Transform
During the creation of synchronize jobs, you can apply transformation scripts to manipulate source data before saving it to the destination.
You can use transformations to perform these actions and more:
- Combining the values of two source fields into one destination field.
- Extracting a set of characters from field values.
- Assigning a string constant to a field regardless of source restrictions.
Synchronize includes a set of commonly used transformations, or you can write your own transformation scripts using the Visual Basic .NET or Python editor.
Synchronize provides these transformations:
Static
During synchronization, the static transformation copies specified text to the destination field and ignores the value in the source field mapped to it.
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Type the text in the Static text box. This text is copied for the field at the destination.
You can also specify Windows environment variables as static text. While transferring the data during a job run, the job obtains the current value of the variable and saves it to the destination field.
Examples:
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If static text is set to %COMPUTERNAME%, running the Job will save the host computer's name in the target field.
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If static text is set to variables %NOW% and %Computer% as follows:
Updated by GroupID %NOW% from %COMPUTERNAME%.
Running the job will return the current date and the name of the host machine. The results will look like as:
Updated by GroupID 1/12/2003 10:04 AM from EX01-DTM
Environment variables may vary for different Windows releases and editions. Before using environment variables, determine that they are supported by the Windows installed on your host machine
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Auto-Generate Unique, Complex Passwords based on complexity rules
You can assign a single password to all synced objects or generate individual passwords for each object.
Resolve
The Resolve transformation attempts to locate a recipient at the destination that matches the selected filter and returns the distinguished name. It is useful for setting the manager or owner fields.
destination: The target location to which to copy data. Destinations must be Exchange 5.5, Active Directory, SQL Server, or Excel.
NOTE: This transformation can adversely affect performance, as it adds an additional query to each record. It applies to Active Directory and Exchange only.
Join
The Join transformation combines values from two source fields into a single destination field.
For instance, you can use a Join transformation to create a Display Name field at the destination from the source’s FirstName and LastName fields. The values for the two source fields are saved as a single value in the destination.
The following table list the three parameters the Join transformation requires:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| First field | Select the first source field. |
| Separator | Specify the character to use as separator between the values of the two fields. You can specify more than one characters as separators. |
| Second field | Select the second source field. |
Left
Use the Left transformation to return a specific number of characters from the left side of a source value. You can use a Left transformation to pull characters from a value to create an abbreviation or an alias.
For example, your requirement is to set the first three characters of a user's logon name as their initials. You can easily achieve this by applying the settings shown in the following figure.
The following table lists the two parameters the Left transformation requires:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Source field | Select the source field from which to get the value. |
| Number of characters | Specify here the number of character to extract starting from the left. |
Substring
The Substring transformation returns a set of characters from the source value. The set of characters to extract from the source value is determined form the Start at and Length parameters passed to the transformation.
Substring transformation is useful in cases where the set of characters to extract are from within a value that has a fixed number of characters or digits. The use of this transformation can become tricky if the number of characters or digits in values of the source field may vary.
The following table lists the parameters the Substring transformation requires:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Source field | Select the source field from which to get the value. |
| Start at | Specify the index number of the character to set as the starting point. The character at this position will not be included in the result itself. |
| Length | This represents the count of characters to extract from the starting point. |
Example:
Telephone numbers are usually written with country and city codes. You may have a destination field where you may only require the country code to be copied excluding the city code and the number itself.
Consider the number, +92-42-5787711. Where:
| Country Code | City Code | Telephone |
|---|---|---|
| 92 | 42 | 5787711 |
To extract the country code, you would set the parameters for this transformation. When executed, this would extract 92 from the number and save it to the destination field.
Script
Unlike the built-in transforms described above, the Script transformation is a template for writing custom scripts. Use the Script template by selecting a built-in transform that provides most of the functionality you need, select parameters, if any, and then switch the transform type to Script to view the resulting script. You can then modify the script to add the functionality you need.
See Also