Invoke External Function

Through the Search panel, you can access and apply functions that have been developed external to Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta Enterprise Edition.

Note

This method of invocation applies only to Java UDFs created and applied to a specific deployment of Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta Enterprise Edition.

Prerequisites

Warning

Also known as user-defined functions, external functions must be developed in an environment external to the product and then registered for use in it. These steps require developer skills. For more information, see User-Defined Functions.

Invoke

After an external function has been registered with the product, you can complete the following steps to invoke the function within your recipe.

Steps:

In the Transform Builder, you can search for any of the following:
1. udf
2. invoke external function
  Note
  You cannot search for the name of the external function.
Select Invoke external function.
The list of available external functions is displayed. Select the function to use.
Depending on the function, the following options may be available:
1. Columns: specify the column or columns to which to apply the function.
2. Arguments: If the function accepts arguments, you can enter them on individual lines.
3. New column name: Some functions generate a new column. Enter a new column name.
To add the instance of the function to your recipe, click Add.
The step is added to your recipe.

Examples

You can create these examples functions in Java for use in the platform. For more information, see Java UDFs.

ConcatUDF

The ConcatUDF function concatenates two strings together.

Tip

This function is provided for demonstration purposes only. In practice, you should use the MERGE function instead.

Transformation Name	`Invoke external function`
Parameter: Column	colA, colB
Parameter: Arguments	(empty)
Parameter: New column name	myConcatUDFColumn

AdderUDF

The AdderUDF function adds an input value to a constant that is submitted by parameter. The following invocation of AdderUDF adds colA and the constant 100.