2. Dataflow Advanced Functionalities

Besides from defining your basic "flow" of data, the Dataflow has a couple of more advanced options when it comes to mapping and optimizing your data.

Adjusting data directly in Dataflow

In case you don't want to make modifications in the Data Edit section, you can make changes directly in the Dataflow. Please only use this option if you know your data very well and feel comfortable making changed "blindly". Apart from that this option can give you a quick insight into which boxes are used on a connection in detail.

You can click on the attributes that you want to edit or inspect and a window will open on the right. There you can see the box that is on the current connection. Here you can add a box through the dropdown, but also switch to the Large View that gives you an overview of the boxes used on the whole connection between Import and Export. Here you can also insert boxes in the same way you do in Data Edit.

Figure 1. GIF

Append a column to another one

Apart from appending a column to another one in Data Edit through the "Append/Prepend Column" box, you can also drop an attribute from a lower stage onto an attribute that is already connected. A window will open and ask you if you want to replace the connection or append it. Click "append".

The appended connection will be shown as an "indirect" connection in the Dataflow. An "Append/Prepend Column" box is added automatically.

Figure 2. GIF

Replacing a connection

In case you want to replace the input a column on a higher stage has, you can use the "Replace" function. To do this drop an attribute from a lower stage onto an attribute that is already connected. A window will open and ask you if you want to replace the connection or append it. Click "replace".

This option has the big advantage that all boxes are moved to the newly created connection and you don't have to start from scratch again.

Figure 3. GIF

Move boxes from one connection to another

In case you want to move connections from one connection to another one, but don't want to change the column input as in the case above, you can use the "Copy Boxes" feature.

To use it, you need to click on a column either in Intermediate or Export that contains boxes you want to move to another connection. The column will get an orange highlight. All columns where you can not possibly copy the boxes into, have a white symbol in front of the column name. Afterwards click on the attribute that you want to copy the boxes into.

Figure 4. GIF