Connecting Components by the Edges

When you have selected and pasted at least two components to the Graph Editor, you must connect them by edges taken from the Palette tool. Data will flow from one component to the other in this edge. For this reason, each edge must have assigned some metadata describing the structure of data records flowing in the edge.

There are two ways to create an edge between two components, you can click the edge label in the Palette tool, then move the cursor over the source component, the one you want the edge to start from, then left-click to start the edge creation. Then, move the cursor over to the target component, the one you want the edge to end at and click again. This creates the edge. The second way short-cuts the tool selection. You can simply mouse over the output ports of any component, and CloudConnect will automatically switch to the edge tool if you have the selection tool currently selected. You can then click to start the edge creation process, which will work as above.

Some components only receive data from their input port(s) and write it to some data sources (Writers, including Trash), other components read data from data sources or generate data and send it out through their output port(s) (Readers, including DataGenerator), and other components both receive data and send it to other components (Transformers and Joiners). And the last group of components either must be connected to some edges (non-executing components such as CheckForeignKey, LookupTableReaderWriter, SequenceChecker, SpeedLimiter) or can be connected (the Executing Components).

When pasting an edge to the graph, as described, it always bounds to a component port. The number of ports of some components is strictly specified, while in others the number of ports is unlimited. If the number of ports is unlimited, a new port is created by connecting a new edge. Once you have terminated your work with edges, you must click the Select item in the Palette tool or click Esc on the keyboard.

If you have already connected two components by an edge, you can move this edge to any other component. To do that, you can highlight the edge by clicking, then move to the port to which the edge is connected (input or output) until the arrow mouse cursor turns to a cross. Once the cross appears, you can drag the edge to some of the other free ports of any component. If you mouse over the port with the selection tool, it will automatically select the edge for you, so you can simply click and drag. Remember that you can only replace output port by another output port and input port by another input port.

Edge Auto-routing or Manual Routing

When two components are connected by an edge, sometimes the edge might overlap with other elements, like other components, notes, etc. In this case you may want to switch from default auto-routing to manual routing of the edge - in this mode you have control over where the edge is displayed. To achieve this, right-click the edge and uncheck the Edge Autorouting from the context menu.

After that, a point will appear in the middle of each straight part of the edge.

When you move the cursor over such point, the cursor will be replaced with either horizontal or vertical resize cursor, and you will be able to drag the corresponding edge section horizontally or vertically.

This way you can move the edges away from problematic areas.

You can also select an edge and then press Ctrl+R which toggles between edge auto-routing and manual mode.