Customize the Data Load utility

We can customize the Data Load utility to load custom data by creating our own data readers, column handlers, and business object mediators. When we are working with the Data Load utility to load custom data we can define how your data maps to WebSphere Commerce business objects as well as physical database schema, providing customization for specific business needs, and deploying the customization.

• Data Load utility architectural overview
  In order to work with the Data Load utility, we must first have an understanding of how it works.

• Running the Data Load utility in the WebSphere Commerce development environment
  Run the Data Load utility inside the development environment when testing customizations or when debugging issues with the utility. This configuration to run the utility is less time-consuming than first deploying to a runtime environment, then running the utility for test purposes.

• Creating custom data readers
  Create a custom data reader to load data from a source that is not in a CSV file format, which is the default data source format of the Data Load utility. It is not necessary to change the format of your existing data to work with the Data Load utility.

• Creating custom column handlers
  Create a custom column handler so that the Data Load utility can resolve data and load the data into database columns. Create a custom column handler to resolve the data that cannot be mapped to a column value through the data load configuration.

• Creating custom data load business object mediators
  Occasionally the default business objects provided with WebSphere Commerce are insufficient to describe the types of data used in certain businesses, making it is necessary to extend or create new business objects. If you have created custom business objects, then we will need to create a custom business object mediator in order for the Data Load utility to understand them.

• Loading extension tables
  Use the data load utility to load UserData into custom extension tables in the WebSphere Commerce database. There are two ways to load data into custom extension tables:

• Java classes for generating data load input files for promotion folders and folder relationships
  We can create and use a Java class to generate input files for use with the Data Load utility to create promotion folders and sort promotions into folders. If the store contains many promotions that must be sorted into many promotion folders, consider creating a Java class to generate the Data Load utility input files.

• Configure an SFTP transport to retrieve external files for the Data Load utility
  We can create and configure an SFTP transport for a Data Load utility scheduled job to use to retrieve an input file from an external source for loading into WebSphere Commerce.

• Populating the store's bootstrap data into the database
  We can populate the store's bootstrap data into the database by using a Data Load scheduler job and over SFTP.