Jitterbit – Column Names are not coming by default in Flat file target.

Jitterbit is an integration tool that delivers a quick and easy way to design and build integration solutions. You can go through my blog post Introduction to Jitterbit to get an overview of this tool.

Here we are discussing one potential issue that I have encountered while using this tool and a workaround to fix the issue.

I created a simple integration project in which I tried to export the data from Salesforce (Source) and write it to a flat file (target) in a Jitterbit operation. Interestingly, the data records got captured in the target file, but the header information containing the Column Names was missing from the target file.

I was unable to find any setting in the flat file structure definition that asked about including/excluding header from flat files.

After doing some further research, I found out that I need to use a Jitterbit plugin – PrependData - to get the column names in the file.

Please find below the steps that I had followed to fix the issue:

• Download the PrependData plugin (zip archive) from Jitterbit Plugin page.
• Extract the Zip Archive plugin files and move or copy the extracted root folder to JITTERBIT_HOME/Plugins/Pipeline/User/. Then restart the Jitterbit Process Engine service.
• Create a new Script object and add the following text in the script:

• $DataToPrepend="Column_1, Column_2, Column_3\n";

$DataToPrepend is a standard global variable of Jitterbit and Column_1, Column_2 are the exact column names.

• In the Jitterbit operation, add this Script object created in the above step just before the target object.
• Now we need to assign the plugin to the target. So right Click on the Target object and select the Plugin option. This will list all the available installed plugins.  Select the DataToPrepend plugin and click Assign button to complete the assignment.

• Save the changes, deploy the operation and project and execute the project.
• And thus, the column names appear in the flat file.

This is a bit overkill on part of jitterbit as writing to a flat file target with column names should be a standard functionality and using of script and plugin make a simple integration complex.

I hope Jitterbit will address this issue in their future releases and make it part of their standard functionality.

Introduction to Jitterbit

Jitterbit is an integration tool that delivers a quick and simple way to design, configure, test, and deploy integration solutions. It is designed for integrations to be created and managed not only by developers, but also by the analysts who understands business process.

Jitterbit provides an easy, effective, and inexpensive way of integrating data, applications, and even devices across:

• On-premise databases, packaged enterprise applications (SAP, Microsoft, Oracle) and custom applications and services (XML, Web Services).
• Cloud based applications (Salesforce.com, Workday).
• Social media and mobile applications (facebook, twitter, linkedin).

Jitterbit’s wizard driven approach consists of three stages:

• Design: Jitterbit Studio utility is used to design the data integration processes in a graphical wizard driven interface. The wizard includes steps for creating end points to establish connectivity with Source and Target Systems, building mappings, applying transformation and scheduling the integration process.
• Deploy: Once a project is created in Jitterbit Studio, it needs to be deployed on site, to a server behind firewall, or to the cloud.
• Manage: Once the project is deployed, the project is managed with real-time process monitoring tools.

Jitterbit allows companies of all sizes to solve the challenges of application, data, and business process integration between on-premise and Cloud systems. Jitterbit's graphical "No-Coding" approach accelerates and simplifies the configuration and management of on-premise and cloud integration projects.