SuperCHANNEL Command Line Utility
SNU is the SuperCHANNEL command line utility. It allows you to build a SuperSTAR database from a command prompt or via a script.
You cannot use SNU to design the SuperSTAR database. You need to do one of the following before you can run a build with SNU:
- Design the SuperSTAR database using the SuperCHANNEL GUI first, then save your settings and use the saved XML project file as input to SNU; or
- Set up registry tables in the source database and table joins that fully describe the required structure of the target database. See Channelling Without a Project File for more information about this option.
As with the SuperCHANNEL GUI, SNU uses JDBC drivers to connect to the source and target databases:
An XML project file saved from the SuperCHANNEL GUI contains all the information required to build the target database, including:
- Locations and connection strings for the source and target databases.
- SXV4 database structure, including which tables are fact and classification tables, and which columns are classifications or measures.
- Other settings for the build, such as the cleansing actions to apply, commit point settings, data type mappings and the grouping structure of the output fields.
The JDBC driver details need to be configured in snu.bat. This is in addition to the JDBC configuration for the SuperCHANNEL GUI. See JDBC Drivers for more information on this step.
Advantages of SNU
There are a number of reasons why you might want to use SNU instead of the SuperCHANNEL GUI:
| Build Process Automation | SNU can be called from batch files or scripts and can therefore be used to automate or schedule the build process. |
|---|---|
| Performance | Channelling using SNU is quicker than using the SuperCHANNEL GUI. |
| Channelling on non-Microsoft Platforms | The SNU command line utility also provides a way to build target databases on non-Microsoft Windows platforms such as Linux. The SuperCHANNEL GUI application is only available on Windows, so you will still need to design the database in SuperCHANNEL on Windows. However, once you have completed the design you can move your project file to the non-Windows platform and use SNU to build the database. You will need to make some minor changes to the project file when using it on non-Windows platforms. See Channelling on non-Microsoft Platforms for more information. |
Next Steps...
- See a full list of all the available command line options.
- See some examples of using SNU.
- Learn more about using the project file on non-Microsoft platforms.
- Learn about channelling without a project file.