Welcome

This document provides you with a technical description of Spoon. Spoon is the graphical transformation and job designer associated with the Pentaho Data Integration suite — also known as the Kettle project.

Important: Some parts of this document are under construction.

The following topics are covered in this document:

• .01 Introduction to Spoon
• .02 Creating a Transformation or Job
• .03 Database Connections
• .04 SQL Editor
• .05 Database Explorer
• .06 Hops
• .07 Variables
• .08 Transformation Settings
• .09 Transformation Steps
• .10 Job Settings
• .11 Job Entries
• .12 Graphical View
• .13 Running a Transformation
• .14 Logging
• .15 Grids
• .16 Repository Explorer
• .17 Shared Objects
• .18 Appendix LGPL License
   

Audience and Assumptions

This document is written for BI Administrators who are responsible for maintaining corporate applications and who are familiar with setting up security in other applications/infrastructures (for example. database security, LDAP, MSAD, and so on.) It also addresses the needs of ETL designers who are familiar with ETL tools such as OWB/Informatica. It is assumed that you, the reader, have a strong SQL server and data modeling skills.

Because Spoon empowers you with the freedom and flexibility to design solutions in a manner that is most appropriate for your environments, this document does not contain detailed instructions for creating jobs and transformations for all possible situations.

Getting More Information and Help

The links below contain information that may help you when you are building transformations:

Flash demos, screen shots, and an introduction to building a simple transformation:
http://kettle.pentaho.org/screenshots/

Pentaho Data Integration community website - news, case studies, weekly tips and more:
http://kettle.pentaho.org

Pentaho Data Integration Forum - discussions on design, features, bugs and enhancements:
http://forums.pentaho.org/forumdisplay.php?f=69

Running transformations in batch using Pan: Pan-3.0.pdf

Running jobs in batch using Kitchen: Kitchen-3.0.pdf

An introduction to Pentaho Data Integration in Roland Bouman's blog:
http://rpbouman.blogspot.com/2006/06/pentaho-data-integration-kettle-turns.html

Nicholas Goodman is also blogging on Kettle and BI: http://www.nicholasgoodman.com

Acknowledging the Pentaho Community Forums

Pentaho acknowledges the invaluable contributions of members of its community forums whose efforts have allowed Pentaho to respond quickly and efficiently to the changing needs of Business Intelligence users. Collaborative efforts of the community forums have resulted in the successful launching of many innovative Pentaho product offerings.

Pentaho Subscription, Training, and Consulting

A Pentaho Subscription provides you with an efficient way to stay current with the latest innovations, feature releases, and product information. Having a Pentaho Subscription from the outset accelerates your development, reduces your costs, and ensures that your transition to production goes smoothly. Your Pentaho Subscription includes:

• Professional technical support
• Access to Pentaho Management Services, which reduces your cost of ownership by providing you with tools that help streamline deployment and maintenance
• Certified software and patches as needed
• Intellectual property indemnification, which protects you against the risks of using open source IP

For more information, see the Pentaho Subscription Guide or contact your account manager.

Pentaho Training is strongly recommended for organizations implementing a Pentaho BI Suite. Course descriptions and schedules are available online at http://www.pentaho.com/services/training/. Consulting from Pentaho and Pentaho Certified Partners is available to provide support for system design, implementation, optimization, customization, and integration.  More details on Pentaho Consulting and a full list of Pentaho Certified Partners are available online.