Working with Sources

Any file or table from where we can extract the data in PowerCenter is referred to as the Source. You can import or create the source definition.

When you import the source definition in Designer, we import only the metadata, that is column names, data type, size, indexes, constraints, dependencies, and so on. Actual data never comes with the Source structure in Designer. The data flows through the mapping in a row-wise manner when we execute the workflow in Workflow Manager.

PowerCenter allows you to work on various types of sources as listed here:

• Relational Database: PowerCenter supports all the Relations Databases, such as Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, SAP HANA, and Teradata.
• File: This includes flat files (fixed width and delimited files), COBOL Copybook files, XML files, and Excel files.
• High-end applications: Hyperion, PeopleSoft, TIBCO, Web Sphere MQ, and so on can also be used.
• Mainframe: Additional features of Mainframe such as IBM DB2 OS/390, IBM DB2 OS/400, IDMS, IDMS-X, IMS, and VSAM can be purchased.
• Other: PowerCenter also supports Microsoft Access and external web services.

We will now explore different tasks we can accomplish with sources in the subsequent sections.