APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DATA PROFILE BASED CONSTRUCTION OF AN EXTRACTION, TRANSFORM, LOAD (ETL) TASK

1 . A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

accept a specification of an Extraction, Transformation, Load (ETL) task associated with source data;

profile the source data to produce profiled data;

define data conformance rules from the profiled data;

generate mapping rules in accordance with the specification and data conformance rules;

utilize the mapping rules to create an ETL task.

2 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to accept a specification include executable instructions to accept the specification of a plurality of heterogeneous data sources forming the source data.

3 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the executable instructions to accept a specification include executable instructions to accept the specification of data connections to the plurality of heterogeneous data sources.

4 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to accept a specification include executable instructions to accept a collaborative specification defined by a plurality of users.

5 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein the executable instructions to accept a collaborative specification include executable instructions to accept data source characterization information for each heterogeneous data source.

6 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to accept a specification include executable instructions to accept the specification of a data target.

7 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to display profiled data reflecting data quality problems.

8 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to define data conformance rules include executable instructions to identify columns that are insignificant, duplicate or correlated.

9 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to define data conformance rules include executable instructions to determine keys on which tables can be joined and determine join relationships between tables.

10 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate mapping rules include executable instructions to accept attachments characterizing the mapping rules.

11 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate mapping rules include executable instructions to specify joins.

12 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate mapping rules include executable instructions to specify filter conditions.

13 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to generate mapping rules include executable instructions to accept expert validation of mapping rules.

14 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to supply mapping statistics.

15 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to supply project reports.

16 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to supply data source reports.

17 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to utilize the mapping rules to create an ETL task include executable instructions to create a plurality of dataflow tasks.

18 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to process the ETL task to produce a data target.

19 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 further comprising executable instructions to process the ETL task to produce a data warehouse.

20 . The computer readable storage medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to assign an identifier to an object associated with a mapping.