ETL

ETL stands for Extract, transform, load as is described in wikipedia article.

I was reading many of Ayende Rahien posts about ETL, but never understood what's is that ETL about. Now I know it:

Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) is a process in data warehousing that involves
* extracting data from outside sources,
* transforming it to fit business needs (which can include quality levels), and ultimately
* loading it into the end target, i.e. the data warehouse.


Basically what ETL stands is a process of getting oen source of information into destination. This might be an integration of two systems, say a CMS system and a Payment system, or that might be just importing data from spreadsheet into your database.


We have started doing our own implementation of import/export tool a month ago. I don't think this is a waste. The insight we gained from creating our own solution is very valuable, and now we have a choice of either stick with our solution, or use Rhino.ETL . Before that we had no choice, and that's bad

Rhino.ETL can be found here