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Column Layout

The Column Layout dialog defines the column layout for the data object which you defining. It can be found by clicking the ellipse button on the ColumnLayout property of any data source object in your design. You can manually enter the column names, types and sizes or you can import them from the BlueSky Integration Studio repository. (see Metadata Manager).

The following options exist in the toolbar of the Column Layout dialog window.

| Load column layout from the repository. When you use the repository effectively by pre-loading all of your tables and file layouts you can drastically increase the speed in which you can design jobs. When you click the load from repository button you will get the Metadata manager list box. Select the table or file layout you would like to use by double-clicking it. You will also have the opportunity to select individual columns your would like to use. The column layout will then be loaded for you automatically saving you a lot of unnecessary typing.
| Save column layout to the repository. If you think you might use a defined column layout in other jobs, you can save the column layout to the repository for future use. This is extremely helpful so you don't have to keep switching between jobs to define common column layouts for frequently used data objects.
| Import Wizard. The Import Wizard allows you to import a table schema layout definition directly from your database. This easy to use wizard walks you right through the process so there is no guess work.
| Column Order. This Wizard allows you to quickly change the order of you columns
| Clear the column layout. This option will completely clear the existing column layout.
| Print the column layout. This option allows you to print the current column layout. It is first shown in a print preview window.
| Text Wizard. Shown only for Text data objects, this feature will attempt to read a given text file and determine the column layout for you. At a minimum it will give you a good starting point which can save you a lot of unnecessary typing.
| Column Wrapper Utility. Some databases require some type of brackets or delimiters around column names, especially when the column names have spaces in them, or the column name is a SQL reserved word. The column wrapper utility will allow you to specify which bracket or delimiter to use and it will automatically loop through all of your defined columns and wrap them for you. For example; if you column name is 'Store Number', and you specify your column wrappers to be [ ], then 'Store Number' would become '[Store Number]'

Aggregates:

The aggregate column is used in conjunction with the SQL generation logic. BlueSky Integration Studio will generate the SQL SELECT statement for you unless you set the GenerateSql property to No. For instance, by defining aggregate functions you can automatically have your columns grouped or summed in the SQL select statement. The Actual Column is used to define the SQL statement since that generally defines the fully qualified name of the column.

Options:

Option | Description
None | The actual column is used as is
Custom | The actual column is used with any custom function wrappers you apply. For instance; if you have a custom procedure defined in your RDBMS system you can apply it to each column.
AVG | Average grouping function. The columns value will be averaged across all records
COUNT | Count grouping function. Each unique value will be counted.
GROUP | Group function. Each unique value will be grouped together.
MAX | Max function. The maximum value for each group level will be derived.
MIN | Min function. The minimum value for each group level will be derived.
STDDEV | Standard deviation. The standard deviation for each group level will be derived.
SUM | Sum function. The columns value will be summed up for each group level.

See Also: Column Level Write Flags

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