Copyright: © 1996-2004 Benthic Software


Introduction and Features

Welcome to ImpExp!

Welcome to ImpExp, the professional ASCII import/export tool for Oracle.  This program allows you to export and import delimited ASCII files.  It is optimized for high performance and unlimited (or very nearly so) data size.  This help file is designed to help you get the most out of your Benthic Software purchase.

Important Note:

Remember that you may be using a database which is being accessed by others.  Speak to your database administrator before using any database tools.  You must understand how data locks, run-away queries, data contention, and other considerations will affect you and other users.

Features:

•	High speed ASCII import and export.

•	Choice of field and record delimiters as well as field text qualifiers (quotes around text.)

•	Choice of how often commits occur.

•	Choice of how many rows to transmit at once.

•	Can export tables or sql queries.

•	Full error logs and status information.

•	Can be minimized while running.

•	Multiple instances of ImpExp can run concurrently.

© 1996-2004 Benthic Software


License and disclaimer

Golden Copyright (C) 1996-2004 Benthic Software All Rights Reserved

http://www.benthicsoftware.com

1.  License Agreement Golden (the "Software")

"Licensee" means the person or company identified below, who is being licensed

to use the "Software" identified in the title of this License Agreement.

"Licensor" means Benthic Software.

2.  30 Day Trial License

THIS IS NOT FREE SOFTWARE. Subject to the terms below, Licensee is hereby

licensed to use this software for evaluation purposes without charge

for a period of 30 days. If you use this software after the 30 day

evaluation period you are required to make payment for the software.

3.  Limited Nonexclusive License

Licensee acknowledge that you are acquiring only a limited nonexclusive license

to use the Software (the "License"). Licensor shall remain the owner of all

right, title, and interest in the Software and in any copies of it.

The License permits Licensee to install the Software on more than one computer

system, e.g., a desktop computer and a laptop computer normally used by the

same person at different times, provided that there is no possibility that the

Software will be used on more than one computer system simultaneously; any such

simultaneous use requires a separate license for each computer system.

Licensee may make a reasonable number of backup copies of the Software solely

for backup purposes.

Licensee agrees not to make, nor to permit, the making of copies of the

Software (including its documentation) except as authorized by this License

Agreement or otherwise authorized in writing by Licensor.

Licensee agrees not to engage in, nor to permit, the de-compilation,

disassembly, or other reverse engineering of the Software.

4.  Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPLIED AS IS. THE LICENSOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES,

EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF

MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE LICENSOR ASSUMES NO

LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE

OF THIS PROGRAM. THE LICENSEE MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM.

ANY LIABILITY OF THE LICENSOR WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT

REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.

To the best of our knowledge Licensee's use of the Software in accordance with

its printed documentation will not, in and of itself, infringe any third

party's copyright, patent, or other intellectual property right.

No employee, agent, dealer, or distributor of ours is authorized to modify this

disclaimer of warranty, nor to make any additional warranties.

If implied warranties may not be disclaimed under applicable law, then ANY

IMPLIED WARRANTIES ARE LIMITED IN DURATION TO 30 DAYS AFTER DELIVERY OF THIS

COPY OF THE SOFTWARE TO LICENSEE.

Some states do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, so

the above limitation may not apply to Licensee.

This warranty gives Licensee specific legal rights, and Licensee may also have

other rights which vary from state to state.

5.  No Incidental or Consequential Damages

Independent of the foregoing provisions, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO

LICENSEE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL

DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR CONNECTED WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR LICENSEE'S USE OF THE

SOFTWARE, regardless whether Licensor know or have reason to know of the

possibility of such damages.

Some states do not allow exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential

damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

6.  Licensee's Indemnity to Licensor

Independent of the foregoing provisions, Licensee agrees to defend and

indemnify Licensor against, and hold us harmless from, any and all claims,

damages, losses, and expenses of any kind arising from or connected with the

operation of Licensees business.

7.  Termination

If Licensee materially breaches this License Agreement, Licensor may terminate

Licensee's right to use the Software by notice to Licensee.

Licensee agrees that, upon termination of the License, Licensee will either

return to Licensor or destroy all copies of the Software in Licensee's

possession.

8.  Entire Agreement, etc.

This written License Agreement is the exclusive agreement between Licensee and

Licensor concerning the Software and supersedes any and all prior oral or

written agreements, negotiations, or other dealings between the parties

concerning the Software.

This License Agreement may be modified only by a writing signed by the parties.

In the event of litigation between Licensee and Licensor concerning the

Software, the prevailing party in the litigation, and the prevailing party in

any ancillary disputes (e.g., discovery disputes) will be entitled to recover

attorneys' fees and expenses from the other party.

This License Agreement will be governed by the law of the State of

Massachusetts applicable to contracts executed and performed entirely in, and by

residents of, that state.

This License Agreement is effective upon the Licensee use of the Software.

Licensee agrees that Licensor need not sign this License Agreement in order

for it to take effect.


Login window

This window is where you login to Oracle.  When you login, Benthic Software programs dynamically link to the Oracle libraries needed to connect to your database.

You must supply the following information to login to Oracle:

Username:

This is the username supplied by your DBA.   Example:  SCOTT

Password:

This is the password supplied by your DBA.  It will display as asterisks *.   Example:  TIGER

Database:

Ask your DBA for the connect string necessary for your database.  Generally this will be a database alias setup using SQLNet EasyConfig or Net8 Assistant.

Here are some examples:

benthic	{ Alias created with EasyConfig, etc. }

t:myserver:orcl	{ A SQLNet 1.x database connect string }

beq-local	{ The default local connection for Oracle8 and above }

2:	{ Personal Oracle or local Oracle7 server }

Save This Password:

Checking the Save checkbox will cause your password to be save as an encrypted string so that you don't have to enter it again.  SECURITY ALERT!!  Although the Save password option this is very convenient, please discuss security issues with your DBA before you decide to use it.

More >> (Less <<):

Clicking the LoginList button shows or hides the "Quick Loginlist."  This is a list of all of the logins that have ever been made on this machine from any Benthic Software product.  Click on an entry to copy the username, password (if you chose to save it in the past) and database into the appropriate fields or double-click an entry to quickly login to that account (if the password was saved.)

Options...:

Click the Options button to see the Login Options Window.

Hints:

Right click the Quick Loginlist to see options to remove entries or clear the list.


Login Options Window

The Login Options Window is where options related to the login window and SQLNet/Net8 troubleshooting are set.

This window contains the following settings:

Set focus to username field on startup:

Sets the focus to the username field when the login window is opened.

Never save passwords:

When checked the option disables the Save This Password option and passwords will never be saved to the registry.

Clear all login information:

Check this option and click 'Ok' to clear all stored login information.

OCI Dll Name:

If login fails and indicates that the registry settings are incorrect or that the oci linking file can't be find, you can use this field to hardcode the correct oci dll.  Look in your ORACLE_HOME\bin directory for a file named oraxxx.dll and set this field to that name (i.e. ora805.dll)


Main window

The Main Window consists of the following parts:

Choice of three tab pages:

Click a tab to go to the corresponding page.

Welcome & Options:

The Options area includes all of the general Import/Export Options.

Import to Oracle:

Use this page to load delimited ASCII files into an Oracle table.

Export from Oracle:

Use this page to save an Oracle table or query to a delimited ASCII file.


Options

The Options Window is where most program options are set.  Changed options can be just for the current session or can be made the default.  The options are:

Delimiter Options:

Field Delimiter:	This is the character(s) that separate the fields.

Field Qualifier:	This is the type of quote character that can be used around field text.

Record Delimiter:	This is the character(s) that separate records.

Default Date format:

This is the date format that will be used by default.

Transfer Array Size:

This is the number of records that get sent to Oracle at once.  Note that this number of records must be able to fit into your computer's memory.  20 is a good choice unless your records are large (in which case lower the number.)  If your records contain a long field, this setting will be ignored and records will be transfered one at a time.

Commit Size:

The number of records that will be inserted before a commit occurs.

Save Defaults:

This button will save your current option settings to be used every time you start ImpExp.  Note that this will also save the Import and Export settings (such as Header Line choice.)


Import to Oracle

The import page has the following controls/options:

Source File:

This is the file to read from.

Destination Table:

This is the table to insert data into.

Delete existing data checkbox:

If this box is checked, all of the data currently in the table will be deleted.  This is done using the TRUNCATE command which will not work on tables that have foreign keys (you will be notified that this is the case.)  If your table can't be truncated, you will have to delete the data using Golden.  Remember that deleting large amounts of data can overload Oracle's redo logs, so you may have to delete the table in piecemeal fashion with commits.

Ignore first line in file checkbox:

Check this box if you want to ignore the first line of the import file.  This is useful if the file was not created by ImpExp (via an export) and contains a 'header' line.  Note that if you check this and the first line is actually a record, it will not be imported.

Start Button:

Click this button to start the import after you have entered the other options.  Note that during the import, the only control that is active is the Cancel button.  Clicking 'Start' will bring up the Import Column List Editor.

Cancel Button:

Click this button to abort a currently running import.  Note that some records may already have been commited.

Status & Log:

This will display status and error information for the currently running import.

Percent done meter:

This meter displays the percent complete for the current import.


Export from Oracle

The export page has the following controls/options:

Table:

Choosing a table creates a default query in the SQL Query edit field.  Note that you do not have to choose a table, you can just type or paste an sql query into the sql query field.  Also, you are not limited to the tables that appear in the list.

SQL Query:

This field must contain a valid SQL query.  You can fill it in automatically by selecting a table, or type or paste in a sql query.

Destination File:

This is the ascii file to write to.  It will be overwritten if it already exists.

Header line choices:

    No Header Line:

The first line of the file will be data.

    ImpExp Header:

The first line of the file will contain data to be used for Importing back to Oracle by ImpExp

    Simple Header:

The first line of the file will be the field names from the query delimited like the rest of the file.

Start Button:

Click this button to start the export after you have entered the other options.  Note that during the export, the only control that is active is the Cancel button.

Cancel Button:

Click this button to abort a currently running export.

Log:

This will display status and error information for the currently running export.


Import Column List Editor

This window allows you to match up columns in your input file with columns in your table.  The columns of the import table are shown in the list on the left and a sample of the columns in the import source file are shown on the right.  You may reorder or delete columns in the right side table column list to match the data columns that are in the source file.  You may also individually set the import date format for each date column or choose the 'All' button next to the date format entry field to set the current date format for all date columns.

To ignore columns in the source file while importing:

Click the "Add Ignore Column" button (see pointer below) to insert -- IGNORE -- into the column list.  Then just drag the IGNORE item to the correct position in the columns. The column list on the left side must have the same number of items as columns in the source file so you need IGNORE items for each column that you want to skip in the source file.