The Oracle Data Integrator User Interface

The Topology Navigator

Learn about the topology navigator in Oracle Data Integrator.

Topology contains sections in which to define the physical architecture, the contexts and the logical architecture. Starting with Context, this is where you define the context, or say, the type of system you are running on. So it might be a test, development or production system, or it might be global or for a particular region. You specify one of the contexts as the default.

In Physical Architecture there are two nodes you can expand, Technologies and Agents. As you might expect, Agents is where you define the agents, which Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) uses to run jobs. Under technologies you can find all the possible data sources for ODI. In each one you can define data servers and the physical schemas or files to which you would connect. For example, under Oracle, you might define a data server as being a particular Oracle database, and for it you can define the schema to which you connect. The data sources don't just include databases, you can define flat, complex and XML files, Big Data, and applications such as from SAP or Hyperion as data sources.

Under Logical architecture you have a duplicate of what is defined in the physical, but here you specify the context for each logical item. If you have defined three contexts (say Development, Test and Production), then you create a logical data server in each context to correspond to the physical data server. Similarly for each physical agent there is a logical agent for each context.

You can specify the languages and various elements within them. For example, if you import SQL as a language, then you can group functionality as sub-languages, for example, aggregation, and then have individual aggregate functions (for example AVG, COUNT) defined as part of the aggregation sub-language.

You can view the properties of the repositories, both master and work, that are open. You can erase the work repository and create a new one.

The final section in the Topology navigator allows you to view generic actions, for example, Create Table, and import or create new ones.

See Overview of Oracle Data Integrator Topology in Developing Integration Projects with Oracle Data Integrator.

See Topology Navigator in Understanding Oracle Data Integrator.

The Designer Navigator

Learn about the Designer navigator in Oracle Data Integrator.

The Designer navigator is where you build your projects, models, load plans, and scenarios. There is a menu of five expandable sections entitled Projects, Models, Load Plans and Scenarios, Global Objects and Solutions. To the side of these is a space where the object definitions and properties are displayed.

Under Projects you can build your projects, which include packages, mappings, procedures, variables, sequences, user functions, and markers. You also can import and edit knowledge modules.

Under Models you can define and build new models and data stores, including reverse-engineering the models.

Under Load Plans and Scenarios you can define and edit load plans and scenarios. Load Plans are objects that organize the execution of packages and scenarios at a high level. They provide features for restarting, exception handling, parallel, sequential, and conditional scenario execution. Each load plan is made up of steps, and these steps are made up of scenarios, or choose other objects (packages, interfaces, variables, and procedures), for which ODI automatically generates a scenario to run the step. Scenarios can also be run and scheduled and are made up of the same objects as load plans.

Under Global Objects you can define objects that are can be used in any procedure. For example, variables, sequences, templates, user functions, reusable mappings, markers and knowledge modules.

See Designer Navigator in Understanding Oracle Data Integrator.

The Operator Navigator

Learn about the Operator Navigator in Oracle Data Integrator

When you run an object, for example, scenario or load plan, in Oracle Data Integrator, you can follow its progress and on completion confirm whether it succeeded or failed in the Operator Navigator. Expand the Session List and then choose to view or find executions by date, agent, sessions, status keywords, or user. Or just view all executions. Find your execution and expand the hierarchy. Each step shows whether it succeeded or failed. A step might succeed, but with a warning. You can view the details of each step, the code run, or the error generated, for example.

Each execution is listed by the object name followed by a date and time stamp. That way you can make changes to the object you want to run and easily see the results for each change.

See Introduction to Operator Navigator in Administering Oracle Data Integrator.

See Operator Navigator in Understanding Oracle Data Integrator.

The Security Navigator

Learn about the Security Navigator in Oracle Data Navigator.

There are three sections, Profiles, Users, and Objects. Profiles contain sets of privileges for working with Oracle Data Integrator. A user is an Oracle Data Integrator user. A user inherits all the privileges granted to its various profiles, and privileges on objects or instances, given to this user. Objects include agents, projects, models, data stores, scenarios, mappings, and even repositories. You can grant users with privileges on instances on specific work repositories. For example, you may grant a developer user with the edit privilege on a scenario on the development repository and not on the production repository. You can thus assign privileges on methods, objects types, or specific object instances to users.

See Security Navigator in Understanding Oracle Data Integrator.

Menu Items

A short description of each of the menu items in Oracle Data Integrator.

Each of the main menu items in Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) is described below.

File - usual functions, for example, New, Print, Exit.
Edit - usual edit functions such as Cut, Copy, Paste.
View - you can show the Editor and select Toolbars to display.
Search - usual find functions, plus one to Find ODI Object.
ODI - ODI-specific functions. Connect and Disconnect allow you to connect to a repository and disconnect from it, plus view the repository connection information. You can change the repository and wallet passwords and specify how to store passwords. You can switch authentication mode or repository compatibility mode. You can add, remove, or open tools, find locked objects and browse the versions of objects. You can view data, perform Change Data Capture functions, generate DDL, mappings, scenarios, services, or a server template. Finally you can reverse engineer a model.
Tools - There are five options: Manage libraries, Quick Actions, Display Preferences, HTTP Analyzer, and a Groovy editor.
Window - You can access lots of ODI functionality, for example, open the four navigators, the debugger, logs and adjust the windows layouts.
Team - You can access functionality which helps members of a team work on the same repository and then merge or version objects.
Run - You can run ODI objects, for example sequences or procedures, but debug them, by invoking a debug session or adding breakpoints.
Help - includes the usual Help functions, plus links to the ODI forum and OTN.

There are also Accessibility Features in ODI to assist those with disabilities in using and navigating the product.