IRI CoSort, the IRI Workbench GUI, and other IRI software, all include tools to translate existing flat-file and database table layout metadata into the Data Definition File (.DDF) format used in the CoSort SortCL program and other IRI job scripts.
Free DDL conversion utilities and format parsers automatically create DDF metadata repositories from:
|
Data Layout |
Utility |
What It Does |
|---|---|---|
|
RDBMS or other ODBC source |
odbc2ddf |
creates DDF from DDL |
|
COBOL copybook / file dictionary (FD) |
cob2ddf |
converts the FD into a DDF file |
|
comma-separated values (CSV) file |
csv2ddf |
turns header info into a DDF file |
|
W3C extended log format file |
elf2ddf |
turns header info into a DDF file |
|
Oracle SQL Loader control file |
ctl2ddf |
converts the .CTL file into a DDF file |
|
LDIF file |
ldif2ddf |
creates DDF file form LDAP entries |
|
flat XML file |
xml2ddf |
creates DDF file from XML tags |
Therefore, if you already have file layouts defined in the above formats, you can automatically reproduce that metadata for use in:
- IRI CoSort SortCL data transformation and reporting operations
- IRI RowGen test data generations
- IRI FieldShield data masking jobs
- IRI NextForm file format conversions
- IRI Voracity ETL jobs, and all of the above-included tools
If your file layouts exist in other formats (including CWM, DSX, UML, XMI, and XML, for example), both erwin (formerly Analytix DS( and Meta Integration Technologies offer third-party metadata format conversion into IRI's DDF repositories, *CL job scripts, and/or XML (ETL) flow metadata as well. IRI also now offers the 'GulfStream' API in Java for moving data layout and application metadata to and from IRI (Voracity) workflow XML.
Whether you use a metadata converter that IRI, your company, or a third party provides, the benefit of simple and open IRI DDF metadata is clear -- not having to re-create metadata you already own.
