Configure the transformation input ports to define whether the transformation receives input from a file, a buffer, or a streamed buffer from a complex file reader. You can use a flat file reader as a buffer to read an entire file at one time. You can also read an input file from a database. You can configure the output ports to determine whether you want to return a string, complex files, or rows of relational data from the transformation.

You can use the Data Processor transformation wizard to automatically map relational data. To convert relational input groups into output in an XML hierarchy, you map nodes from groups of relational ports in the input to the XML ports in the output. You can pass the data from the output XML ports to another transformation downstream in the mapping for further processing.

You can also use the Data Processor transformation to map hierarchical data to relational data. You can return relational output from the Data Processor transformation. If a component returns relational data, you create groups of output ports by mapping nodes from the XML input to groups of ports. You can pass the data from the relational ports to another transformation in a mapping for further downstream processing.