INFA01: INFORMATICA PowerCenter 9.x Level-One Developer

This five-day, instructor led course introduces students to Informatica PowerCenter 9.x through lecture and hands-on exercises. The course is designed for Database Developers who are new to Informatica PowerCenter.

Informatica PowerCenter is a collection of thick client workbench tools that Developers can use to create, execute, monitor and schedule ETL processes.

The course will introduce attendees to working with the PowerCenter Designer, Workflow Manager, and Workflow Monitor tools, performing tasks such as creating transformations, mappings, reusable objects, sessions and workflows to extract, transform and load data. They will develop cleansing, formatting, sorting and aggregating procedures. They can learn how to use routers, update strategies, parameters /variables and overrides. This course will cover many different types of lookups, such as cached, persistent, dynamic and multiple row returns. Workflow tasks will be created to define a set of instructions for executing the ETL.

• Windows GUI
• At least two years’ work experience and some knowledge of SQL

 1. An Overview of Informatica PowerCenter 9
Overview of PowerCenter covering areas such as the Architecture, Terminology, Tools GUI, Mappings, Transformations, Sessions, Workflows and Workflow Monitor
2. ETL Fundamentals
How to create:
- Flat file and relational Sources using the Source Analyzer
- Flat file and relational Targets using the Target Developer
- Mappings using the Mapping Designer
- Workflows using the Workflow Designer
Monitor the workflow using the Workflow Monitor
Preview Target Data using the PowerCenter Designer
3. Trouble Shooting 
Understand PowerCenter Log files
Use PC log files to:
- View and look up error messages
- Correct mapping and workflow errors
4. PowerCenter Transformations, Tasks and Reusability
Define list of PC Designer Transformations and Workflow Tasks
Clarify Active vs. Passive Transformations
Use the Expression Transformation and Editor in a mapping which applies a file list to load multiple flat files into a stage table utilizing expression and filter transformations to format and screen erroneous customer data.
Use Reusable Designer Transformations to apply same formatting logic to Employee records
5. Joins and Link Conditions
Define Joins
Clarify Heterogeneous vs Homogeneous Joins
Use a Joiner Transformation to join relational and flat file sources
Use the Source Qualify to join two relational sources
Make use of Link Conditions to execute one session when the first finishes successfully.
6. Using the Debugger
Outline Debugger Interface
Show creation of a break point
Show ‘Evaluate the Expression’ functionality
Re-Execute mapping with different values
7. Sequence Generators, Lookups and Caching
Define the Sequence Generator
Define the Lookup Transformation
What are the different types of Lookups?
Clarify Lookup Caching
Use a Flat File Lookup to add data to a relational target.
Build a Dates Lookup Cache for use in determining start and end dates of target records
Utilize Event Wait, Event Timer and Email Tasks to wait for flat files and email users upon successful/failed load.
8. Update Strategies, Routers and Overrides
Build a mapping that uses Update Strategies and Routers to determine insert/update logic for a target.  Overrides will be used for incremental (daily) loading of the target.
9. Sorter, Aggregator, Unconnected Lookups, Mapping Parameter/Variables and Mapplets/Worklets
Define Sorter Transformation
Detail Aggregator Transformation and Aggregate Functions
Explain Unconnected Lookups and how they are called.
Describe Mapping Parameters/Variables and initialization priority
Outline Mappets and Worklets
Use these Transformations to create a mapping which loads records from warehouse Dimension tables to a Fact table.
10. Workflow Variables and Tasks
Use PC workflow variables to pass information from one point in a workflow to another.
Use an Assignment task to establish the value of a workflow variable within a workflow
Use a decision task to set criteria by which the workflow will decide which execution branch to follow
11. Parameter Files and Command Tasks
Use a Parameter file to make mappings and workflows more flexible by defining values for mapping variables, source files, database connections for sessions and workflow log files.  
Command Tasks will be used to run scripts to rename and move files.
12. Dynamic Lookups and Error Logging/Handling
Use Dynamic Lookup, Router and Update Strategy in a mapping do a lookup on the target table and determine if the record should be an insert, update or logged to a file as an error. 
Use PowerCenter Best Practices to create a mapping to trap fatal and non-fatal errors.
13. More Lookup Functionality
Create a Multiple Row Return Lookup, use Aggregators and Expressions to count the number of orders a Customer has as well as total the sales for that customer.  Add those values to a target.
14. Mapping Design Workshop
Business requirements details will be provided so that the student can design and build their own mapping necessary to load a Promotions Aggregate table.  The workshop will provide Velocity Best Practices documents that can be used to determine the correct logic for the mapping.
15. Workflow Design Workshop
Business requirements details will be provided so that the student can design and build their own workflow necessary to load all staging tables in a single workflow.  The workshop will provide Velocity Best Practices documents that can be used to determine the correct logic for the workflow