Extension Technology Configuration File

The dxeconfig.cfg file is used to globally manage your ODBC Extension or Oracle Extension settings. By default, it contains the following settings:

* Data Express Configuration File

LogLevel:1
Always Drop Table:N
CSV Data Store:N
COBOL Masking:N
Validate Target Table:N
Validate Source Schema:N
Enable Logging:N
Hide Progress:N
Hide Log Message:N
Use Extended C Masking:N
Trim Spaces for ODBC Char Columns:N
Commit Size(MBs) [user range = from 1 to 4000, default range = 0]:0
Parse String finding LOW-VALUES:N
Create Table using CHAR clause:N
Execute scripts when the process aborts:N
Execute disable/enable CONSTRAINTS:N
Execute Aborted Tables:N

* These entries are only applicable to the Oracle Extension.

Text Output:N
Data Separator:,
Fields Enclosed By:"
Identify Externally:N
Use Append Condition:N

The following settings can be specified:

LogLevel

Controls the level of detail displayed in the dxe_errorlog.txt file. You can change the LogLevel as needed or when requested to do so by Product Support:

LogLevel Description
1 Default log level that provides a summary for each processed data store.
2 Verbose output used for diagnostic purposes that contains the SQL statements executed against your source and target data stores.
3 Generates ODBC trace output that is written to odbctrace.txt.

Always Drop Table

Determines whether or not to always execute DROP TABLE, and what, if any, additional action is taken. Possible values are:

N If a table already exists within the data store, the Extension Technology first executes a DELETE FROM TableName statement before performing INSERT operations. Default.
Y If a table already exists within the data store, it is removed by the execution of the DROP TABLE TableName statement, which forces the table to be recreated.
K Keep. When the target table is not already deleted, the existing records in the target are kept, and a new record with the same key as another record in the target is discarded.
L Delete and keep. When the target table is not already deleted, it is deleted with the same query used to extract the record from source, then existing records in the target are kept, and a new record with the same key as another record in the target is discarded.
O Overwrite. When the target table is not already deleted, the existing records in the target are kept, and a new record with the same key as another record in the target overwrites that record, in effect deleting the original record.
P Delete and overwrite. When the target table is not already deleted, it is deleted with the same query used to extract the record from source, the existing records in the target are kept, and a new record with the same key as another record in the target overwrites that record, in effect deleting the original record.
Note: When Validate Target Table is set to Y, Data Express performs validation before processing any tables to ensure that the structures of your source and target data stores are exactly the same. If the structures differ and Always Drop Table is set to N, the method does not execute and an error message displays instructing you to change your Always Drop Table setting in order to proceed with the creation of your test environment.

CSV Data Store

Controls whether the tables referenced by a given method should be stored in text files delimited by commas. To enable, change the CSV Data Store parameter from N to Y.

COBOL Masking

Controls whether you are using COBOL routines to mask your data. Possible values are:

Y By default, COBOL Masking is set to Y.
N If you want to use C masking routines, change the COBOL Masking parameter to N.
O When the value is "O" (from Others), the product can use any language satisfying the following requirements:
  • Be built to a callable shared object (UNIX), or DLL (Windows), with the relevant entry points exposed/exported as required.
  • Be callable from C.
  • Have the variables coded precisely as per the COBOL copybook UTEUSFLW.CPY (noting that the content/structure differs slightly from the mainframe in order to more closely mimic C data types), both regarding data type and size.
  • Cope with platform-specific byte ordering of numeric data. The C engine code and COBOL copybook expect all numeric parameters to be passed in machine-specific byte ordering. (For example, Intel platforms such as Linux and Windows use the opposite byte ordering to UNIX platforms such as HP-UX, Solaris and AIX).

Validate Target Table

Controls whether the target tables are validated against the source tables to ensure that the structures are exactly the same. By default, Validate Target Table is set to Y. If you do not want to validate the table structures , change this parameter from Y to N.

Note: You may not want to validate the target table because if the validation fails (perhaps due to differing column numbers) dropping the table and then recreating the table will create the table in a different tablespace. Set the Validate Target Table parameter to N only if you are the target and source tables match.

Validate Source Schema

Controls the usage of source schema. If Y, the target schema name is the same as the source one. If N, the default target schema name is used. By default, Validate Source Schema is set to Y.

Enable Logging

For more information about logging, see Logging Exit Routines in the Data Masking Guide.

Hide Progress

Suppresses visual progress during validation.

Hide Log Message

Controls the display of log messages in the dxe_errorlog.txt file when Enable Logging is used.

Use Extended C Masking

Controls the use of extended C masking. If N, standard masking is used. This the default. If set to Y, extended C masking is used. For information on the differences between standard C masking and extended C masking, see Appendix B of the Data Masking Guide.

Trim Spaces for ODBC Char Columns

Optional. If Y, final spaces in ODBC CHAR columns are replaced with low-values (x00). If N or the Trim Spaces for ODBC Char Columns parameter is omitted, final spaces in ODBC CHAR columns are left unchanged.

Commit Size(MBs) [user range = from 1 to 4000, default range = 0]:0

Optional. Controls the frequency of commits, and can be used to process very large numbers of inserts within the same transaction.
0 A commit is performed immediately after processing 95 MB; one commit for each 95 MB processed. Default.
n A numerical range from 1 to 4000 indicating the number of processed megabytes (MBs) after which to perform each commit. Any number over 4000 is interpreted as 4000.

Parse String finding LOW-VALUES

Determines whether or not a column is masked based on its use of LOW-VALUES.

N When the first character of a column set to be masked is LOW-VALUES, the column is not masked. Default.
Y When the column contains any characters other than LOW-VALUES, it is masked.

Create Table using CHAR clause

When the DROP TABLES option is used, determines whether to create a table using the CHAR data type for CHAR columns only, or to create it using the CHAR data type for both CHAR and VARCHAR columns.

N When the DROP TABLES option is used, the CREATE TABLE statement uses the CHAR data type for CHAR columns only. Default.
Y When the DROP TABLES option is used, the CREATE TABLE statement uses the CHAR data type for VARCHAR columns.

Execute script when the process aborts

Determines whether or not to execute pre and post scripts when the process aborts.

N Pre and post scripts are not executed when the process aborts. Default.
Y Pre and post scripts are executed when the process aborts.

Execute disable/enable CONSTRAINTS

Determines whether or not Data Express provides ENABLING/DISABLING SQL commands to preserve existing CONSTRAINTS relationships.

N No constraints are created. Default.
Y DISABLE/ENABLE constraints are created, but only when Always Drop Table:N is set.

Execute Aborted Tables

Determines whether or not the engine logs all successfully processed data stores or only the failed data store elaborations from the previous run.

N The engine works normally, and logs the successfully processed data stores. Default.
Y The engine processes only the failed data store elaborations from the previous run.

The following settings apply only to the Oracle Extension:

Text Output

By default, Data Express inserts the processed data into the specified target data store. You can configure Data Express to write the output to a text file instead, which can be subsequently loaded into an Oracle database using the Oracle sqlldr routine. To enable this, change the Text Output parameter from N to Y.

Data Separator

Oracle Extension only. By default, the delimiter used to separate Oracle fields is the comma (,). You can override this default by specifying one or more characters.

Fields Enclosed By

Oracle Extension only. By default, strings are enclosed by double quotation marks ("). You can override this default by specifying one or more characters.

If the target table does not exist, the Extension Technology executes a CREATE TABLE statement and then INSERT operations in order to create it. However, if the target table already exists, the way the Extension Technology behaves depends on the settings specified in the dxeconfig.cfg file. For example:

Always Drop Table Validate Target Table Resulting Behavior
Y

n/a

A DROP TABLE statement is executed before the CREATE TABLE statement and INSERT operations.

N Y

If the target table's metadata matches the source table's metadata exactly, the method will be executed. If any mismatch in the metadata is found, the method will not be executed.

For example, if the source table is defined as:

 CREATE TABLE SRC.MYTABLE(C1 INT, C2 CHAR(5), C3 DECIMAL(5,2)) 
					 

and the target table exists, but is defined as:

CREATE TABLE TGT.MYTABLE(C3 DECIMAL(5,2), C1 INT, C2 CHAR(5)) 
					 

the method will not be executed.

Note: The

The Always Drop Table parameter set to N and the Validate Target Table parameter set to Y are default settings.

N N

The Extension Technology will not perform any validation. If the target table does not include all columns from the source table (regardless of order), the INSERT operation will fail and the elaboration will terminate abnormally.

For example, if the source table is defined as:

 CREATE TABLE SRC.MYTABLE(C1 INT, C2 CHAR(5), C3 DECIMAL(5,2)) 
					 

and the target table exists, but is defined as:

 CREATE TABLE TGT.MYTABLE(C3 DECIMAL(5,2), C1 INT, C2 CHAR(5)) 
					 

the method should execute and complete normally.

If the target table is instead defined with a column C5 instead of C3:

CREATE TABLE TGT.MYTABLE(C5 DECIMAL(5,2), C1 INT, C2 CHAR(5))

the INSERT statement will fail, causing the method to terminate abnormally.

Identify Externally

Oracle Extension only. Identifies connection criteria for connecting to source and target databases.
Y Data Express uses the information in the configured Wallet rather than the method.rc file to connect to the database, eliminating the need to specify user name and password credentials.
N Database connection requires that you specify a user name and password.

Using append condition

Optional. Oracle Extension only.
Y During the execution of the dxestart module, adds the APPEND condition to the INSERT statement and the NOLOGGING condition to the CREATE TABLE statement.
Important: For the full benefit, you must also set Always Drop Table to Y.
N, or the Using append condition parameter is omitted Nothing is added during the execution of the dxestart module.

Commit Size

Optional.
0 Commit is performed after processing all inserts. Default.
n A numerical range from 1 to 4000 indicating the number of processed megabytes (MBs) after which to perform a commit. This enables incremental commits and should be used when processing a very large number of inserts.