tips and tricks

After I got my Informatica PowerCenter Data Integration 9.x:Developer Specialist Certificate, I want to share my preparation experience with all who want to take same path.

First of all certification exam is really hard. (As far as it stated official forums,  success rate is 30% .) For all questions there are at least two answers which are very close to each other. Please double check before making final decision.

Although there are some practical questions, practical knowledge is not enough. You need to read and study.

Official skill set is good place to start. https://community.informatica.com/docs/DOC-2601

Although I am not the original creator, here is my list of important topics:

• Change the number of rows that pass through the transformation.
• Change the transaction boundary. (Transaction Control:commit, roll back)
• Change the row type (Update strategy)

• External Procedure
• Lookup
• Stored Procedure

• Temporarily store data.
• Simplify complex expressions.
• Store values from prior rows.
• Capture multiple return values from a stored procedure.
• Compare values.
• Store the results of an unconnected Lookup transformation.

• Zero for numeric ports
• Empty strings for string ports
• 01/01/1753 for Date/Time ports with PMServer 4.0 date handling compatibility disabled
• 01/01/0001 for Date/Time ports with PMServer 4.0 date handling compatibility enabled

• You can create targets  with multibyte character sets.
• Target code pages must be a superset of source code pages when you run a session.

• COBOL When the Designer analyzes the file, it creates a different column for each OCCURS statement in the COBOL file.
• COBOL uses REDEFINES statements to build the description of one record based on the definition of another record. When you import the COBOL source, the Designer creates a single source that includes REDEFINES.

• To prevent concurrent writes to the Model repository, the master service process runs all jobs that write to the Model repository.
• The worker service processes run all other types of jobs. If a worker service process is selected to run a job,but all the threads of the node are busy, then the next worker service process is selected instead.

1. Value in parameter file
2. Value saved in the repository (if the variable is persistent)
3. User-specified default value
4. Datatype default value

1. Value in session parameter file
2. Value in workflow parameter file
3. Value in pre-session variable assignment
4. Value saved in the repository
5. Initial value
6. Datatype default value 

• Use the following rules and guidelines when you work with worklet variables:
• You cannot use parent workflow variables in the worklet.
• You can assign the value of a workflow variable to a worklet variable to initialize it.
• You cannot use user-defined worklet variables in the parent workflow.
• You can use predefined worklet variables in the parent workflow, just as you use predefined variables for other tasks in the workflow.

• Initializing State
• Running State
• Paused State

• Check the status of a target database before loading data into it.
• Determine if enough space exists in a database.
• Perform a specialized calculation.
• Drop and recreate indexes.

• TC_CONTINUE_TRANSACTION (Default Value)
• TC_COMMIT_BEFORE
• TC_COMMIT_AFTER
• TC_ROLLBACK_BEFORE
• TC_ROLLBACK_AFTER

• Aggregator transformation
• Joiner transformation
• Rank transformation
• Sorter transformation
• Custom transformation configured to generate transactions
• Transaction Control transformation

• Report Error. The Integration Service reports an error and does not return a row.
• Use First Value. Returns the first row that matches the lookup condition.
• Use Last Value. Return the last row that matches the lookup condition.
• Use All Values. Return all matching rows.
• Use Any Value.The Integration Service returns the first value that matches the lookup condition. It creates an index based on the key ports instead of all Lookup transformation ports. 

• Navigator
• Workspace.
• Output.
• Overview.

• Navigator window. Displays monitored repositories, Integration Services, and repository objects.
• Output window. Displays messages from the Integration Service and the Repository Service.
• Properties window. Displays details about services, workflows, worklets, and tasks.
• Time window. Displays progress of workflow runs.
• Gantt Chart view. Displays details about workflow runs in chronological (Gantt Chart) format.
• Task view

• Normalizer transformations
• COBOL sources
• XML Source Qualifier transformations
• XML sources
• Target definitions
• Other mapplets

• The session fails to complete.
• The session is configured for a test load.
• The session is a debug session.

• Persistent cache
• Recache from lookup source
• Static cache
• Dynamic cache
• Shared cache
• Pre-build lookup cache

• Basic. Based on a non-encrypted user name and password.
• Digest. Based on an encrypted user name and password.
• NTLM. Based on encrypted user name, password, and domain.

• The HTTP server requires authentication.
• You want to configure the connection timeout.
• You want to override the base URL in the HTTP transformation

Table and cloumn comments can be queried from sys.systables and sys.syscolumns system views in Sybase IQ. Comments are stored in remarks column.