Asset paths for InfoSphere DataStage and QualityStage assets

You can export specific assets to an archive file by specifying the paths of the assets on the command line.

Asset path

Assets to export are identified by a path name. An asset path is a fully-qualified path that identify assets to be exported. The path has the following format:

engine_host[:portnumber]/project/folder[/folder...]/asset.type

An asset path consists of the following elements:

engine_host. The name of the computer that hosts the engine tier.
port. Optionally specifies the port used to communicate with the engine tier. The port number is only needed if the engine tier uses a non-default port number. (The default port number is 31538.)
project. The project that contains the asset or assets.
folder[/folder...]. The folder structure that contains the asset or assets.
asset.type. The name of the asset and a suffix that specifies the type of the asset.

Asset type

Asset types are identified by a type suffix. Type suffixes are not case-sensitive.

Table 1. Asset type names
Asset type	Type suffix
Data element	det
Parallel job	pjb
Sequence job	qjb
Server job	sjb
Parallel routine	prt
Server routine	srt
Parallel shared container	psc
Server shared container	ssc
Table definition	tbd
Transform	tfm
Data quality specification (match specification or rule set)	dqs
Stage type	stp
Data connection	dcn
Parameter set	pst

Wildcard character

You can use the wildcard character asterisk (*) in element names. The asterisk wildcard character represents 0 or more characters. You can use the wildcard character to specify multiple assets. The following table shows the ways that the wildcard character can be used.

Table 2. Use of wildcard character in asset path
Location	Example	Description
In place of an asset name	server/project/xfolder/*.pjb	All parallel jobs in xfolder
Beginning of an asset name	serve/project/xfolder/*job.pjb	All parallel jobs with name ending with ‘job' in xfolder
End of an asset name	server/project/xfolder/job*.pjb	All parallel jobs with name beginning with ‘job' in xfolder
Beginning and end of an asset name	server/project/xfolder/job.pjb	All parallel jobs with name containing ‘job' in xfolder
In place of an asset type	server/project/xfolder/xjob.*	All assets with name ‘xjob' of any type in xfolder
In place of asset name and asset type	server/project/xfolder/.	All exportable assets in xfolder
In place of a folder for recursive match	server/project/xfolder//.* server/project//.* server/project/xfolder//xjob.pjb server/project/xfolder//job*.pjb	All exportable assets in xfolder and its subfolders (recursive). All exportable assets in the specified project (recursive) All parallel jobs with name=xjob in xfolder and its subfolders (recursive) All parallel jobs with name beginning with ‘job' in xfolder and its subfolders (recursive)

Using special characters in an asset path

When the asset path contains characters that conflict with the istool command-line syntax, those characters must be escaped by using special characters. The istool command uses the backslash character (\) as an escape character. Inserting a backslash in front of one of these special characters changes the way istool treats the character.

IBM® InfoSphere® DataStage® and QualityStage® does not allow non-alphanumeric characters in asset names, other than underscore (_). The only exception is folder names and machine profiles, where you can use the single quote ('), double quote ("), or asterisk (*) characters, which must be preceded by backslash (\) if used in an asset string. "Non-alphanumeric" in this context means that if a character is in the ASCII range, it must be alphanumeric. Unicode characters outside the ASCII range are allowed whether they are alphanumeric or not. For example, Unicode CJK characters, including CJK digits and punctuation, are allowed in the Designer when creating job and stage names. It would be prudent however to avoid CJK characters that are considered non-alphanumeric since at run time these strings may sometimes be used for file or column names, and other parts of the system may not accept them. The following table shows how to enter characters that require special treatment.

You must take special steps when using the istool CLI in command mode on a UNIX computer. When using the command mode in UNIX, the asset path is first processed by the UNIX shell. The single quote character (') has a special meaning to UNIX shell, and you cannot escape the single-quote by using the backslash character. To specify an asset path containing a single quote character, you must switch in and out of single-quote mode and use double quotes characters (") to prevent the UNIX shell interpreting the single quote character in the asset path. Switch out of single-quote mode by inserting an additional single quote character in the asset path before the existing single quote character in the asset path. Enclose the single quote character in the asset path within double quote characters ("'"). Switch back into single-quote mode for the remaining of the asset path by inserting another single quote character. For example, to specify the following command istool export ... -ds '"server/project/x'folder/xjob.pjb"', you would actually type the following command at the UNIX command prompt:

istool export ... -ds '"server/project/x'"'"'folder/xjob.pjb"'

Table 3. Using special characters in an asset path
Character	Syntax	Example
double quotes (")	\"	istool export .... –ds '"server/project/x\"folder/xjob.pjb" '
single quote (')	\'	istool export .... -ds '"server/project/x\'folder/xjob.pjb"' Command mode: istool export .... -ds '"server/project/x'"'"'folder/xjob.pjb"' Console and script mode: istool export .... -ds '"server/project/x\'folder/xjob.pjb"'
asterisk (*)	\*	istool export .... –ds '"server/project/x\*folder/xjob.pjb" '