Introduction to Rule Specifications
A rule specification is an asset that represents the data requirements of a business rule in logical form. You configure a rule specification in the Design workspace of the Analyst tool. You compile a rule specification into a metadata object called a mapplet that Informatica developers can apply to business data.
Use a rule specification to specify the following data operations:
- •Describe the types of data that a business data set contains.
- •Define a set of conditions that the data must satisfy.
- •Define the actions to take when the data satisfies the conditions of the business rule.
- •Define the actions to take when the data fails to satisfy the conditions of the business rule.
- •Describe the order in which the business rule evaluates the business data against the conditions.
The mapplet that you compile applies the conditions and actions to the column values in each row of a business data set. The mapplet generates an output for each row. The output specifies whether the row conforms to the requirements that the rule specification defines for the business rule.
Rule Specifications and Mapplets
When you compile a rule specification, you create a mapplet. A mapplet describes the data operations that an Informatica application can perform on the business data. A developer adds the mapplet to a mapping. A mapping is a run-time object that connects to a business data source and applies the mapplet operations to the data source.
A mapplet is composed of transformations. A transformation specifies an operation to analyze or update data. A mapplet can also contain other mapplets. If you compile a complex rule specification, the mapplet might contain multiple nested mapplets.
You save a rule specification to the Model repository. The Model repository is the storage database for mapplets, mappings, and other metadata objects in the Informatica domain. When you create a rule specification, you select a project in the Model repository as the location for the rule specification. When you compile a rule specification, you write a mapplet to a project in the same repository. A developer adds the mapplet to a mapping in the Developer tool and identifies the data source for the mapping. You can collaborate with the developer to identify the data source. The mapplet that you create appears as a rule in the Analyst tool library.
The Analyst tool and the Developer tool use application services to read and write objects in the Model repository and to run mappings on data. The Analyst tool uses the Analyst Service to read and write rule specifications, reference tables, and mapplets. The Developer tool uses the Data Integration Service to run mappings.
After a mapping runs, the developer can send you the data output from the mapping. You can evaluate the data output to determine if the data source conforms to the business rule that the rule specification describes. Alternatively, the developer or another user can run a profile on the mapping output. A profile is a data object that describes the data patterns in a data set. You can create and run a profile in the Analyst tool.
Note: You cannot view rule specifications in the Developer tool.