When you create assets such as mappings, mapping tasks, or taskflows, you can either create the asset from scratch or use a template. Data Integration offers a variety of data manipulation templates to jump-start your project. Templates include pre-built logic that you can use for data integration, cleansing, and warehousing tasks.
To help you create assets quickly, Data Integration provides the following types of templates:
Mapping templates
Mapping templates are mappings in which the transformation logic and required parameters are defined for you. Data Integration provides mapping templates for integrating data, cleansing data, and loading slowly changing dimension tables. For example, the Merge two data sources mapping template is a mapping that merges two sources so that if a field in one source is empty, the value from the other source is used.
Create a mapping from a template when you want to reuse the logic in one of the template mappings, but you also want to customize the mapping to meet your needs. When you finish the mapping, create a mapping task to run it.
For example, you want to merge two sources so that if a field in one source is empty, the value from the other source is used. However, you also need to sort the data before loading it to the target. Create a mapping based on the Merge two data sources mapping template, and add a Sorter transformation to sort the data before loading it to the target. Then, create a mapping task to run the mapping.
Mapping task templates
Mapping task templates are mapping tasks that are based on the template mappings. Use a mapping task template when you want to run one of the template mappings without changing the transformation logic. When you create the mapping task, you only need to supply the runtime information such as the runtime environment, source and target information, and values for other mapping parameters.
For example, you want to augment data from a relational source with additional fields from a reference table. Create a mapping task based on the Augment Data with Lookup template. In the mapping task wizard, enter the runtime information such as the runtime environment, source table, target table, lookup table, and lookup condition.
Taskflow templates
Taskflow templates are taskflows that contain common control flow logic.
Use taskflow templates to organize tasks in common ways such as sequentially, in parallel, or based on a decision. When you create a taskflow based on a template, the flow is pre-defined. Add and remove tasks to reflect the actual task flow.