Migrating from the massload utility to the Data Load utility
The massload utility is deprecated for WebSphere Commerce Version 7 Feature Pack 6. You are recommended to use the Data Load utility to load data into the WebSphere Commerce database. To migrate to the Data Load utility, you must create the data load configuration and input files to use to load your WebSphere Commerce data.
- Reads data from a source.
- Transforms the source data to WebSphere Commerce business objects.
- Allocates and resolves WebSphere Commerce business objects to physical data.
- Loads the physical data into the database.
- You do not need to understand the details of your WebSphere Commerce database when you use business object mediators.
- You must understand only the business object model, and how to map your data to the business object model when you use business object mediators.
- The Data Load utility transaction boundary is based on business objects as opposed to being based on table objects. The ability to load table object is available with the Data Load utility.
- The Data Load utility is scalable and has better performance than the mass load utility.
- The Data Load utility has a much improved summary report, and provides a better error report to assist with diagnosing problems when errors occur.
The Data Load utility now supports loading
data into a workspace. Loading data into a workspace allows you to
make and preview changes to managed assets, without affecting what
is running on your site.
To move from using the massload utility to using the Data Load utility, you must decide whether you want to load data specific for business objects, or load data into a database table. The Data Load utility provides mediators for loading specific business objects. The Data Load utility can perform validation logic when these mediators are used to ensure that only valid data is loaded for the business objects. By using the business object mediator classes when you run the Data Load utility, you also ensure that all required information for business objects is loaded. If required information is missing from the input files that are loaded, the Data Load utility identifies the errors in the log files and depending on the error and your configurations, end the load process. If a component business object mediator exists for any business object that you want to load, you are recommended to use that mediator. If no mediator exists you can create a custom mediator, or use the table-based mediator to directly load your business object information into the WebSphere Commerce database.
Loading specific business object data with the Data Load utility
Multiple business object mediator classes are available for use with the Data Load utility to convert business object data into physical object in the WebSphere Commerce database. The available mediators can be used to load business objects for multiple components, including catalog, member, inventory, pricing, and catalog filter business objects.
To use the business object mediators, you must first identify the business objects that you want to load and determine whether a mediator is available by default to use to load data for that object. For the list of business object mediators that are provided by default, see Data Load utility business object mediators.
To help you learn how to compose your input files so that your data can be loaded with the Data Load utility, sample input CSV and XML files are provided for many business object types. For the list of sample input files and more information about creating your input files, see File format for Data Load input files.
To help you quickly load data for the many business object types, sample configuration and input files are available by default. You copy these sample files, edit the files to include your business object data, then load your data with the Data Load utility. If samples are available for the business objects that you want to load, copy and edit the sample files to meet your requirements. To view the Data Load utility samples that are available, see Samples: Data Load utility.
- Use the table-based mediator to load your directly into the appropriate database tables.
- Create a custom business object mediator.
Loading table-based data with the Data Load utility
A table-based builder and mediator class is available by default for the Data Load utility. You can use this mediator and builder to load data directly into database table columns, similar to how the massload utility operates. To use the builder and mediator, you must know the physical table that you want to load data into. You also must know the foreign key relationships, how the keys are generated, and how to resolve the generated keys that are based on the unique index. The column value, which can be retrieved from the business contexts, also must be known. You must include this information in the data load configuration files to ensure that the utility loads your data into the correct table columns. For more information about this builder and mediator class, see Data Load utility table-based mediator and builder.