Concept: Loaders

Loaders enable you to synchronize data and metadata in bulk from a source system to Adaptive Planning. With loaders, you can automate the manual process from Model Management to create and update hierarchies of:

Attributes.

Accounts.

Dimensions.

Levels.

You can also automate the manual process of importing data with the Planning Data Loader.

Adaptive Planning loaders include:

Metadata loaders for hierarchies and structures.

Data loaders.

Loaders to export from Adaptive Planning to other cloud-based systems.

Loader Type	Loader	Description
Metadata loader for hierarchies and structures.	Planning Attribute Loader	Map attributes from the staging area, then import their hierarchies.
Metadata loader for hierarchies and structures.	Planning Account Loader	Map general ledger (GL) accounts and their properties from the staging area, then import their hierarchies.
Metadata loader for hierarchies and structures.	Planning Dimension Loader	Map dimension values from the staging area, then import their hierarchies.
Metadata loader for hierarchies and structures.	Planning Level Loader	Map levels from the staging area, then import their hierarchies.
Data loader.	Planning Data Loader	Map data from the staging area, then import the data to: GL accounts using a standard import. Cube and modeled sheets. Transactions tables.
Data loader.	Scripted Loader	Extract, transact, and load Pentaho Kettle scripts to load directly from external sources to perform complex calculations and analysis.
Loader to export from Adaptive Planning to other cloud-based systems.	Custom Cloud Loader	Load staging data to an external cloud-based system using JavaScript and the ai Namespace API. If your organization uses Discovery Enterprise, you can also access the Discovery Metric Loader. This loader can't load to Adaptive Planning sheets or transactions.

Loader Workflow

When you create a loader, you identify how data and metadata in your staging tables map to Adaptive Planning when you:

Select the data source staging tables to load from.

Select loader settings. Example: You can create new dimension values in Adaptive Planning when the loader can't find existing dimension values to update.

Map source system columns to columns in Adaptive Planning.

Run the loader manually or schedule it to run as part of an Integration Task.

You also have the option to identify how the data and metadata map when you:

Map a Planning Data Loader profile to an external system to enable drilling from Adaptive Planning into that external system.

Apply any business rules or SQL filters.

Preview the loader output to check for errors in the logs.

We recommend that you import the union of all the data you need to the staging area from 1 data source. Once you import that union, filter the data for each loader to extract the specific sets of data you need to load.