Fact Table Loader

The Fact Table Loader object in the Data Warehouse section of the toolbox allows you to write data to a fact table. You can connect to a deployed model and then choose a fact table in that you want to write your data.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at how you can configure and use the Fact Table Loader object in Astera.

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Example

Here, we have a sample dimensional model that has been deployed on the server.

This model contains four dimension entities, one fact entity, and a date dimension entity. In this example, we’ll be loading data into the Sale fact entity using the Fact Table Loader object.

Configuring the Fact Table Loader Object

1. To get the Fact Table Loader object from the toolbox, go to Toolbox > Data Warehouse > Fact Table Loader.

1. Drag and drop the Fact Table Loader object onto the dataflow designer.

This object is currently empty because we have yet to configure it.

1. To open the properties window of the Fact Table Loader object, right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu. Alternatively, you can double-click on the object.

A configuration window will appear on your screen.

Using this window, you can configure the Fact Table Loader object.

1. On the Database Connection screen, you’ll notice that the Data Provider dropdown menu is limited to just one option: Astera Data Model. This option represents the data models that are deployed on the server and are available for usage.

Once you’ve provided your Astera credentials and a server connection, you can select a deployed model from the Database dropdown menu.

Note: The default username is admin, and the default password is Admin123.

In this case, we’ll select DW_Sale, which represents the dimensional model that we saw earlier.

1. On the Pick Table screen, you can pick a table from the fact entities present in the deployed model that you’ve chosen.

The Pick Table dropdown menu allows you to choose from the fact entities in the model.

In this case, there’s only one fact table, titled Sale, in the deployed dimensional model. Therefore, we’ll pick that table from the menu.

Once you’ve chosen a fact table, click Next.

1. On the Layout Builder screen, you can view the layout of the entity, including the characteristics and roles of each field. However, you cannot modify the layout of the entity from this screen.

Click OK to close the configuration window.

The Fact Table Loader object has now been configured and you’ll be able to see all of the fields in the object layout.

You can now map the incoming source data to each relevant field.

1. Choose a relevant source object from the toolbox and configure it so as to extract the source data. In this case, we’ll use a Data Model Query object to extract data from multiple tables in the source deployment, and then map the relevant fields to the Fact Table Loader object.

To learn more about the Data Model Query object, click here.

You can now run the dataflow to load data into the fact table.