Metadata Excel Format - Export

Bridge Specifications

SPECIFICATIONS
Tool: Meta Integration Technology, Inc. / Metadata Excel Format version Excel 2003 to 2010 via Excel 2007 (XLSX) File
See http://metaintegration.com/Products/MIMB/
Metadata: [Metadata Management] Multi-Model, ETL (Source and Target Data Stores, Transformation Lineage, Expression Parsing, Expression Conversion)
Component: MicrosoftExcel version 11.2.0

DISCLAIMER
This import bridge requires internet access to download third-party libraries:
- such as https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/ to download open source third-party libraries,
- and more sites for other third-party software such as database specific JDBC drivers.

The downloaded third-party libraries are stored into $HOME/data/download/MIMB/
- If HTTPS fails, the import bridge then tries with HTTP.
- If a proxy is used to access internet, you must configure that proxy in the JRE (see the -j option in the Miscellaneous parameter).
- If the import bridge does not have full access to internet, that $HOME/data/download/MIMB/ directory can be copied from another server with internet access where the command $HOME/bin/MIMB.sh (or .bat) -d can be used to download all third-party libraries used by all bridges at once.

By running this import bridge, you hereby acknowledge responsibility for the license terms and any potential security vulnerabilities from these downloaded third-party software libraries.

OVERVIEW
The purpose of this import bridge is to import metadata from technologies / tools for which no existing import bridge is available: such as legacy data store or ETL tools, or hand written ETL jobs written in an unsupported language.

Productivity tools, such as spreadsheet editing tools, are commonly used to capture, document or publish physical, logical, and business metadata throughout the industry. A tool like Microsoft Office Excel is an especially common choice as it is nearly always available. It is understood by and familiar to business users, offers simple copy and paste compatibility with other Office applications, and conveniences such as spelling correction. Microsoft Excel import and export capabilities are provided to leverage these advantages.

This import bridge imports the metadata representing physical data stores, logical data models, and/or data mappings expressed in Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets based on a standard Metadata Excel Format which uses multiple tabs (sheets) to represent different metamodel aspects:
- Data Modeling tabs: Models, Packages, Relationships, Domains, Constraints, Enumerations.
- Data Mappings tabs: Mappings, Joins, Filters, Lookups, Rules.

This import bridge imports metadata as:
- a data mapping / data integration model if it contains any Mappings,
- a logical/physical data model if it contains any Packages,
- a physical data store (e.g. Oracle) otherwise.

A Metadata Excel Format add-in creates a new 'Metadata' menu in the Excel ribbon to help navigate and manage spreadsheets which are designed using the standard format. These functions include:
- Inserting new worksheets in the 'Standard' format
- Show and hide functions to control which columns are displayed
- Annotation, formatting and validation of entries on a worksheet

The best way to learn, the standard Metadata Excel Format is to learn from examples exported from previously imported databases, data models, or data integration jobs.
However, note that the Metadata Excel Format was not designed to (and therefore does not support to) export, edit, and import as a round-trip. In other words, this import bridge imports metadata as an on boarding technology, while its matching import bridge exports a metadata as a report (e.g. summarizing lineage of complex DI/ETL jobs).

DEPRECATED END OF LIFE WARNING
As explained above, this "Metadata Excel Format" import bridge is designed to emulate unsupported tools (for which a native import bridge is not available) on two independent use cases:
1- Data Modeling emulating a data store (database, business application, etc.)
2- Data Mapping emulating a data integration (DI, ETL, ELT, CDC)

The use of this old "Metadata Excel Format" import bridge for data mapping emulation (above use case #2) has been deprecated in 2022 and will be End Of Life (EOL) unsupported in 2024, as it has been replaced by the much more capable new "Data Mapping Script" import bridge.
Note that the new data mapping script format provides a number of advantages over the older metadata Excel format (deprecated) including:
- The data mapping script format supports a full round trip (export/import) from/to a data mapping, while this is not possible with the older metadata Excel format where the export was more for reporting and the import for bootstrapping.
- The data mapping script format files are generally much more compact than the very verbose metadata Excel format files based on classifier/table maps and feature/column maps.
- The data mapping script format is easier to generate from SQL based DI/ETL/ELT/CDC tools.
- The data mapping script format supports both bulk mappings and query mappings, while the metadata Excel format is quite limited in its handling of bulk mappings.
- The data mapping script format supports more source and target data store technologies (RDBMS, NoSQL, File Systems) that are supported by the metadata Excel format.

REQUIREMENTS
n/a

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: How do I read an XLSX file with an Excel version earlier than 2007?

A: From the Microsoft Download center, install the 'Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats'. It supports Office XP and 2003.

Q: How do I resolve an 'Out of Memory' error message in the log?

A: By default the export bridge allocates 512 MB of memory. For large models, you can increase this amount, as well as switch to a 64 bit Java Virtual Machine if you require more than 2 GB. Update the configuration file $MetaIntegration/conf/conf.properties with appropriate -Xmx parameter for a 64 bit JVM, for example:
M_JAVA_HOME=..\jre
M_JAVA_OPTIONS=-Xmx2G

LIMITATIONS
Refer to the current general known limitations at MIMB Known Limitations or bundled in Documentation/ReadMe/MIMBKnownLimitations.html
Productivity tools, such as spreadsheet editing tools, are commonly used to capture, document or publish physical, logical and business metadata throughout the industry. A tool like Microsoft Office Excel is an especially common choice as it is nearly always available. It is understood by and familiar to business users, offers simple copy and paste compatibility with other Office applications, and conveniences such as spelling correction. Microsoft Excel import and export capabilities are provided to leverage these advantages.

1. All metadata output spreadsheets are generated in the Standard format, as this is the only format directly supported. To accommodate export to a locally defined spreadsheet layout, the format generated by the export bridge is not hard coded, but rather defined by 'Blank' spreadsheets specifying how each spreadsheet cell relates to the neutral repository metamodel. This flexibility is available only as a specific customized export bridge which may be provided through consulting services.

2. While both import (reading from spreadsheet) and export (writing to spreadsheet) capabilities are offered, they are not designed to support round-trip re-engineering. For example, one may forward engineer the mapping requirements into a DI/ETL tool for design, but the purpose of exporting from that DI/ETL tool back to Excel is to provide a mapping lineage summary independent of all internal multiple complex transformations and not to re-engineer the design and re-import.

3. Data Design and Architecture tool models may support round-trip type editing within Excel, to take advantage of the spell-checking, column and row based copy and paste, and other conveniences inherent to a spreadsheet environment. In this case, one should export to a spreadsheet, make the edits and then re-import into the original design tool, leveraging the compare and merge facilities provided with that tool.

4. New source or target data stores may be exported to an existing spreadsheet. However, no merge or update features are offered at this time. Also, when importing an Excel spreadsheet into a DI/ETL tool, the receiving tool is responsible for integrating/merging the models and mappings within its existing versions.

5. Specific assumptions and limitations are provided for each pre-defined format in the appropriate ${MODEL_BRIDGE_HOME}\conf\MIRModelBridgeTemplate\MIRMicrosoftExcel\*-Blank.xlsx file

6.Using a spreadsheet to manage metadata may have limitations in some cases. There are no actual limits for any information represented as rows in the spreadsheet. For example, there are no limits in the number of entities/tables per model, or the number of attributes/columns per entity/table. However, there are some limitations for any information represented as columns for usability reasons. For example, the nesting of packages within a model, the number of PK/FK/AK keys a given attribute/column can be involved in, or more importantly the number of custom UDP allocated to an entity/table, attribute/column, or data type.

SUPPORT
Provide a troubleshooting package with:
- the debug log (can be set in the UI or in conf/conf.properties with MIR_LOG_LEVEL=6)
- the metadata backup if available (can be set in the Miscellaneous parameter with -backup option, although this common option is not implemented on all bridges for technical reasons).

This export bridge allows one to generate metadata expressed in Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets, which may contain anything from simple data models to complex mappings (where various Excel sheets are used to define the source data models, target data model, and the mapping between them). The generated spreadsheet will be provided in XLSX format. The 'File' parameter should contain the name of this spreadsheet, referred to as the 'metadata output spreadsheet.'

The spreadsheets generated are Office 2007 XLSX files. To read this kind of file into Office 2003 or Office XP, download and install the 'Compatibility Pack' from Microsoft.

This metadata output spreadsheet will be provided in a specific format referred to as the 'Standard' format. As an example of this format and how is populated, there is a Standard-Blank.xlsx file with a complete set of the possible worksheets and column headers with definitions describing the contents and their meaning. By default, this file is in the directory at ${MODEL_BRIDGE_HOME}\conf\MIRModelBridgeTemplate\MIRMicrosoftExcel\.

Also provided is an Excel 'Add-In' based 'ribbon' or menu to help navigate and manage spreadsheets which are designed using the standard format. These functions include:

- Inserting new worksheets in the 'Standard' format
- Show and hide functions to control which columns are displayed
- Annotation, formatting and validation of entries on a worksheet
In order to activate these options in Microsoft Office Excel, one must install the add-in provided with the software. Such add-ins are provided for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and 2003. Instructions for installation are provided in the exported spreadsheet in the comment section for the 'how to use' cell on all worksheets of type 'Models'.

Bridge Parameters

Bridge Mapping