibility. However, Business Objects recommends that you use the ANSI varchar behavior because the previous varchar behavior will not be supported in a future Data Integrator version. For details, see "Migration considerations" on page14 of the Data Integrator Release Notes. Productivity The following products and features can enhance your productivity when working with Data Integrator. Data Integrator Release Summary 11 Productivity COBOL copybook file format enhancements Data Integrator supports the widely used COBOL copybooks as flat file sources. The COBOL copybook file reader now supports two new features: · · Field ID-- If you have multiple record types in one file (for multiple 01level record definitions), the Field ID option allows you to create rules for indentifying which records represent which schemas. Record Length Field--This option lets you identify the field that contains the length of the schema's record. For details, see "Creating COBOL copybook file formats" on page 140 of the Data Integrator Designer Guide and "COBOL copybook file format" on page 43 of the Data Integrator Reference Guide. Function enhancement (rand_ext) Data Integrator now contains a more powerful function for generating random number results. For details, see "rand_ext" on page 520 of the Data Integrator Reference Guide. Metadata reports redesign Metadata reporting capabilities have been completely redesigned and expanded in Data Integrator. The modules new to Data Integrator version 11. 5. 0. 0 are: · · · · Impact and Lineage Operational Dashboards Auto Documentation Data Quality dashboards The module new to Data Integrator version 11. 5. 1. 0 is: For more information about metadata reports, see the Data Integrator Metadata Reports User's Guide. Impact and Lineage The redesigned Impact and Lineage module of metadata reporting provides an intuitive, easy-to-use hierarchical interface for viewing your Data Integrator datastores, Business Objects CMS servers, and associated components. 12 Data Integrator Release Summary Productivity Select an object in the left pane to display summary, impact, or lineage information for the object in the right pane. For CMS servers, you can configure and run the Metadata Integrator to view metadata reports for Business Views, Crystal Reports, Universes, Desktop Intelligence documents, and Web Intelligence documents. Operational Dashboards The new Operational Dashboards module of metadata reporting provides graphical and tabular details and summaries about job execution across your projects. These reports help you manage your job execution to improve efficiency and performance. The Operational Dashboards home page displays job execution statistics and duration in both a current time frame (like a snapshot) or over a longer period (for trend analysis). You can drill in to these reports for more detailed reports, many of which display in both graphical and tabular formats. Data Quality dashboards This module is new to Data Integrator XI Release 2 version 11. 5. 1. 0. Data Quality dashboard reports provide graphical depictions that let you evaluate the reliability of your target data based on the validation rules you created in your Data Integrator batch jobs. This feedback allows business users to quickly review, assess, and identify potential inconsistencies or errors in source data. See also Data Quality dashboard metadata reports under Trusted information. Auto Documentation The goal of the new Auto Documentation module is to provide a means to document (for example, print) representations of your Data Integrator projects. [. . . ] For more information, see "Connecting repositories to the Administrator" on page 24 of the Data Integrator Administrator Guide. 16 Data Integrator Release Summary Scalability Performance improvements Data Integrator writes statistics about work flows, data flows, and transforms into the AL_STATISTICS table. Now, Data Integrator writes those statistics in constant time (under one minute) regardless of the AL_STATISTICS table size or complexity of your job. Also, Data Integrator now provides a way to control the size of your AL_STATISTICS table by disabling transform statistics collection and collecting only work flow and data flow statistics. To use this option, in the Designer go to the Tools menu and select Options > Job Server > General. [. . . ]