Create Informatica Mappings From/To a JDBC Data Source for Excel

Informatica provides a powerful, elegant means of transporting and transforming your data. By utilizing the CData JDBC Driver for Excel, you are gaining access to a driver based on industry-proven standards that integrates seamlessly with Informatica's powerful data transportation and manipulation features. This tutorial shows how to transfer and browse Excel data in Informatica PowerCenter.

Deploy the Driver

To deploy the driver to the Informatica PowerCenter server, copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, to the following folder: Informatica-installation-directory\services\shared\jars\thirdparty.

To work with Excel data in the Developer tool, you will need to copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, into the following folders:

• Informatica-installation-directory\client\externaljdbcjars
• Informatica-installation-directory\externaljdbcjars

Create the JDBC Connection

Follow the steps below to connect from Informatica Developer:

1. In the Connection Explorer pane, right-click your domain and click Create a Connection.
2. In the New Database Connection wizard that is displayed, enter a name and Id for the connection and in the Type menu select JDBC.
3. In the JDBC Driver Class Name property, enter:

   cdata.jdbc.excel.ExcelDriver

4. In the Connection String property, enter the JDBC URL, using the connection properties for Excel.

   Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) Excel Files

   CData Drivers let you work with Excel files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

   Setting connection properties for local files

   Set the URI property to local folder path.

   Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended Excel files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

   • AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
   • AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

   Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

   Dropbox

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

   SharePoint Online (SOAP)

   To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

   SharePoint Online REST

   To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

   Google Drive

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Excel JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.excel.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   A typical connection string is below:

   jdbc:excel:URI='C:/MyExcelWorkbooks/SampleWorkbook.xlsx';

Browse Excel Tables

After you have added the driver JAR to the classpath and created a JDBC connection, you can now access Excel entities in Informatica. Follow the steps below to connect to Excel and browse Excel tables:

1. Connect to your repository.
2. In the Connection Explorer, right-click the connection and click Connect.
3. Clear the Show Default Schema Only option. 👁 The driver models Excel entities as relational tables. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

You can now browse Excel tables in the Data Viewer: Right-click the node for the table and then click Open. On the Data Viewer view, click Run.

Create Excel Data Objects

Follow the steps below to add Excel tables to your project:

1. Select tables in Excel, then right-click a table in Excel, and click Add to Project.
2. In the resulting dialog, select the option to create a data object for each resource.
3. In the Select Location dialog, select your project.

   Create a Mapping

   Follow the steps below to add the Excel source to a mapping:

   1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Mapping.
   2. Expand the node for the Excel connection and then drag the data object for the table onto the editor.
   3. In the dialog that appears, select the Read option.
   👁 The source Excel table in the mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   Follow the steps below to map Excel columns to a flat file:

   1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Data Object.
   2. Select Flat File Data Object -> Create as Empty -> Fixed Width.
   3. In the properties for the Excel object, select the rows you want, right-click, and then click copy. Paste the rows into the flat file properties.
   4. Drag the flat file data object onto the mapping. In the dialog that appears, select the Write option.
   5. Click and drag to connect columns.

   To transfer Excel data, right-click in the workspace and then click Run Mapping.

   👁 The completed mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)