The prepare method contains custom-written Perl code that you want Forge to call before record processing starts.

This code typically performs pre-processing tasks such as checking data sources, initializing record counts, and so on. The code you provide here becomes the body of the prepare method. Calling either next_record or get_records from prepare results in an error. To signal a failure during prepare, call Perl's die() function. Also see the Manipulator::finish method.

See the Introduction's example Perl manipulator for a sample usage of this method.