In the

Links

area, click the

New

button and select the transformation from which you want to link the ports at run time in the New Link dialog box. The

Links

area lists the group ports from which the link originates if the transformation has incoming run-time links.

Use a parameter when the port names can change between mapping runs and you know the port name values. Use a parameter of type Input Link Set to connect ports by name values between mapping runs.

For example, you create a parameter named

Cust_InputLinkSet

of type new Input Link Set and provide the default value as follows:

C_Name -> Cust_name

. At run time, Data Integration Service creates a link between the ports

C_Name

and

Cust_name

. You can change the values of the parameter for the next mapping run as follows:

CustFirstName -> Cust_name

A link policy links any unlinked ports by name. When you define target columns by mapping flow, the mapping propagates all ports from the source or from upstream objects. Use a run-time linking policy to propagate ports of certain types or with certain names. Select the link policy when the ports have matching names. Use the link policy when you want to automatically link ports that have matching names.

You can configure the link policy to ignore a suffix or a prefix in the port names. For example, if you configure the link policy to ignore the suffix "_OUT", the Data Integration Service links SALARY_OUT to SALARY.