You can define groups of ports and define a relational structure for the groups. To build a hierarchy of input ports, configure ports on the
Input Hierarchy
tab. To pass row data to relational tables or other targets, configure output ports on the
Output Hierarchy
tab.
When you define a relational structure of input ports, the Unstructured Data transformation generates XML to pass to a
Data Transformation
service. To increase performance, enable the PowerCenter Integration Service to flush XML to the Unstructured Data transformation. When you enable input flushing, the PowerCenter Integration Service flushes XML from each group after it receives all the data for the root value. For example, you have an employee group and an employee address group. The PowerCenter Integration Service can flush data from both groups to the Unstructured Data transformation each time a different employee occurs in the data. You must sort the data in each group by the primary key of the root group. You can join groups in the pipeline if a group does not have the same key.
When you configure output groups, the output groups represent the relational tables or the targets that you want to pass the output data to.
Data Transformation
Engine returns rows to the group ports instead of writing an XML file to the OutputBuffer port. The transformation writes rows based on the output type.
Create a hierarchy of groups in the left pane of the
Output Hierarchy
tab. All groups are under the root group. You cannot delete the root. Each group can contain ports and other groups. The group structure represents the relationship between target tables. When you define a group within a group, you define a parent-child relationship between the groups. The Designer defines a primary key-foreign key relationship between the groups with a generated key.
Select a group to display the ports for the group. You can add or delete ports in the group. When you add a port, the Designer creates a default port configuration. Change the port name, datatype, and precision. If the port must contain data, select Not Null. Otherwise, the output data is optional.
When you view the Unstructured Data transformation in the workspace, each port in a transformation group has a prefix that contains the group name.
When you delete a group, you delete the ports in the group and the child groups.