VI Builder Output Object

Defines the object from which the data flow arrives. Use one of the following methods to attach the Builder object to an input data flow object:

• Right-click the data flow object, and click New Object after this > Output > Builder.

• Place the Builder object on the task flow, and click its Input attribute's browse button. Move the pointer to the canvas and note that a dotted-line connector is attached to the Builder object. Attach this connector to the data flow object.

  NOTE: The Builder object's Input attribute is populated with the name of the input data flow object.

Defines the name and path of the journal file that records parse errors in the input and provides a record of the dump key information. Enter a path and file name in the Journal box, or use the browse button to select the file.

If not indicated, a file named build.jou is placed in the same directory as the VI script.

Specify the name of a Build Description file. Enter a path and file name in the Description box or use the browse button to select the file.

A Build Description file is a configuration file that controls the actions of the build. Using the Build Description file provides a way to easily repeat builds without having to retype each option.

If a Description attribute is defined, the Output attribute is not necessary.

Defines whether to calculate the maximum number of summary types.

• True—Maximum number of summary types are calculated.
• False (default)—Maximum number of summary types are not calculated.

Defines whether to calculate the sum of the squares of the column values..

• True—Sum of the squares of the column values is calculated.
• False (default)—Sum of the squares of the column values is not calculated.

Defines whether to append build information in the journal file or to overwrite it.

• true—Build information is appended to the existing journal file.
• false (default)—Build information overwrites the previous journal file.

Defines the amount of pre-processing. Pre-processing allows ProDiver to respond faster. The larger the block factoring, the less pre-processing is done.

The default value is 100000 rows. The list has the following values: 100000, 50000, 20000, 5000, and 10%. You can enter another value if required.

If the blocking factor is expressed as a percentage, the block factor is re-calculated for the model being built, and then the Blocking_Factor_Min and Blocking_Factor_Max attributes become available.

Defines the encoding used to create the model:

• auto—The model is encoded based on the Unicode state of other objects in the same task. If no other object uses Unicode data and the script itself is not encoded as Unicode, the data is stored in the model as ISO-8859-1 or Latin1 characters.
• ascii—The model is encoded as ISO-8859-1 or Latin1 characters.
• latin1 (default)—The model is encoded as ISO-8859-1 or Latin1 characters.
• utf-8—The model is encoded as UTF-8 Unicode characters.
• unicode—The model is encoded as UTF-8 Unicode characters.

Indicates if temporary sort files, referred to as bucket files, are kept.

• true—Temporary bucket files are kept.
• false (default)—Temporary bucket files are deleted.

Indicates whether to suppress the display of phase progress information during the build.

• true—The phase progress information is suppressed.
• false (default)—The phase progress information is displayed in the log.

Specifies how to handle duplicate rows.

• true—Duplicate rows are collapsed while totaling the summaries. This reduces build time, memory requirements, and the space required for the model when there are many duplicate records. Using this option deactivates the calculation of maximum, minimum, and standard deviation columns in the model. The count of records in the model reflects the number of records after the squash.
• false (default)—Duplicate rows are not collapsed.

On Windows servers, determines whether to use the internal or external Builder.

• true (default)—VI runs Integrator and Builder in a single process using the internal Builder component to build the model. While more efficient, it does not allow for multiprocessing.
• false—VI uses Integrator to process the script but uses the external Builder to build the model.

Describes when the input data was extracted from the source data.

If blank, the extract time is set to the build time.

If set, use one of the following formats:

• YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
• YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS

If no time is specified, the time is set to noon of the date.

For more information, see the ProDiver Help > About Text Variables.

NOTE: The build time is recorded automatically and is available in Diver Reports using $BUILD_DATE and $BUILD_TIME.

Specifies a string to appear at the bottom of every page printed from ProDiver. It is accessed by using the variable $MODEL_FOOTER in the ProDiver report or report palette.

Indicates whether to update the model with incremental build data, which places additional data in a separate file with an mdu extension. When the model is opened, the mdu data is seamlessly included in the model.

Repeated use of the Update attribute increases the size of the mdu file.

• true—Updates use an incremental build.
• false (default)—Updates do not use an incremental build.

Specifies whether or not parse errors dealing with the end of an input line are ignored. For example, Fixed field occurs past end of line or Too few fields. This attribute helps control processing when there are too few data items in an input row.

• true—Processes the line
• false (default)—Prints out a warning message, and skips the line

Columns with numeric data are considered numeric columns and any leading zeros are stripped off. Select this check box for columns that contain numeric data that should not have any calculations made on it, such as zip codes or part numbers. This attribute preserves leading zeros in the data and allows use of string manipulation functions.

If the Column is a date attribute is selected, choose a date format from the list. Any date prior to January 1,1900 displays a Date Out of Range message. Choices include:

• YYYY/MM/DD
• YYYYMMDD
• MMDDYYYY
• MM/DD/YYYY
• YYYY-MM-DD

If the Column is a date attribute is selected, use this attribute to specify the beginning date range for handling two-digit years within a 100-year window. This attribute allows the Builder object to correctly interpret two-digit years within the specified range. The Builder object then converts the two-digit years to the appropriate four-digit dates.

For example, specifying 1950 indicates a range between 1950 and 2049 such that 79 gets interpreted as 1979 and 14 gets interpreted as 2014.

For columns marked as dimensions, select this attribute for Builder to precalculate dimension counts (DimCounts). This attribute is equivalent to selecting the DC column for an input column in the Model Structure. If DC is selected in the Model Structure, the Column Precalculates DimCount check box is checked and the same in reverse.

In ProDiver, DimCounts display the number of unique values for all dimensions, based on the selected dimension value. It is a numeric value that displays in the ProDiver console, but it can also be added as a calculated column in a tabular.

DimCounts deliver a large amount of information with very little work. However, they are computation-intensive, and can be slow for large data sets with many unique values in the dimension counted. Having Builder precalculate some DimCounts can speed up ProDiver access to DimCounts for non-grouped core dimensions.