Working with flat files

In this example we'll be adding partner information into our data mart from flat files.

Scope

Briefly put, this example will perform the initial data loads of the Partner data. ODI also has built-in capabilities for using FTP and SFTP as well as sophisticated file and folder management functionality—files can be gathered securely from remote hosts, marshaled and processed by ODI, then archived locally or once more transferred to a remote storage location. ODI can even wait for "trigger files" to be detected at any stage before proceeding with the next phase of data integration processing. However, to keep things simple and to comply with our "Getting Started…" flavor, we're only going to be dealing with locally hosted files in a fixed folder location.

Prerequisites for flat files

There are no additional system elements that need to be installed to enable ODI to work with file data; it comes with its own JDBC driver for flat files.

ODI can also leverage database utilities...