IDMC training workarounds for non-standard environments

IDMC Training provides clear instructions on how to complete each component of the tutorials, but if you are unable to follow these instructions exactly as given, you may have trouble finding viable workarounds. Supplemental materials based on experiments and tests by various parties who have completed IDMC training are documented on this page.

Secure agent on non-Windows machines

If you're using your own trial organization for Informatica's tutorials, they'll ask you to set up your own secure agent. If you're on a Windows machine, you can follow the instructions in Informatica's documentation.

If you're on Mac or Linux, we recommend you use the shared test organization and the shared secure agent (ei.secureagent.doit.wisc.edu). If you need to load flat files for a tutorial, use Box or an Amazon S3 bucket to transfer them rather than trying to connect directly to the secure agent.

Databases without Oracle

Many labs in IDMC Training require you to use an Oracle database as a source for data. Setting these up can be significantly time-consuming. A PostgreSQL database will work fine for this purpose if the proper data is loaded in, however.

UW-Madison hosts a test database for IDMC training purposes. Information on this database can be found here. Several existing tables are equivalents of what would be in an Oracle database. Note that you can also use a database as a target in IDMC, although this never comes up in training.

If you are setting up the database yourself, or wish to create your own tables in the test database, note that the given database commands are written for Oracle specifically: they will not work for PostgreSQL and will need to be converted to that format.

Note also that when following these instructions, Lab 4-1 in Cloud Application Integration (CAI) may not work properly, which may require skipping it.

Understanding expressions beyond the basics

Most labs have you use an expression transformation and provide a block of text to paste in to transform data from one state to another. The labs do not explain what this text means or how to write your own expressions, however. A reference to the functions available for use in expressions can be found here.

For those with experience in programming languages, an alternative is available in the Java Transformation. The Expression Transformation is recommended over the Java Transformation for most use cases, however, as it has less overhead and is easier to read.