You can preview source and target data in the Designer. Preview source or target data before you create a mapping or while you work with a mapping.
You can preview the following types of data:
Relational tables and views.
Preview relational sources and targets. You can preview data for a valid relational source definition or target definition in the Designer. A source definition or shortcut to a source definition is valid if it matches the source table. A target definition is valid if it matches the target table. You must be able to connect to the source or target database to preview relational data.
Fixed-width and delimited flat files.
Preview flat file sources and targets that do not contain binary data. You can preview data for a valid flat file source or target definition in the Designer. A source or target definition is valid if it matches the source file.
XML files
. Preview XML file data in the XML Editor. You can preview XML data using an XML definition and an external XML file. To preview data, you must have a valid XML definition in the repository and data in an external XML file that is valid for the definition. You can view data for one XML view at a time.
Preview source data to verify that you extract data from the correct source. You can also preview source data to determine which columns to use in a mapping. You can preview target data before you truncate target tables or when you implement an update strategy.