In a previous blog, I introduced the notion of Semantic Types. To an end-user, a seamlessly integrated semantic typing engine significantly increases the ease of use of an ETL IDE (integrated development environment, or developer studio). This led me to think about other ease-of-use issues I have encountered while building ETL applications.

When I get stumped while programming, I find myself asking the variations on these questions:

• “How do I…?”
• “Now what?”
• “Why isn’t this working?”
• “Why do I have to redo the work I just did?”

It seems to me that a good ETL IDE will anticipate these questions and seek to answer them before they are even asked. So here are my tips to help software vendors build developer IDEs that actually make development easier.

How do I…?

While developing an ETL application, have you ever asked yourself: “How do I set up the connection to my SQL Server database?”,“How do I import my table definitions from Access?”, etc. An easy answer might be “read the manual” but sometimes product manuals are not robust or easily accessible. So, integrating robust how-to instructions directly into your ETLstudio would help users get the information they need at the time they need it.

Now what?

IDEs in general know where you last clicked or performed an action using an input device such as a keyboard; so they should be able to reasonably predict the design context you are in and suggest the next steps accordingly. Context-sensitive suggestions based on the state of the user’s work will help users move forward in ETL application development.

Why isn’t this working? Or why do I have to wait till I compile to be told about a critical design issue?

If an ETL IDE is smart enough to signal to users what in their design structures is left to be completed or has been completed incorrectly, then the developer can spend much less time in the designàcompileàerror-correct loop. Just-in-time validation helps users detect and correct programming errors earlier in the ETL development life cycle.

Why do I have to redo the work I just did?

In ETL development, schemas, transformation rules, connectivity objects, etc., can be reused in various situations. Using mouse-clicks to build and manage libraries of reusable design objects implies that the application development effort should decrease over time and as the library acquires more objects.

I met a great company at SQL Pass that is trying to address many of these usability issues. Check them out at www.expressor-software.com.

What other ease-of-use suggestions do you have for ETL software vendors? Please post your valuable comments.

?Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)