Data Transformation Engine What's New Reference Guide

Chapter 7 – Version 6.0 Mercator Design Studio Enhancements
What's New Reference Guide
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Date & Time Separator Character Restriction Removed
Enhancements to custom Date & Time formats now allow additional characters,
such as an alphabetic separator:
2001-01-23T10:32:59-0500 in ISO 8601 format
Comment Type Folded in a New Floating Component
The Version 5.0 Comment Type properties have been incorporated into a more
robust Floating Component property in Version 6.0. Earlier version type trees
are automatically converted to the new property when a type tree is opened in
Version 6.0.
A floating component can be specified for implicit sequence group definitions,
choice groups, and unordered groups. During run-time, a floating component can
appear after an initiator, after each component, or both.
The XML DTD Importer, for example, now uses the floating component property
for XML elements whose content contains other elements. For such XML element
definitions, a floating component can be a choice of XML comments and/or XML
processing instructions.
All Items Can Now Have A Default Value
New in Version 6.0, an item property can include a default value which, when used
in conjunction with the new
DEFAULT function to allow a user the option to map
the default value, can provide the default value whether an input item exists or
not.
Improved Logical Type Analysis
The methods used by the Type Analyzer to determine distinguishable data objects
have been enhanced to include support for context sensitive initiators and content.
Initiator-distinguishable Types
In versions prior to 6.0, types distinguishable by initiators relied on mutually
exclusive initiators for partitions of the same partitioned type. Now, component
types are analyzed in the context in which they are used to determine if the
initiator of the type of that component is sufficient to distinguish data of that type
from other data that may appear at the same point in a data stream.