Chapter 1, Introduction to ETL Development, explains what Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes are, and what role Data Services plays in ETL development. It includes the steps to configure the database environment used in recipes of the book.

Chapter 2, Configuring the Data Services Environment, explains how to install and configure all Data Services components and applications. It introduces the Data Services development GUI—the Designer tool—with the simple example of "Hello World" ETL code.

Chapter 3, Data Services Basics – Data Types, Scripting Language, and Functions, introduces the reader to Data Services internal scripting language. It explains various categories of functions that are available in Data Services, and gives the reader an example of how scripting language can be used to create custom functions.

Chapter 4, Dataflow – Extract, Transform, and Load, introduces the most important processing unit in Data Service, dataflow object, and the most useful types of transformations that can be performed inside a dataflow. It gives the reader examples of extracting data from source systems and loading data into target data structures.

Chapter 5, Workflow – Controlling Execution Order, introduces another Data Services object, workflow, which is used to group other workflows, dataflows, and script objects into execution units. It explains the conditional and loop structures available in Data Services.

Chapter 6, Job – Building the ETL Architecture, brings the reader to the job object level and reviews the steps used in the development process to make a successful and robust ETL solution. It covers the monitoring and debugging functionality available in Data Services and embedded audit features.

Chapter 7, Validating and Cleansing Data, introduces the concepts of validating methods, which can be applied to the data passing through the ETL processes in order to cleanse and conform it according to the defined Data Quality standards.

Chapter 8, Optimizing ETL Performance, is one of the first advanced chapters, which starts explaining complex ETL development techniques. This particular chapter helps the user understand how the existing processes can be optimized further in Data Services in order to make sure that they run quickly and efficiently, consuming as less computer resources as possible with the least amount of execution time.

Chapter 9, Advanced Design Techniques, guides the reader through advanced data transformation techniques. It introduces concepts of Change Data Capture methods that are available in Data Services, pivoting transformations, and automatic recovery concepts.

Chapter 10, Developing Real-time Jobs, introduces the concept of nested structures and the transforms that work with nested structures. It covers the mains aspects of how they can be created and used in Data Services real-time jobs. It also introduces new a Data Services component—Access Server.

Chapter 11, Working with SAP Applications, is dedicated to the topic of reading and loading data from SAP systems with the example of the SAP ERP system. It presents the real-life use case of loading data into the SAP ERP system module.

Chapter 12, Introduction to Information Steward, covers another SAP product, Information Steward, which accompanies Data Services and provides a comprehensive view of the organization's data, and helps validate and cleanse it by applying Data Quality methods.

To use the examples given in this book, you will need to download and make sure that you are licensed to use the following software products:

The book will be useful to application developers and database administrators who want to get familiar with ETL development using SAP Data Services. It can also be useful to ETL developers or consultants who want to improve and extend their knowledge of this tool. The book can also be useful to data and business analysts who want to take a peek at the backend of BI development. The only requirement of this book is that you are familiar with the SQL language and general database concepts. Knowledge of any kind of programming language will be a benefit as well.

In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it, How it works, There's more, and See also).

To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, we use these sections as follows:

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."

A block of code is set as follows:

select * 
from dbo.al_langtext txt
  JOIN dbo.al_parent_child pc
  on txt.parent_objid = pc.descen_obj_key
where  
  pc.descen_obj = 'WF_continuous';

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

AlGUIComment ("ActaName_1" = 'RSavedAfterCheckOut', "ActaName_2" = 'RDate_created', "ActaName_3" = 'RDate_modified', "ActaValue_1" = 'YES', "ActaValue_2" = 'Sat Jul 04 16:52:33 2015', "ActaValue_3" = 'Sun Jul 05 11:18:02 2015', "x" = '-1', "y" = '-1')
CREATE PLAN WF_continuous::'7bb26cd4-3e0c-412a-81f3-b5fdd687f507'( )
DECLARE
  $l_Directory VARCHAR(255) ;
  $l_File VARCHAR(255) ;
BEGIN
 AlGUIComment ("UI_DATA_XML" = '<UIDATA><MAINICON><LOCATION><X>0</X><Y>0</Y></LOCATION><SIZE><CX>216</CX><CY>-179</CY></SIZE></MAINICON><DESCRIPTION><LOCATION><X>0</X><Y>-190</Y></LOCATION><SIZE><CX>200</CX><CY>200</CY></SIZE><VISIBLE>0</VISIBLE></DESCRIPTION></U
IDATA>', "ui_display_name" = 'script', "ui_script_text" = '$l_Directory = \'C:\\\\AW\\\\Files\\\\\';
$l_File = \'flag.txt\';

$g_count = $g_count + 1;

print(\'Execution #\'||$g_count);
print(\'Starting  \'||workflow_name()||\' ...\');
sleep(10000);
print(\'Finishing \'||workflow_name()||\' ...\');', "x" = '116', "y" = '-175')
BEGIN_SCRIPT
$l_Directory = 'C:\\AW\\Files\\';$l_File = 'flag.txt';$g_count = ($g_count + 1);print(('Execution #' || $g_count));print((('Starting  ' || workflow_name()) || ' ...'));sleep(10000);print((('Finishing ' || workflow_name()) || ' ...'));END
END
 SET ("loop_exit" = 'fn_check_flag($l_Directory, $l_File)', "loop_exit
_option" = 'yes', "restart_condition" = 'no', "restart_count" = '10', "restart_count_option" = 'yes', "workflow_type" = 'Continuous')

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

setup.exe SERVERINSTALL=Yes

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Open the workflow properties again to edit the continuous options using the Continuous Options tab."

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