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Hitachi Vantara Lumada and Pentaho Documentation

PDI run modifiers

Parent article

This section describes the types of run modifiers, their uses, and configuration.

You can use arguments, parameters, or variables to modify how you run PDI transformations and jobs. Each type of modifier is defined, along with specific tips and configuration information.

Arguments

A PDI argument is a named, user-supplied, single-value input given as a command line argument (running a transformation or job manually from Pan or Kitchen, or as part of a script). Each transformation or job can have a maximum of 10 arguments. Each argument is declared as space-separated values given after the rest of the Pan or Kitchen line:

sh pan.sh -file:/example_transformations/example.ktr argOne argTwo argThree

In the above example, the values argOne, argTwo, and argThree are passed into the transformation, where they will be handled according to the way the transformation is designed. If it was not designed to handle arguments, nothing will happen. Typically these values would be numbers, words (strings), or variables (system or script variables, not PDI variables).

In Spoon, you can test argument handling by defining a set of arguments when you run a transformation or job. This is accomplished by typing in values in the Arguments table, which is accessed through the Arguments button in the Run Options window.

Parameters

Parameters are local variables that apply only to a specific transformation where you define it. When defining a parameter, you can assign it a default value to use in the event that one is not fetched for it. This feature makes it unique among dynamic input types in PDI.

NoteIf there is a name collision between a parameter and a variable, the parameter will take precedence.

To define a parameter, right-click on the transformation workspace and select Transformation settings from the context menu (or just press CtrlT), then click on the Parameters tab.

VFS properties

You can specify VFS properties as parameters.

Learn more

Variables

A variable in PDI is a piece of user-supplied information that can be used dynamically and programmatically in a variety of different scopes. A variable can be local to a single step, or be available to the entire JVM (Java Virtual Machine) that PDI is running in.

Learn more