# Activewarehouse-ETL documentation update

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activewarehouse-etl-documentation-update/129054>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 13, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activewarehouse-etl-documentation-update/129054 "2008-02-13T20:47:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jesperronn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@jesperronn](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jesperronn)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activewarehouse-etl-documentation-update/129054/1 "2008-02-13T20:47:46Z")

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Hi there

As a newcomer to ActiveWarehouse-ETL, i feel that the documentation  
could be better.  
Here are some things that i believe would make me learn aw-ETL faster.  
And also things there I wasted some hours before understanding what  
was going on.

The examples in  
[http://activewarehouse.rubyforge.org/docs/activewarehouse-etl.html](http://activewarehouse.rubyforge.org/docs/activewarehouse-etl.html) are  
in general good.

- they should be backported into the rdoc  
[http://activewarehouse.rubyforge.org/etl/rdoc/](http://activewarehouse.rubyforge.org/etl/rdoc/)
- there could be more examples and complete overview of what  
options/mappings are accepted where

There seems to be inconsistencies in how options are called and their  
names for sources and destinations. This makes it harder to learn.  
An example of inconsistency is ETL::Control::FileDestination takes  
:separator but the ETL::Control::FileSource takes  
:options=\>{:col\_sep=\>“;”}  
Why are these not the same?  
(i realize that not all of these can be easíily solved but the most  
obvious ones should be aliased which would add consistency and be a  
non breaking change )

Also, the naming :in, :file =\> ‘’ is somewhat magically mapped to  
FileSource control . This should be more explicit mentioned in the  
RDoc.

Furthermore, the flow through the code is not explained. like

Also I would like to have explanations and links to a few common .ctl  
and .etb files. Which rules can be used and is there a special order  
the rules have to be in. What about the :before\_write directive, just  
to name one. Is that a rule that can be used inside an :in, :out or  
both directives? Or is it it’s “own”?

Much of this stuff really confuses me-- but now after having spent 2  
days, i feel that the documentation could have helped me more.  
So i figure i would help the documentation!

I’d love to give a helping hand here by adding some of the stuff, and  
i am asking if some of you would like to do the same 🙂  
Please write me or IM me on my gmail account (jesperrr), i plan to use  
this evening and some of tomorrow on this.

Any help and suggesions appreciated.

/Jesper

PS. i am crossposting this on removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
and ruby-talk discussion lists

–

* * *

Jesper Rønn-Jensen / Capgemini Denmark  
Tel. +45 3977 8220 / Mob. +45 2373 6220 / Fax +45 7011 2201  
[www.dk.capgemini.com](http://www.dk.capgemini.com) / Blog [http://justaddwater.dk/](http://justaddwater.dk/)