When a table is created or modified in TimeXtender, the change will only initially appear within the UI. During this time, the table name will appear in red and the change will not be visible in the SQL server database. Saving the project at this point will save the metadata changes to the project repository.

Deployment and Execution is the process of creating and populating these tables in the SQL database.

The diagram below illustrates the deployment and execution process of a single table.

The orange and blue horizontal bars at the bottom of this diagram are similar to how the execution steps appear in the TimeXtender execution window.

Deployment

Deployment is the process of creating (or updating) the tables, views, stored procedures, and SSIS Packages (if enabled) needed for TimeXtender to do its data processing. After deployment you are able to browse the database and see these objects persisted in SQL Server.

TimeXtender automatically saves the project during deployment and, by default, will prompt for version details. This save is known as a "Deployed Version"

Options:

1. Differential Deployment: When enabled, TimeXtender calculates what steps require deployment (e.g. altering the raw table, or updating the data cleansing procedure.) and selects only those steps for deployment. When disabled, all steps are deployed.
2. Managed Deployment : When enabled, TimeXtender calculates dependencies and deploys the objects in the optimal order. When disabled, you need to ensure objects are deployed in the correct order.

Execution

Execution is the process of running the data transfer and data cleansing scripts to populate the table with data. TimeXtender records the duration of each step within the execution process which can be later viewed for analysis. After an execution is complete you can query the table and see the data. Executions can be initiated manually within the application, or can run on a schedule in the background. We will cover scheduled executions and custom execution packages at a later section in this training.

The Execution Window

When an execution is initiated manually the execution window will appear. This window displays a gantt chart illustrating the duration of each step within the selected execution. Hovering the cursor over a step will show the name, start time, end time, and duration of the step. In the screenshot you notice 3 rows of steps, that's because TimeXtender can execute multiple threads of data simultaneously (configured by editing the default execution package). The Default Execution package contains all the settings for manual executions performed in the application.

Execution errors

If TimeXtender encounters an error during execution it will stop the process and display a prompt.

The Log will show all the steps in the execution process and at which point in the process the error occurred.

Double clicking on "Error Information" in the log will display the SQL Server error message. If an error occurs, it is important to read this error message carefully to diagnose and correct the error.

A TimeXtender Table vs SQL Tables, Views, and Procedures

A table object inside of TimeXtender actually represents multiple objects in SQL and are viewed differently in SQL Server Management Studio.

Here is a table as it would be seen in TimeXtender:

Here is the same table represented in SQL Server Management Studio after deployment:

The table you will want to use for querying and validation is the table without the post fix known as the "Valid" Table. The remaining tables and views are used by TimeXtender for validation & transformation steps.