Inputs and outputs

The input and output ports that you defined for your Build stage are where input and output links attach to the stage.

By default, links are connected to ports in the order they are connected to the stage, but where your stage allows multiple input or output links you can change the link order using the Link Order tab on the stage editor.

When you specify details about the input and output ports for your Build stage, you need to define the meta data for the ports. You do this by loading a table definition from the IBM® DataStage® Repository.

When you actually use your stage in a job, you have to specify meta data for the links that attach to these ports. For the job to run successfully the meta data specified for the port and that specified for the link should match. An exception to this is where you have runtime column propagation enabled for the job. In this case the input link meta data can be a super-set of the port meta data and the extra columns will be automatically propagated.