DAC Generate Parameters and Build Commands

Question

Hi everyone,
Can someone explain the differences between the generate parameters and the build commands?
My initial thought was that generate parameters generated the Informatica parameter files. But then I couldn't figure out what the purpose of the Build command was.
Any clarification would be appreciated. Thanks!
-Joe

Answer 1

When you see your ETL folders they are arranged depending upon the type of tasks SDE, SIL, PLP, etc. If you buy the OOB Oracle BI Apps they come with prebuilt ETL routines. These are meant to plug and play as adaptors depending on your source. The product also allows you to extract data from multiple sources hence different SDE folders. These are then assigned to Logical Folders in DAC. Every task you created is linked to an ETL workflow and is assigned to a Logical folder.
Now the workflows can be run manually from the ETL Tool or through DAC. When you run them to DAC it uses the Source and Target connection parameters from the Physical Data Sources tab in the Setup section denoted by the $ sign.
Generate Parameters looks at every task in your execution plan and checks what the $Source & $Target Parameters it needs. If your plan has SDEs, SILs, PLPs and then come from three sources (2 OLTPs, 1 Flat file) and 1 destination (DW) then you'll get 4 connection parameters, plus every folder associated with your ETL tasks. e.g SDE_ORA11510_Adaptor, SILOS, PLP, CUSTOM_SDE_ORA11510, CUSTOM_PLP, CUSTOM_SILOS. Then you can set which source you want to extract from and which target you want to send your data to.
Build on the other hand handles the dependencies. It is very important you set your Source Tables, Target Tables and the Task type at every task appropriately. It uses this to logically arrange the concurrency and dependencies of tasks.