What is use of template?

qutesanju · Post by **qutesanju** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:19 am

What is use of template in datastage?

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:33 am

Same as it would be in any other tool or process.

FranklinE · Post by **FranklinE** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:41 am

The specific benefits of templates in DS comes from the mere fact that DS developers are still a relatively rare breed. I've been doing DS development for 3+ years, I took the advanced course less than one year ago, and I am the "senior" developer in my neck of the woods. The better the templates I can create, the faster I can bring others into DS development. They can be productive and learn from my experience as efficiently as it is possible.

The other side of that coin is that I am not qualified to teach DS skills, other than by example. Templates provide that example with a minimum of explanation (assuming the developer looking at it has had the Basics course.)

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:48 am

In other words, that same use that a template would serve in any other tool or process.

kduke · Post by **kduke** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:55 pm

We build templates as a way to show how we want every job to look of the same type. In other words all dimension jobs should look like the same person built them. Loading fact tables maybe completely different. Even within dimensions a type 2 might have different stages than a type 1. So we have different templates or "examples" for each type.

qutesanju · Post by **qutesanju** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:14 am

I've created one job (named TestJob) and based on that i 've created one template.(Say template1)
that means i can use same template to develope other jobs

but I think i can copy the job (named TestJob) and save as ,will make a relica of that job copyof_TestJob

so the ways
1.SAVE as and
2.using template
serves same meaning isnt it?

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:22 am

No.

Templates are stored in the client tier.

Job definitions are stored in the engine and repository tiers.

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 6:48 am

Still... that's an "old school" template process you can follow when you don't have true templates. You have to remember to save a copy of the original under a new name and not accidentally modify or destroy the job that serves as the "template".

In my mind, a true template would be more wizard based, like what Informatica offers with its integration to Visio. You can lay out a job using a Visio template that has their "stages" in it and baseline a process to do a certain task, source to target, say like one to populate a Type 2 dimension. Then a wizard walks you though the process of generating a true job/mapping from that, combining it with the source and target metadata to produce the actual job that you can then... polish.

From what I recall DataStage has (had?) something like that but it may have... gone away as some point. Don't recall. Does it still exist?

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 4:36 pm

Does have (Templates) and doesn't have (the so-called Intelligent Assistants).