Astera Data Stack is built on a client-server architecture. The client is the part of the application which a user can run locally on their machine, whereas the server performs processing and querying requested by the client. In simple words, the client sends a request to the server, and the server, in turn, responds to the request. Therefore, database drivers are installed only on the Astera Data Stack server. This enables horizontal scaling by adding multiple clients to an existing cluster of servers and eliminating the need to install drivers on every machine.

The Astera client and server applications communicate on REST architecture. REST-compliant systems, often called RESTful systems, are characterized by statelessness and separate concerns of the client and server, which means that the implementation of both can be done independently if each side knows what format of messages to send to the other. The server communicates with the client using HTTPS commands, which are encrypted using a certified key/certificate signed by an authority. This saves the data from being intercepted by an attacker as the plaintext is encrypted as a random string of characters.

After you have successfully installed Express, open the application and you will see the User Logon screen as pictured below.

1. You can skip the log on or proceed with your preferred log on method.

2. Astera offers two methods to create your account:

   • Sign Up with Microsoft – Useful for users who have an active Microsoft account. No separate sign-up is required, since your Microsoft account already exists and can be used directly for login.

   • Sign Up with Email – Suitable for any other email domains. In this case, you will have to Create an account to complete the account creation process. This step is necessary because Email Authentication requires registration in our Azure tenant. Once created, your email is added both to our database and to the Azure directory.

1. Select your preferred method and go through the MFA steps.

2. Once you have signed up, the designer will launch. You can now start preparing your data.

Logging in from the designer

1. To log in from the designer, click the profile dropdown and select Log in.

1. This will direct you to a login screen where you can provide your user credentials.

1. After you log in, you can click the Create New Chat button in the Dataprep AI Agent panel to begin chatting with the agent.

This release is a major milestone for Astera, introducing:

• Astera Cloud - A comprehensive cloud-native platform that combines our different product offerings into a unified web-based portal. The portal serves as a single hub enabling users to sign up for a personalized experience with our products, download and get started using the right product in the configuration that best fits their needs, and handle administrative tasks such as adding or managing other users. The platform now supports both Dataprep and ReportMiner with scalable cloud infrastructure, dedicated storage, and seamless asset management.

• Astera Express Editions - Lightweight versions of our core products designed for faster onboarding and streamlined usage scenarios. These editions remove complexity barriers while maintaining the essential functionality organizations need to get started quickly with data integration and processing tasks.

• Astera Dataprep - Our first AI-powered self-service data preparation tool that empowers business users to clean, transform, and prepare their data without requiring technical expertise. This intelligent solution automates complex data preparation tasks while providing an intuitive interface for users at any skill level.

Together, these offerings make it easier than ever for organizations to access, manage, and prepare their data without worrying about infrastructure or complex technical processes. With cloud-native deployments and intuitive data preparation capabilities, this release democratizes data management and processing for organizations of all sizes.

Astera Cloud

Astera Cloud extends our platform beyond traditional on-premise deployments, allowing teams to leverage the full power of Astera without managing infrastructure. Preconfigured and optimized cloud servers let users focus on designing and running data flows instead of handling server resources.

Key Features

• Lightweight Client Installation: Install the client designer locally and continue working with the familiar drag-and-drop interface to build data flows, workflows, and more.

• Server-Side Execution: All execution, scheduling, and processing runs on managed cloud infrastructure, minimizing local resource usage.

• Scalable Infrastructure: Cloud servers automatically adjust to workload demands, ensuring reliable performance without capacity planning.

With this release, Astera Cloud now supports both Dataprep and ReportMiner, giving users the flexibility to prepare, extract, and integrate data seamlessly in the cloud.

Web-Based Management Portal

The Astera Cloud experience is managed through a unified web-based portal that streamlines deployment, administration, and subscription management without the need for lengthy procurement cycles. This single interface provides:

• User Configuration: Create and manage accounts with role-based permissions and access controls

• Client Downloads: Access and download client applications

The portal provides a seamless experience in managing your complete Astera Cloud experience from one centralized location.

Astera Express Editions

To simplify onboarding and accelerate adoption, Express editions are now available for both Dataprep and ReportMiner. These lightweight versions are designed for faster setup, simplified usage, and entry-level scenarios.

• Dataprep Express: Quick access to AI-powered data preparation for smaller datasets and business use cases.

• ReportMiner Express: Streamlined data extraction for simpler scenarios, without the overhead of advanced template management.

By default, the Express editions use local storage, with an option to connect to the cloud

Astera Dataprep (New Release)

We are proud to introduce Astera Dataprep, the fastest and simplest way to prepare data for analysis through an AI-powered, chat-based interface. Available on Astera Cloud as well as in the lightweight Dataprep Express edition, it enables both business and technical users to clean, transform, and prepare data by interacting with the AI agent using natural language instructions.

Key Features

• AI-Powered Chat Interface: Prepare data effortlessly with natural language instructions

• Preview-Centric Tabular View: See real-time data changes with every action.

• Flexible Import and Export Options: Work with Excel, CSV/TXT, and major databases (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL).

• Instant Data Profiling: Gain insights into data quality, structure, and patterns instantly with real-time graphical profiles and chat-based analysis.

This concludes the Astera 12.0 Release Notes.

The Astera Cloud Portal provides secure access for managing your data integration projects in the cloud. In this document, we will walk through the steps to create an account on the Cloud Portal.

1. Go to cloudastera.com.

2. Click Create an account.
3. Astera offers two methods to create your account:

   • Sign Up with Microsoft – Useful for users who have an active Microsoft account.

   • Sign Up with Email – Suitable for any other email domains.

   Select your preferred method and go through the MFA steps.

4. Once you have signed up, Step 2: Profile will appear. Enter your First Name and Last Name here.
5. Click Start Trial, you will be directed to the portal home page

You can now launch your designer by clicking Launch Designer to start designing data integration flows in Astera.

In this section we will discuss how to install and configure Astera Dataprep Express.

How to Install Astera Dataprep Express

1. Run ‘DataprepExpress.exe’ from the installation package to start the express installation setup.

2. Astera Software License Agreement window will appear; check I agree to the license terms and conditions checkbox, then click Install.

1. When the installation is successfully completed, click Close.

You can connect to different servers right from the Server Explorer window in the Client. Go to the Server Explorer window and click on the Connect to Server icon.

A prompt will appear that will confirm if you want to disconnect from the current Server and establish connection to a different server. Click Yes to proceed.

You will be directed to the Server Connection screen. Enter the required server information (Server URI and Port Number) to connect to the server and click Connect.

If the connection is successfully established, you should be able to see the connected server in the Server Explorer window.

Data pipelines in Astera, are designed in the Designer. The designer is a desktop based interface where users can design and test their pipelines before they run them on the cloud server.

1. To get started, you need to launch your designer from the portal by clicking on Launch Designer.

1. The launch designer screen will appear, which will automatically open the designer if previously downloaded. If not, download it by clicking the Download button.

1. The download button will download an executable, run the executable.

2. Astera Software License Agreement window will appear; check I agree to the license terms and conditions checkbox, then click Install.

1. When the installation is successfully completed, click Close.

1. The designer will now launch automatically.

The designer has successfully launched; you can now start preparing your data.

In some cases, it may be necessary to supply a license key without prompting the end user to do so. For example, in a scenario where the end user does not have access to install software, a systems administrator may do this as part of a script.

One possible solution is to place the license key in a text file. This way, the administrator can easily license each machine without having to go through the licensing prompt for each user.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to supplying a license key without prompting the user:

Step 1: Create a New Text Document

To get started, create a new text document that will hold the license key required to access the application.

Step 2: Enter the License Key

In the text document, enter a valid license key. The key must be the only thing in the document, and it must be on the very first line. Make sure there are no unnecessary leading or trailing spaces, lines, or any characters other than those of the license key.

Step 3: Save the Text Document by the name “Serial” in the Server Application Folder

Name the text document “Serial” and save it in the Integration Server Folder of the application located in Program Files on your PC. For instance, if the application is Astera, save the Text Document in the “Astera Integration Server 10” folder. This folder contains the files and settings for the server application. The directory path would be as follows:

C:\Program Files\Astera Software\Astera Integration Server 10.

Step 4: Restart the Service

Finally, restart the Astera Integration Server 10 service to complete the process. This step ensures that, from now on, when the user launches Astera or any other application by Astera, they will not be prompted to enter a license key.

Also, please keep in mind that all license restrictions are still in effect, and this process only bypasses the user prompt for the key.

In conclusion, by following these simple steps, system administrators can easily supply a license key without prompting the end user. This approach is particularly useful when installing software remotely or when licensing multiple machines.

The Python server is embedded in the Astera server and is required to use the Text Converter object in the tool. It is disabled by default, and this document will guide us through the process of enabling it.

Steps

1. Launch the client and navigate to Server > Manage > Server Properties.

1. In the Server Properties, check the Start Python Server checkbox and press Ctrl + S to save your changes.

1. Now open the Start Menu > Services and restart the service of Astera Integration Server 11.1.

1. After restarting the service, wait for a few minutes and run cmd as administrator.

1. Typenetstat -ano | findstr :5001 command in the command prompt to check if your python server is running.

We’ve successfully enabled the Python server. You can now close this window and use any python server dependent features in the Client.

1. In order to access the install manager on the sever machine, open start and search for “Install Manager for Integration Server”.

1. Run this Install Manager as admin.

2. The Install Manager welcome window will appear. Click on Next.

1. If the prerequisite packages are already installed, the Install Manager will inform you about them and give you the option to uninstall or update them as needed.

2. If the prerequisite packages are not installed, then the Install Manager will present you with the option to install them. Check the box next to the pre-requisite package, and then click on Install.

1. During the installation, the Install Manager window will display a progress bar showing the installation progress.

You can also cancel the installation at any point if necessary.

1. Once the installation is complete, the Install Manager will prompt you. Click on Close to exit out of the Install Manager.

This concludes our discussion on how to use the install manager for Astera.

Once you have created the repository and configured the server, the next step is to login using your Astera account credentials.

You will not be able to design any dataflows or workflows on the client if you haven’t logged in to your Astera account. The options will be disabled.

Log in to your user account

1. Go to Server > Configure > Step 2: Login as admin.

1. This will direct you to a login screen where you can provide your user credentials.

If you are using Astera 10 for the first time, you can login using the default credentials as follows:

Username: admin Password: Admin123

After you log in, you will see that the options in the Astera Client are enabled.

You can use these options until your trial period is active. For fully activating the options and the product, you’ll have to enter your license.

How to automatically reconnect on client startup

If you don’t want Astera to show you the server connection screen every time you run the client application, you can skip that by modifying the settings.

To do that go to Tools > Options > Client Startup and select the Auto Connect to Server option. On enabling the option, Astera will store the server details you entered previously and will use those details to automatically reconnect to the server every time you run the application.

The next step after logging in is to unlock Astera using the License key.

In this section we will discuss how to install and configure Astera Server and Client applications.

How to Install Astera Server

1. Run ‘IntegrationServer.exe’ from the installation package to start the server installation setup.

2. Astera Software License Agreement window will appear; check I agree to the license terms and conditions checkbox, then click Install.

1. Your server installation has been completed. If you want to use advanced features such as OCR, Text Converter, etc, click on Install Python Server and follow the steps .

How to install Astera Client

1. Run the ‘ReportMiner’ application from the installation package to start the client installation setup.

2. Astera Software License Agreement window will appear; check I agree to the license terms and conditions checkbox, then click Install.

1. When the installation is successfully completed, click Close.

How to connect to an Astera Server from the Client Startup Screen

After you have successfully installed Astera client and server applications, open the client application and you will see the Server Connection screen as pictured below.

Enter the Server URI and Port Number to establish the connection.

The server URI will be the IP address of the machine where Astera Integration server is installed.

Server URI: (HTTPS://IP_address)

The default port for the secure connection between the client and the Astera Integration server is 9264.

If you have connected to any server recently, you can automatically connect to that server by selecting that server from the Recently Used drop-down list.

Click Connect after you have filled out the information required.

The client will now connect to the selected server. You should be able to see the server listed in the Server Explorer tree when the client application opens.

To open Server Explorer go to Server > Server Explorer or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + E.

Before you can start working with the Astera client, you will have to create a repository and configure the server.

Existing Astera customers can upgrade to the latest version of Astera Data Stack by executing an exe. script, which automates the repository update to the latest release. This streamlined approach enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the upgrade process, ensuring a smoother transition for users.

1. To start, download and run the latest server and client installers to upgrade the build.

1. Run the Repository Upgrade Utility to upgrade the repository.

1. Once run, you will be faced with the following prompt.

Click OK and the repository will be upgraded.

Once done, you will be able to view all jobs, schedules, and deployments that you previously worked with in the Job Monitor, Scheduler, and Deployment windows.

This concludes the working of the Repository Upgrade Utility in Astera Data Stack.

Before you start using the Astera server, a repository must be set up. Astera supports SQL Server and PostgreSQL for building cluster databases, which can then be used for maintaining the repository. The repository is where job logs, job queues, and schedules are kept.

To see these options, go to Server > Configure > Step 1: Build repository database and configure server.

The first step is to point to the SQL Server or PostgreSQL instance where you want to build the repository and provide the credentials to establish the connection.

Single license key model

The license key provided to you contains information about how many Astera clients can connect to a single server as well as the functionality available to the connected clients.

1. Open Astera as an administrator.

2. Once Astera is open, go to the Tools > Run Install Manager.

1. The Install Manager welcome window will appear. Click on Next.

Astera Cloud allows you to seamlessly transfer content between your local machine and the cloud environment. Whether bringing local files into Astera Designer or saving work back to your system, the Designer offers intuitive tools for efficient content management. This document explains how to perform both upload and download operations.

Managing user access in Astera Cloud Portal is user-centric and allows you to efficiently control who can access your cloud resources. This guide will walk you through the process of managing users in your Organization.

User Management

1. Let's begin by navigating to the User Management section in your Astera Cloud Portal. Here, you'll see the User Management interface displaying existing users and their roles

1. To add a new user to your portal, click on the Invite User button.

2. The Add User pop-up will appear. Here, you'll need to provide the following information:

• Email Address: Enter the email address of the user you want to invite

• Role Assignment: You can assign one of two roles to the new user:

  • Admin: Provides full administrative access to the portal, including the ability to manage other users, access all resources, and modify settings

  • User: Provides standard user access with limited administrative privileges

• Click Send Invite to send an invitation email to the new user. A success message will appear notifying if the email was sent successfully.

The user will now be able to accept the invitation and login to this organization.

Managing Invitations

After sending an invitation, you can monitor the status of your invites in the Invited section.

The interface displays several important details about each user:

• Email: The user's email address

• Roles: Displays the assigned role (Admin or User)

• Status: Shows whether the user is Active, Accepted or Cancelled

  • Active: The invitation has been sent but not yet accepted

Managing Existing Users

Once users have accepted their invitations and are part of your organization, an Admin can manage their access and roles as needed in the Users section.

In the Actions column for each active user, you'll find a menu with the following options:

• Delete: Permanently removes the user from the organization

• Deactivate: Temporarily disables the user's access without removing them

• Make Admin: Promotes a regular user to admin role

Getting Started!

Artifacts

Once you have logged into the Astera client, you can set up an admin email to access the Astera server. This will also allow you to be able to use the “Forgot Password” option at the time of log in.

In this document, we will discuss how to verify admin email in Astera.

Verifying Admin Email

1. Once logged in, we will now proceed to enter an email address to associate with the admin user by verifying the email address.

Go to Server > Configure > Step 3: Verify Admin Email

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Distinct transformation in Astera Dataprep to remove duplicate rows based on selected columns, ensuring your dataset contains only unique records.

1. To apply Distinct in Astera Dataprep, click on the Transform option in the toolbar and select Distinct from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Distinct panel will open.

In order for advanced features such as AGL, OCR and Text Converter to work in Astera, different packages are required to be installed, such as Python, Java etc. To avoid the tedious process of separately installing these, Astera provides a built in Install Manager in your tool.

There are two types of packages which are required to be installed:

• Prerequisites for Python Server: This package is required to be installed on server machine only.

• Prerequisites for ReportMiner: This package is required to be installed on client and server machine.

The packages being installed for AGL are listed as follows:

• is installed

• with the following packages:

  • ​

  • ​

The packages being installed for OCR are listed as follows:

• Python packages

The packages being installed for Python Server are listed as follows:

• Python Server executable is installed (comes with all packages necessary for Python Server)

In the following documents, we will look at how to use the install manager to install these packages on client and server machines.

This article introduces the role-based access control mechanism in Astera. This means that administrators can grant or restrict access to various users within the organization, based on their role in the entire data management cycle.

In this article, we will look at the user lists and role management features in detail.

How to Create a New User

Username: admin

Password: Admin123

Once you have logged in, you now have the option to create new users and we recommend you to do this as a first step.

1. To create/register a new user, right-click on the DEFAULT server node in the Server Explorer window and select User List from the context menu.

This will open the Server Browser panel.

1. Under the Security node, right-click on the User node and select Register User from the context menu.

This will open a new window. You can see quite a few fields required to be filled here to register a new user.

1. Once the fields have been filled, click Register and a new user will be registered.

How to Assign User Roles

Now that a new user is registered, the next step is assign roles to the user.

1. Select the user you want to assign the role(s) to and right-click on it. From the context menu, select Edit User Roles.

A new window will open where you can see all roles that are there by default in Astera or are custom created. We haven’t created any custom role, so we’ll see the three default roles that are - Developer, Operator, and Root.

1. Select the role that you want to assign to the user and click on the arrows in the middle section of the screen. You’ll see that the selected role will get transferred from the All Roles section to the User Roles section.

1. After you have assigned the roles. click OK and the specific role(s) will be assigned to the user.

Managing Role Resources

Astera lets the admin manage resources allowed to any user. They can assign permissions of resources or they can restrict resources.

1. To edit role resources, right-click on any of the roles and select Edit Role Resources from the context menu.

This will open a new window. Here, you can see four nodes on the left under which resources can be assigned,

The admin can provide a role with resources from the Url node, the Cmd node, access to deployments from the REST node and access to Catalog aritfacts from the Catalog Node.

Expanding the Url node shows us the following resources,

Expanding the Cmd node will give us the following checkboxes as resources.

If we expand the REST checkbox, we can see a list of available API resources, including endpoints you might have deployed.

Upon expanding the Catalog node, we can see the artifacts that have been added to the Catalog, along with which endpoint permissions are to be given.

This concludes User Roles and Access Control in Astera Data Stack.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Stack transformation in Astera Dataprep to combine multiple columns into a single column for easier analysis.

Suppose you have a dataset containing patient glucose readings across different times of the day. By applying Stack, you can merge these time-specific columns into one Glucose Level column, with an additional Category column indicating the time of measurement, making the data easier to analyze and visualize.

1. To apply Stack in Astera Dataprep, click on the Transform option in the toolbar and select Stack from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Stack panel will open.

• Column Name: Select the column(s) you want to stack.

• Stacking Option: Defines how values and identifiers are combined when stacking columns.

  • Repeat: Repeats identifier or reference values for each stacked entry.

• Category: Specify the category column to label each stacked group.

1. Once done, click Apply.

2. Now, in the grid, you can see that all glucose measurements are combined into a single column, with a corresponding category indicating the time of day they were taken.

In this document, you will explore how to aggregate in Astera Dataprep.   

1. To aggregate in Astera Dataprep, you can click on the Transform option in the toolbar and select Aggregate option from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Aggregate panel will open.

1. Here, you can configure the Aggregate section by selecting column names in the Name drop-down, adding any expressions in the Calculation column, and selecting an Aggregate Function from the drop-down with all the aggregate functions.

1. Once done, you can click on Apply

Now, in the grid, you can see that the columns have been grouped by the EmployeeID and a Count aggregate function has been applied to the OrderID field.

This concludes the document on using Aggregate in Astera Dataprep.

In this document, we will explore how to concatenate columns in Astera Dataprep.  

1. To begin, click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select the Concatenate Columns option from the drop-down. 

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Concatenate Columns panel.

1. In this panel, you can configure the following:

• New Column Name: Enter a name for the new column that will hold the combined values.

• Delimiter: Specify the character (such as a space, comma, or dash) that should separate the values.

• Column Name(s): Use the drop-down to select the columns you want to concatenate.

1. Once you're done, click Apply . The new column will appear in the Grid, showing the combined values. For example, a new PC_Country column.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Find and Replace function in Astera Dataprep to search for specific values and replace them with new ones across your dataset.

1. To begin, click on the Cleanse option in the toolbar and select Find and Replace from the drop-down.

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Find and Replace panel.

1. In this panel, you’ll configure the following options:

• Column Selection Properties

  • Apply to entire dataset: Applies the find and replace action to all columns.

  • Apply to specific column(s): Applies the action to selected columns only.

• Find and Replace

1. Once you’re done, click Apply . In the Grid, you’ll see that all matching values have been replaced accordingly in the selected column(s).

1. Alternatively, you can right-click on any column header in the Grid and go to Cleanse > Find and Replace. The same configuration panel will appear with the column already selected. Make any changes you need and click Apply to update your data.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Filter transformation in Astera Dataprep to include or exclude records based on a specified condition within your Dataprep Recipe.

Suppose you have a dataset of transactions, but some rows have missing transaction amounts. These incomplete records could lead to incorrect revenue calculations. By applying a filter, you can remove rows where the transaction amount is missing, ensuring that only valid transactions are included in the analysis.

1. To filter in Astera Dataprep, click on the Transform option in the toolbar and select Filter from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Filter panel will open.

Filter Condition: Here, you can configure the Filter section by entering a condition to include or exclude records.

1. Click on the three dots to open Expression Builder. Here you can either write your own expression or choose from the built-in functions' library. For example, to remove rows where the Amount field is missing, you can enter: Amount IS NOT null

2. Once done, click Apply.

3. Now, in the grid, you can see that only records meeting the specified condition remain in the dataset.

Astera Dataprep makes it easy to connect to and work with databases. You can connect, browse, and start preparing your data within a few clicks.

Option 1: Read a Database Using Chat

1. Start by creating a database connection as a shared action in your project. This allows you to reuse the connection throughout your project. To learn how to create a database connection, click here.

2. Ask in chat to read your desired table.

This approach is ideal if you prefer working through natural language and want to quickly load data from your connected databases without manual browsing.

Option 2: Use the Data Source Browser

1. Open the Data Source Browser.

1. Click the Add Data Source dropdown and choose Add Database Connection.

Note: When working with Astera Cloud, local (on-premises) databases will not be accessible.

1. Once your connection is added, browse through the list of tables and simply drag and drop the required table into your dataflow. This creates a shared action automatically in your project ready to be used for reading.

The table is now ready for filtering, cleaning, or transforming, just like any other dataset.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Remove function in Astera Dataprep to clean unwanted characters from your data.   

1. To begin, click on the Cleanse option in the toolbar and select Remove from the drop-down.  

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Remove panel.

1. In this panel, you’ll configure the following options:

• Apply to entire dataset: The changes will be applied to the entire dataset.

• Apply to specific column(s): Allows you to apply changes to specific columns.

Under the Remove section, you can choose what to remove:

• All whitespaces

• Leading and trailing whitespaces

• Tabs and line breaks

• Duplicate whitespaces

1. Once you’re done, click Apply. For example, in our use case the Grid will show that all whitespaces and hyphens ("-") have been removed from the ShipPostalCode column.

1. Alternatively, you can right-click on a column in the Grid and go to Cleanse > Remove. The same configuration panel will appear with the column already selected. Make any changes you need and click Apply to clean the data.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Change Case function in Astera Dataprep to convert text data to lower, upper, or title case.   

1. To begin, click on the Cleanse option in the toolbar and select Change Case from the drop-down.  

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Change Case panel.

1. In this panel, you’ll configure the following options:

• Column Selection Properties

  • Apply to entire dataset: Applies the case change to all columns in the dataset.

  • Apply to specific column(s) – Applies the change only to selected columns.

• Case Type

  • Lower: Converts all text to lowercase.

  • Upper: Converts all text to uppercase.

  • Title: Capitalizes the first letter of each word.

1. Once you’re done, click Apply . In the Grid, you’ll see that the data in the StoreName column has been converted to uppercase.

1. Alternatively, you can right-click on a column header in the Grid and select Cleanse > Change Case. The same configuration panel will appear with the column already selected. Make any changes you need and click Apply to update your data.

In this document, you will explore how to split columns in Astera Dataprep.   

1. To split columns in Astera Dataprep, click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select the Split Columns option from the drop-down.

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Split Columns panel.

1. In this panel, you can configure the following options:

• Column Name: Choose the column you want to split.

• Delimiter: Enter the character (like a space, comma, or dash) that separates the values.

• New Column Names: Specify the names for the new columns that will hold the split values.

1. Once you're done, click Apply . You’ll see in the Grid that your selected column (for example, CustomerName) has been split into new columns (like FirstName and LastName) based on the delimiter you provided.

1. Alternatively, you can right-click on a column header directly in the Grid and select Split Columns from the menu. The configuration panel will open with the selected column pre-filled. Make any changes you need and click Apply to split the column.

In this document, you will explore how to move a column to a new position in Astera Dataprep.

1. To move a column in Astera Dataprep you can click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select Move Column from the drop-down.

Alternatively, you can also right-click on the column header that you want to move to a new position and select Move Column and the required position from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Move Column panel will open. Here, you can specify the Name and Position of the column.

• Position: Consists of various options which can be selected to move columns to different positions.

  • Start: Moves the column to the start of the dataset.

  • End: Moves the column to the end of the dataset.

  • Right Displacement:

1. Once the necessary configurations have been made, you can select Apply to move the column to your desired position.

1. You can also move a column within the Grid itself. To do this, you simply drag-and-drop the column to a new position. When dragging a column, a black line appears to indicate the drop position.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Compute All function in Astera Dataprep to apply an expression across all fields in your dataset.

1. To begin, click on the Cleanse option in the toolbar and select Compute All from the drop-down.

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Compute panel.

1. Click on the button to open the Expression Builder window.

1. In this example, we have mapped a regular expression to the “$FieldValue” parameter.

1. Click OK and the expression will appear in the Recipe Configuration – Compute panel.

1. Once you’re done, click Apply. In the Grid, you’ll see that all white spaces in every field have been replaced with single spaces.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Replace Null Values function in Astera Dataprep to handle missing data by replacing null strings or numerics with default values.

1. To begin, click on the Cleanse option in the toolbar and select Replace Null Values from the drop-down.

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Replace Null Values panel.

1. In this panel, you’ll configure the following options:

• Column Section Properties:

  • Apply to entire dataset: The changes will be applied to the entire dataset.

  • Apply to specific column(s): Allows you to apply changes to selected columns only.

• Replace Nulls:

1. Once you’re done, click Apply. In the Grid, you’ll see that all specified null values have been replaced accordingly.

1. Alternatively, you can right-click on a column in the Grid and go to Cleanse > Replace Null Values. The same configuration panel will appear with the column already selected. Make any changes you need and click Apply to update your data.

Astera Dataprep streamlines data cleansing, transformation, and preparation within the Astera platform. With an intuitive interface and data previews, it simplifies complex tasks like data ingestion, cleaning, transformation, and consolidation.

With the AI-powered chat interface, users can describe data preparation tasks in plain language, and the system automatically applies the right transformations and filters, reducing the learning curve and accelerating the process.

Astera Dataprep is essential for optimizing data processes, ensuring clean, transformed, and integrated data is ready for analysis.

Key Features of Astera Dataprep:

To activate Astera on your machine, you need to enter the license key provided with the product. When the license key is entered, the client sends a request to the licensing server to grant the permission to connect. This action can only be performed when the client machine is connected to the internet.

However, Astera provides an alternative method to activate the license offline by providing an activation code to the users who request for it. Follow the steps given below for offline activation:

1. Go to the menu bar and click on Server > Configure > Step 4: Enter License Key

2. Click on Unlock using a key.

3. Type your Name, Organization and paste the Key provided to you. Then, click Unlock. Do the same if you are changing (instead of activating) your license offline.

The Dataprep Recipe panel is a workspace where you can visualize and manage all data preparation tasks applied to your datasets. This panel is at the core of the data preparation process, providing a clear view of each step taken.

This panel displays a flow of all operations performed on the dataset, with each task shown as a distinct step in the sequence. You can follow a step-by-step workflow, making it easier to understand the impact of each action. This approach ensures that each data preparation task is applied methodically and can be reviewed at any point.

To navigate to the Dataprep Recipe panel, go to View > Dataprep > Dataprep Recipe.

The panel is interactive, allowing you to click on any step to review or modify it. Clicking on the Expand All option allows you to get a more detailed view of a data preparation task.

This provides flexibility, enabling users to adjust their data preparation process as needed.

Maintaining high data quality is crucial for accurate analysis and decision-making. The Dataprep Profile Browser panel and active profiling provide real-time insights into data health, assisting in data cleaning and transformation while ensuring the data meets quality standards. Key features include real-time monitoring, evaluation of cleanliness, uniqueness, and completeness, helping you quickly identify and address issues to maintain data integrity and reliability.

This Dataprep Profile Browser panel, displayed as a side window, offers visual and tabular representations of data quality metrics, helping you assess data health, detect issues, and gain valuable insights.

Key Features:

Comprehensive Data View: The Profile Browser provides a holistic view of the dataset with graphs, charts, and field-level profile tables, making it easier for you to understand and analyze data quality.

Field-Level Insights: Detailed profile tables offer granular insights into each data column, helping you pinpoint specific issues and their impact.

The Dataprep Profile Browser panel toolbar provides options for different views of the data:

In this document, you will explore how to add a column in Astera Dataprep.

1. To add a column, click Layout in the toolbar and select Add Column.

1. Once done, the Recipe Configuration – Add Column panel will open.

In this document, you will explore how to route datasets in Astera Dataprep. A Route transformation routes the data to multiple datasets based on custom decision logic expressed as rules or expressions. This allows the creation of multiple sub-datasets from the main dataset with records being directed to different datasets based on specified conditions.

1. Open a Recipe in Astera Dataprep.

1. Navigate to the Toolbar and select Transform > Route.

In this document, you explore how to make changes to a column in Astera Dataprep.

1. To change a column, select the Layout option in the toolbar and select Change Column from the drop-down.

Alternatively, you can also right-click on the column you need to change and select the Change Column option from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Change Column

In this document, you will explore how to remove columns in Astera Dataprep.

1. To begin, open your recipe in Astera Dataprep. Then, click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select Remove Columns from the drop-down.

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Remove Columns panel.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Unstack transformation in Astera Dataprep to convert values from a single column into multiple columns, making it easier to compare data side by side.

Suppose you have a dataset containing education-related statistics for multiple countries, with columns for Country, ISO_Code, Year, and LAYS. Each country has separate rows for different years. For example, 2017, 2018, and 2020.

1. To unstack data in Astera Dataprep, click on the Transform option in the toolbar and select Unstack from the drop-down.

Astera Dataprep features a preview-centric grid, an Excel-like, dynamic, and interactive grid that updates in real time. This interface, with its familiar rows and columns layout, allows for easy navigation and data manipulation, mimicking the traditional spreadsheet format. It displays transformed data immediately after each operation, providing you with an instant preview. This allows you to see the impact of their transformations right away, enabling quick verification and ensuring that changes are applied correctly.

You can directly apply transformations to columns by right clicking the column header and selecting the required transformation.

If multiple columns are selected when right clicking, different transformations are available for application. For example, Concatenate Columns.

You can rename columns by double clicking the column headers.

To change a column’s data type, you can select the data type icon next to the column name and select a different data type from the drop-down menu.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Join function in Astera Dataprep to combine a dataset from a database table in a shared connection with an existing dataset in your Dataprep Recipe.

Use Case

In this use case, we have a Dataprep Recipe where a company’s Customers dataset has been cleansed. Now, they want to join it with their Orders dataset, which is stored in a database table accessible through a shared connection in the project.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Lookup transformation in Astera Dataprep to enrich a dataset by bringing in additional fields from another source.

Use Case

A university maintains a student's dataset, but roll numbers are stored separately. To prepare data for reporting and transcripts, the university needs to enrich the student's dataset with roll numbers, ensuring each student is matched correctly.

This lookup source may exist as a file, a shared project source or in a database table.

In this document, you will explore how to rename a column in Astera Dataprep.

1. To rename a column in Astera Dataprep click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select the Rename Column option from the drop-down.

Alternatively, you can also right-click on the column header that you want to rename and select Rename Column from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Join function in Astera Dataprep to combine two datasets within the same Dataprep Recipe.

Use Case

For this use case, we have a Dataprep Recipe where a company’s Orders and OrderDetails dataset has been cleansed, they now want to join these datasets with each other.

In this document, you will explore how to sort columns in Astera Dataprep.  

1. To sort columns in Astera Dataprep, click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select the Sort Columns option from the drop-down. 

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Sort Columns panel will open.

For you to begin preparing your data, there are some essential steps to complete before you can load files and start cleaning them. It is necessary to have a project created and a Dataprep document open within that project.

Video

Step 1: Create a New Project

Astera Dataprep supports two ways to add sources:

• By interacting with the AI-powered chat interface

• Manually through Data Source Browser

Option 1: Add Sources using Chat

You can simply ask the Dataprep chat interface to load your data by:

• Providing it the name of the source:

• Providing it the file path of your source:

The system will automatically load it as a dataset, making it ready for use in your data preparation workflow.

Option 2: Toolbar Method

1. Open Astera Dataprep.

1. Navigate to the Toolbar and select Read > Project Source.

1. Once clicked, the recipe action is added to the Recipe Panel. Here, we have to configure the options to read the Project Source.

The options to be configured are:

• Filter Source: This dropdown filters the type of shared sources you will be able to view and choose in the Shared Source options. Options are:

  • All: Shows all shared sources.

  • Excel Source: Shows only Excel sources.

  • Delimited Source

• Shared Source: This dropdown shows the shared sources in the project (after filtering has been applied) that you can read.

• Dataset Name: This is the name given to the dataset. You can configure this to be able to use the dataset separately elsewhere. The dataset name is auto filled and defaults to the name of the selected shared source. However, this name can be changed as needed.

1. Click Apply to apply the changes or Cancel to discard them.

2. Once you click Apply, the dataset will now be visible in Astera Dataprep, and further data processing can be applied to it.

Option 3: Dataprep Grid Method

1. Open the Data Source Browser and navigate to Project Sources and expand the accordion. Here you will see all the relevant supported shared sources that you can read from.

1. Drag and drop the desired source onto the Dataprep canvas. A 2x2 matrix will appear. Drop the source onto the Read option within the matrix.

1. Click Apply to apply the changes or Cancel to discard them.

2. Once you click Apply, the source will be loaded into the Dataprep Grid, and you can begin working with it.

This concludes the document on reading a Project Source in Astera Dataprep.

The ETL and ELT functionality of Astera Data Stack is represented by Dataflows. When you open a new Dataflow, you’re provided with an empty canvas knows as the dataflow designer. This is accompanied with a Toolbox that contains an extensive variety of objects, including Sources, Destinations, Transformations, and more.

Using the Toolbox objects and the user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, you can design ETL pipelines from scratch on the Dataflow designer.

Dataflow Toolbar Commands

The Dataflow Toolbar also consists of various options.

These include:

• Undo/Redo: The Dataflow designer supports unlimited Undo and Redo capability. You can quickly Undo/Redo the last action done, or Undo/Redo several actions at once.

• Auto Layout Diagram: The Auto Layout feature allows you to arrange objects on the designer, improving its visual representation.

• Zoom (%): The Zoom feature helps you adjust the display size of the designer. Additionally, you can select a custom zoom percentage by clicking on the Zoom % input box and typing in your desired value.

In the next sections, we will go over the object-wise documentation for the various Sources, Destination, Transformations, etc., in the Dataflow Toolbox.

Report Model extracts data from an unstructured file into a structured file format using an extraction logic. It can be used through the Report Source object inside dataflows in order to leverage the advanced transformation features in Astera Data Stack.

Video

Getting Report Source Object

In this section, we will cover how to get the Report Source object onto the dataflow designer from the Toolbox.

1. To get a Report Source object from the Toolbox, go to Toolbox > Sources > Report Source. If you are unable to see the Toolbox, go to View > Toolbox or press Ctrl + Alt + X.

1. Drag-and-drop the Report Source object onto the designer.

You can see that the dragged source object is empty right now. This is because we have not configured the object yet.

Configuring the Report Source Object

1. To configure the Report Source object, right-click on its header and select Properties from the context menu.

A configuration window for Report Source will open.

1. First, provide the File Path of the unstructured file (your report) for which you have created a Report Model.

1. Then, specify the File Path for the associated Report Model.

1. Click OK, and the fields added in the extraction model will appear inside the Report Source object with a sub-node, Items_Info, in our case.

1. Right-click on the Report Source object’s header and select Preview Output from the context menu.

A Data Preview window will open and shows you the data extracted through the Report Model.

This document explains how the Validate object is used to check whether your dataset meets certain conditions or rules before you use it further in your recipe. Think of it as a way to flag rows that don’t match expectations.

Example Use Case

Suppose you are working with a customer's table. Some customers don’t provide a fax number, but your business requires it for all active customers. You can configure the Validate object to identify these missing values.

1. In the toolbar, click on Validate and select the Validate option.

1. This will open the Recipe Configuration – Validate panel.

1. In this panel, you’ll configure the following options:

• Description: Enter a meaningful name for the rule (e.g., “Missing Fax Validation”).

• Attach Rule to Field: Select a field to associate the rule with. For example, the Fax column.

• Show Message: Provide a custom error or warning message that appears when a record fails the rule.

• Severity: Choose whether a failed rule should be treated as an:

  • Error: The record is flagged and goes to the Invalid Output.

  • Warning:

1. Once you’re done, click Apply.

1. In the preview grid, records matching the "Missing Fax Validation" rule are validated. Conversely, records not matching the rule display an error, indicated by a red warning sign.

1. The records that fail to match the validation rule can be written and stored in a separate error log. Click to learn how you can store erroneous records to a log file.

In Astera Dataprep, the dataset that is most recently loaded becomes the current dataset meaning any transformation, filter, or cleansing steps you apply next will target this one. If you want to apply operations on a previously loaded dataset instead, you can use the Read Dataset step to bring it back as the current dataset.

This allows you to:

• Reuse a cleaned dataset from earlier in your dataprep flow.

• Switch focus from one dataset to another without reloading the file.

• Ensure your transformations apply to the right data.

Option 1: Read a Dataset Using Chat

Simply type your request in the Dataprep chat, such as asking to apply a transformation to a previously used dataset. It will automatically reload that dataset and perform the requested operation.

Option 2: Toolbar Method

1. Open Astera Dataprep.

1. Navigate to the Toolbar and select Read > Dataset.

1. Configure the following options in the dialog:

• Name: From the dropdown, choose the name of the dataset you want to use. This dropdown shows you all the available datasets in the project.

1. Choose the Dataset you want to read and click Apply to apply the changes or Cancel to discard them.

2. Once you click Apply, your selected dataset is now the current one. You can continue performing any transformations, joins, validations, or data quality operations on it.

This concludes the document on reading a Dataset in Astera Dataprep.

Azure authentication is a security feature that allows users to log into a system using their Microsoft Azure credentials.

Astera Data Stack leverages this authentication method and provides the option to register new users using Azure authentication through its Server Browser interface.

Configuring Azure Authentication Credentials

1. Go to Server > Cluster > Cluster Settings

Designing effective prompts is more than just asking a question, it's about how you ask it. Below are best practices to help you craft clear, purposeful instructions that consistently guide language models (LLMs) to generate high-quality output.

Understand the Task

Before writing a prompt, develop a thorough understanding of the task at hand. Review data examples or context to define the scope and desired output clearly.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Union transformation in Astera Dataprep to combine datasets from different sources with an existing dataset in your Dataprep Recipe.

Use Case

A company wants to combine its North Sales dataset with South Sales and East Sales datasets. These additional datasets may exist as files, shared project sources, or database tables. The objective is to consolidate them into a single unified dataset for analysis.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Join function in Astera Dataprep to combine a dataset from a project source with an existing dataset in your Dataprep Recipe.

Use Case

In this use case, we have a Dataprep Recipe where a company’s Customers dataset has been cleansed. Now, they want to join it with their Orders dataset, which is available in a shared project source.

In this document, you’ll learn how to use the Join function in Astera Dataprep to combine a dataset from a file source with an existing dataset in your Dataprep Recipe.

Use Case

In this use case, we have a Dataprep Recipe where a Company’s Transactions dataset has been cleansed and aggregated. Now, they want to join it with their Portfolios dataset, which is available in a csv file.

In this document, you will explore how to select columns in Astera Dataprep. Selecting columns is useful when you want to limit your dataset to only the relevant fields for analysis, transformation, or export.

1. To select columns in Astera Dataprep, click on the Layout option in the toolbar and select the Select Columns option from the drop-down.

1. Once selected, the Recipe Configuration – Select Columns panel will open.