Configure and running the Data Load utility

To configure and run the Data Load utility, create a file to load, define the data reader, load order, and environment configuration files. Then, enter the data load shell script command with modifying parameters from a command-line interface.

Before starting

• Understand the Overview of the Data Load utility

• Ensure that you review and follow the Data Load utility best practices.

Procedure

1. Choosing how to run the Data Load utility
   The Data Load utility can be run in three different ways according to your needs. It can be run in the development environment, from the Utility server Docker container, or as a scheduled job.

2. Optional: Configure the Data Load utility to run a file difference preprocess
   If you routinely load the same generated Data Load input file from an external system or source, we can choose to run a file difference preprocess as part of the Data Load process to ensure that we are loading only new changes when loading your newest input file.

3. Optional: Configure the CSV data reader
   Configure the comma-separated values (CSV) data reader in the business object configuration file to modify the way data is read from CSV source files. You might want to change the default settings of the CSV data reader to better work with the format of your existing source data.

4. Optional: Configure the XML data reader
   Configure the extensible markup language (XML) data reader in the business object configuration file to modify the way that data is read from XML formatted source files. You might want to change the default settings of the XML data reader to better work with the format of your data.

5. Configure the data load environment settings
   Configure the environment variables used by the Data Load utility in an XML file called wc-dataload-env.xml.

6. Configure the business object configuration file
   The business object configuration file defines how to load the data into the database. In this file, you specify the implementation classes for our Data Reader, Business Object Builder, and Business Object Mediator components. You also specify the attributes and properties for these components.

7. Configure the data load order
   The data load order configuration file controls the load order of the Data Load utility. The data load file has a pointer to the environment settings file, business object configuration file, and input file. We can also define the mode that the Data Load utility uses to load data.

8. Optional: Configure a column exclusion list
   When we are preparing to load data with the Data Load utility, we can specify a list of table columns to exclude from the loading process. A column exclusion list provides you the ability to exclude columns from being overwritten if the columns are known to already be populated with data.

9. Running the Data Load utility command syntax
   This utility loads data from a source file into a target database. Loading the file populates and updates the WebSphere Commerce database. We can also use the Data Load utility to delete data from a database.

10. Verifying the results of the data load
    Verify that the Data Load utility ran successfully by checking the exit value in the summary report or in the wc-dataload.log file. If errors occur, analyze the data in the error reports as a first step in finding the root cause.