In this article, you will read about getting started in TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality. TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality provides a platform for monitoring your internal business systems. Specifically, TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality makes it easy for you to find abnormal exceptions to your operation workflow.
This guide covers the following topics:
Components
TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality is composed of three main components:
- Desktop client: Developer tool that is used to develop tests, configure scheduled groups, and manage other aspects of TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality.
- Web Portal: A web interface used by users to work with exceptions and execute processes.
- Execution Agent: A service that executes all queries and processes created with TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality.
Tests
Tests are a key concept in TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality. With tests, you create a business rule that you connect to your internal business system. All deviations from the business rule can then be assigned to users that can deal with the errors.
The results can also be used to control processes, for example, to make sure the billing process only starts if there are no high-priority errors. Tests can be categorized into three types; Query, Compare Query and Saved Comparative.
Query
Queries are the simplest form of tests and are used to find errors within a system. Queries are composed of a Data Provider and query to that Data Provider. With Queries we are usually looking for: bad data entries, unusual data entries and unusual statuses. Examples of queries:
- Monitor sales with a sales price of less than $1.
- Monitor change of salary above some percentage.
- Double payments of invoices.
- Customers without a shipping address.
For a detailed description of Queries, visit Create a Query (Tutorial)
Compare Query
Compare Queries are used to query two Data Providers, that should have the same or similar data and compares the results. Errors can be from two causes:
- Data from one data provider is not found in the other. For example, a product with some product ID is only found in one system.
- Data is found in both systems but attributes are different. For example, a product is found in both systems, but its price is different.
Examples of Compare Queries:
- Verifying that product attributes are identical in two systems.
- Customer discounts are the same in CRM and billing systems.
- Users have the same privileges in the two systems.
For a detailed description of Compare Queries, visit Create a Compare Query (Tutorial)
Saved Comparative
Saved Comparative are used to compare data to a previously saved snapshot of that data. This can be convenient when the source data doesn’t have an audit trail of changes. Examples of Saved Comparative queries are:
- Monitor changes in access privileges.
- Monitor customer discount changes.
Data Providers
All Tests connect to internal business systems using a Data Provider. Most Data Providers in TimeXtender Orchestration & Data Quality are based on a SQL database. For example SQL Server, Oracle, Informix and ODBC.
Other Data Providers include Excel documents, PowerShell scripts and WMI. For information on how to configure Data Providers, visit Data Providers (Walkthrough)
Scheduling Objects
When your test is ready for production, you need to add it to a Schedule Group. Schedule Groups allow you to execute objects on an interval, for example, every weekday at 7:00 am, every 15 minutes during business hours, etc. For information on how to configure Schedule Groups, visit Scheduling Objects (Tutorial)
