Source Analyzer & Target Designer in Informatica

By : David Carter David Carter
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⚡ Smart Summary

Source Analyzer and Target Designer are the PowerCenter Designer tools that create and import the source and target definitions every Informatica mapping needs, using an ODBC data source to read the database metadata.

  • 📥 Source definitions: Source Analyzer imports table name, columns, data types and constraints from the database.
  • 📤 Target definitions: Target Designer imports or designs the relational, XML or flat-file structures data is loaded into.
  • 🔌 ODBC first: A user DSN built on the correct driver is required before either tool can reach the database.
  • 🗂️ Metadata only: Importing a definition creates the structure inside Informatica, never a table in the database.
  • 🔁 Reusable: One imported definition can be reused across any number of mappings in the same folder.
  • 📁 Folders: Repository Manager creates the logical folders that hold sources, targets, mappings and mapplets.
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Source Analyzer in Informatica

In ETL/Data Warehouse work, you will encounter different sources and targets.

Source Definition in Informatica

A Source Definition in Informatica is an entity from where you pull the records, and then you store these records in temporary tables (staging tables) or Informatica transformation caches. On the basis of the mapping design document or business requirement, you make a change in these data records (transform the data) and then you load the transformed data into another table structure, called the target table.

In every Informatica mapping, there will always be a source and a target. To manage different sources and targets in Informatica, you have to use Source Analyzer and Target Designer. These tools are integrated into the PowerCenter Designer tool and can be launched from there itself.

The Designer splits this work across dedicated tools.

Designer tool What it manages
Source Analyzer Source definitions – the structures you read data from.
Target Designer Target definitions – the structures you load data into.
Mapping Designer The mapping that joins a source to a target through transformations.

Source Analyzer in Informatica

Source Analyzer in Informatica is a tool that allows you to create and modify source definitions. With the help of Source Analyzer, you can create or import different types of sources in Informatica like flat files, relational databases, Excel worksheets, XML definitions, and so on.

Similarly, by using Target Designer you can create or import different types of targets. Informatica provides you the feature to either create a source or target from scratch by designing its structure, or you can create a source or target by importing the definitions. When you import a source from the database, the following metadata gets imported:

  • Source (table) name
  • Database location
  • Name of columns
  • Column data types
  • Constraints

You can also define the key relationships in the tables, which is applicable only at the Informatica level and is stored in the repository.

The source or target created or imported in Informatica can be reused any number of times in different mappings. Every mapping must have at least one loadable target. Otherwise the mapping will be invalid.

Note – when you create a source or target in Source Analyzer or Target Designer, the structures are only created in Informatica. At the database level, no object is created. So you have to create database objects having the same structure as you have created in Informatica.

You can import the following types of sources using Source Analyzer:

  • Relational tables (database tables), views and synonyms
  • Flat files
  • COBOL files
  • XML files

Performance tip – to improve the performance of relational source tables, use indexes on the source database tables. On the target tables, disable or remove constraints and indexes for performance.

How to Open Source Analyzer in Informatica

Below is a step-by-step process for opening Source Analyzer in Informatica.

Step 1) Open the Informatica PowerCenter Designer tool.

PowerCenter Designer shortcut in the Informatica client program group

Step 2) In the next screen:

  1. Double-click on the repository which you want to connect to
  2. Enter the user name
  3. Enter the password
  4. Click on the Connect button

Connect to Repository dialog in PowerCenter Designer with user name and password

After successful login, the folders of the user will be listed under the repository name.

Note –

  1. If login is not successful, check whether the user has privileges to connect to the repository
  2. If no folder is visible under the repository name, check whether the folder is created.
  3. If a folder was created recently, then disconnect from the repository and reconnect.

Repository navigator listing the folders available to the logged-in user

Step 3) In the next step:

  1. Right-click on the folder
  2. Select the open option

Right-click menu on a repository folder showing the Open option

When a folder is open, subfolders of that folder will be listed, as shown below.

Expanded folder showing the Sources, Targets and Mappings subfolders

Step 4) Click on the Source Analyzer menu, as shown in the figure.

Designer toolbar with the Source Analyzer tool selected

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How to Import Source Table in Source Analyzer

Following are the steps to import a source table in Informatica Source Analyzer.

Step 1) Go to the “Sources” option. In Source Analyzer:

  1. Click on the tab “Sources” from the main menu
  2. Select the import from database option; after this the ODBC Connection box will open.

Sources menu in Source Analyzer with Import from Database selected

Step 2) Create the ODBC connection. If you already have an ODBC connection, move to Step 3. The five sub-steps below run in order.

  1. Click on the button next to ODBC data source.

    Import Tables dialog with the button that opens the ODBC administrator

  2. On the next page, select the User DSN tab and click the Add button.

    ODBC Data Source Administrator on the User DSN tab with the Add button

    A DSN (Data Source Name) is basically a data structure, and it contains specific details such as database type, location and user details. This information is required by the ODBC driver so that it can connect to that database.

  3. When you click on the Add button, you will see a list of drivers for various databases (Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Microsoft Access, Excel, and so on). The driver which you select depends on what database you want to connect to. Select the driver for the data source. Here in guru99 you will be using Oracle database tables. Select the Oracle wire protocol driver.

  4. On the next page, select the General tab and enter the database details. Then click on Test Connect.

    Create New Data Source window listing the installed ODBC drivers

    Note – database details are specific to your installation, depending on the host name, port and SID you selected during database installation. You can get these details by opening the tnsnames.ora file located in your Oracle installation folder.

    Oracle wire protocol driver setup on the General tab with host, port and SID

  5. Once you have run a Test Connect, enter the database user name and password, and then select the “OK” button. If the connection is successful, it will show a message box.

    Logon to Oracle prompt asking for the database user name and password

    Message box confirming that the ODBC test connection succeeded

Select OK for the test connect window and the ODBC driver setup window. The created ODBC data source will be added to the user data sources. The ODBC data source is now ready.

Step 3) Create the schema tables. In guru99, you will be using Oracle’s Scott/Tiger schema tables. If you do not have these tables in the database, create them using the script below.

Download the Scott.sql File

Step 4) Enter the database details. In the import tables window:

  1. Select the ODBC data source for the Oracle database.
  2. Enter the database user name
  3. Enter the database password
  4. Click on the connect/reconnect button. This will show tables for the database user.
  5. Expand the tree under the tables folder and select the EMP table
  6. Select the OK button.

Import Tables window with the EMP table selected under the guru99 schema

Step 5) Verify and save the imported table. The table will be imported into the Informatica Source Analyzer. Use the “Ctrl+S” keys to save changes to the repository.

Imported EMP source definition displayed on the Source Analyzer workspace

Similarly, you can import any other database tables in Source Analyzer.

How to Import Target in Informatica Target Designer

Here is the process to import a target in Informatica Target Designer.

In this tutorial, you will create the target table emp_target, which will have the identical structure of the source EMP table. To import the target table, the target table must be present in the database. To create the target table, use the script below. Types of targets available in Informatica are relational, XML and flat files.

Download the emp_target.sql File

Note – here in this tutorial, both the source and target tables are present in the same database schema (guru99). However, you can also create a target in a different schema.

Step 1) In the Informatica Designer, click the Target Designer icon to launch Target Designer.

Designer toolbar with the Target Designer icon highlighted

Step 2) In the next step:

  1. Select the option “Targets” from the main menu
  2. Select “import” from the database option

Targets menu in Target Designer with Import from Database selected

Step 3) In the import table window:

  1. Select the ODBC data source for the Oracle database.
  2. Enter the database user name
  3. Enter the database password
  4. Click on the connect/reconnect button. This will show tables for the database user.
  5. Expand the tree under the tables folder and select the EMP_TARGET table
  6. Select the OK button

Import Tables window with the EMP_TARGET table selected

This will import the target into Target Designer of Informatica PowerCenter, as shown below. Use the “Ctrl+S” keys to save the changes.

Imported EMP_TARGET definition on the Target Designer workspace

In this tutorial, you have imported sources and targets. Now you are all set to create your first mapping.

How to Create a Folder in Informatica

Below are the steps on how to create a folder in Informatica.

Informatica folders are logical containers which keep the objects that you create in Informatica Designer and Workflow Manager (mappings, mapplets, sources, targets, and so on).

To create a folder:

Step 1) Open Repository Manager.

Repository Manager entry in the Informatica client program group

Note – if Informatica Designer is already open, then Repository Manager can be opened using the shortcuts available in the toolbox.

Designer toolbox shortcut that launches Repository Manager

This will open Informatica Repository Manager in a separate window.

Informatica Repository Manager window with the repository navigator

Step 2) Follow these steps:

  1. Click on the Folder menu
  2. Select the Create option

Folder menu in Repository Manager opened on the Create option

Step 3) In the next step:

  1. Enter the desired folder name
  2. Select OK

Create Folder dialog with the folder name and permission options

This will create a new folder and a message will appear saying “The folder has been successfully created.”

Confirmation message box reporting that the folder was created

The newly created folder will then be listed under the respective repository.

Repository navigator showing the newly created folder in the tree

This completes the tutorial. See you in the next one!

FAQs

A source definition is the imported structure of the table. The Source Qualifier is the transformation that reads rows from it inside a mapping and converts the values to Informatica transformation data types.

Yes. Dragging a source definition from the Sources folder onto the Target Designer workspace creates a matching target definition. The database table itself still has to be created separately with a DDL script.

Nothing changes automatically. The stored definition keeps the old columns until you re-import it from the database, so mappings continue to run against a structure that no longer matches the table.

Informatica maps every native database type onto its own transformation data types so that the same mapping logic works across Oracle, SQL Server and flat files. The original type stays visible on the source definition.

A folder marked shared at creation time lets other folders reference its objects through shortcuts, so one source definition can be maintained centrally instead of being copied into every project folder.

No. Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services has no separate metadata import window. Sources and targets are selected directly inside the cloud Mapping Designer through a configured connection, and the metadata is read on demand.

Informatica CLAIRE profiles imported metadata, suggests column mappings between source and target, and flags data-quality anomalies. Similar machine learning features in other ETL tools recommend joins and detect schema drift automatically.

Copilot can draft the DDL for staging and target tables, generate sample data inserts and write the pmrep commands that script repository imports. Review every generated statement before running it against a real schema.

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