Code Review Tool for Informatica PowerCenter
Posted by: Eccella Corporation
The tool comprises of an Informatica workflow. It reviews a list of Informatica entities and produces a separate report for each workflow and mapping reviewed.
Overview
Manual review of Informatica PowerCenter code takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Even then, it leaves room for human error and has an impact on project deadlines. The purpose of this tool is to reduce the time taken for review and to increase the code review quality and effectiveness while automating much of the process.The Informatica Code Review Tool reviews Informatica code against a set of widely accepted guidelines. The tool is a database dependent tool and as such is specific to the repository database. The tool in its current version can review code of Informatica PowerCenter repositories on Oracle or SQL server databases.The tool reads a list of entities to be reviewed (folders, workflows, mappings) and outputs a set of reports detailing adherence to the following standards:
- All sub-entities within a PowerCenter entity should have a description. This includes transformations, mappings, tasks and workflows.
- Two similar transformations shouldn?t be present one after the other in a mapping. This applies to Expression, Transaction Control, Update Strategy, Aggregator, Filter, Router and Sorter transformations.
- The ports within an expression and an aggregator should be in the order: Input-Input/Output-Variable-Output.
- All the filters present in the mapping should have a valid filter condition and not have a default value (TRUE).
- There shouldn?t be a joiner after two homogenous source qualifiers on the same database. Neither should we have a filter right after a source qualifier that reads from a database.
- The Override Tracing of a session should be ?Normal? or ?Terse?.
- The data type, the precision and the scale of the ports should be kept homogenous across the mapping.
- Aggregators and joiners should have sorted input. This helps improve the performance of the workflow.
- Stop on Errors for a session should be set to 1, so that no errors are skipped.
- The transformations, mappings, command tasks, sessions and workflows should be named as per the accepted standards. E.g. The name of a mapping should start with ?m_?. The complete list of naming standards that are checked by the tool is listed in Appendix A.
- All the output and input-output ports in an expression and an aggregator should be linked to at least one port downstream.
- All the input and variable ports in an expression and in an aggregator should be used in the expression of at least one port.
- All the unconnected lookups should be called at least once in the mapping.
- All the transformations in a mapping should have a tracing level of ?Normal? or ?Terse? to avoid creating large session logs in production environment.
- The session and workflow log directory should be parameterized.
- Additional concurrent pipelines for lookup cache creation should not be disabled.
- The tool also lists all the source qualifiers that have an SQL override.
- The tool checks to ensure that every link between tasks in a workflow contains a condition.
- The tool checks if aggregator and lookup transformations have their memory settings set to ?auto?.
Features
The tool can be used with any Informatica PowerCenter version as the procedures are built upon MX views which don?t vary with PowerCenter versions.The tool produces a separate review report for every workflow and mapping present in the entity to be reviewed. If a folder contains 4 workflows and 3 mappings, the tool outputs 7 reports ? 3 for the mappings and 4 for the workflows.Only the checked-in versions of the code are reviewed. It validates entities against 14 widely accepted quality standards for PowerCenter code. The complete list is present in the User Guide (attached with this document).The entity list only allows the review of folder, workflow and mapping. A session can?t be reviewed independently.System Requirements:
- Windows.
- Linux.
- Informatica PowerCenter with Oracle or SQL Server database.
Resources
Support
Eccella Corporation is a Business Intelligence and Application Development company with offices in NY, London and Mumbai.Our consulting specialty is in Data Management with a specific expertise in the Informatica Platform including PowerCenter, B2B, IDQ, ILM, MDM and PowerExchange. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies and large organizations (government etc.). We provide expert services in Architecture, Design and Development.Our application development and software solutions are geared toward the small and medium business market where we offer the little guys the tools and abilities of the larger players allowing them to compete and effectively manage their operations.Eccella was founded in London in 2008, focusing on Data Management consulting in Europe. In 2010 Eccella opened offices in Mumbai and New York to better support its international clientele. Headquarters Eccella US, 401 East 81 Street Suite 6F,New York, NY 10028 www.eccella.comgil.rosen@eccella.com, info@eccella.com Phone : +1 (516) 203 4827+44 (0)20 3239 6861 www.eccella.com
