The Append and Infer task templates are similar with the Infer task having more robust capabilities. Listed below are some examples of when to use one over the other.
Use the Append Task Template
The Append task template is best suited for creating a simple match between two data sources to pull either the second source’s attributes back all at once and keeping their original attribute names or pulling attributes individually and mapping them to attributes from the first source.
- Joining Fields: When you want all the fields from a data source added to your input data source because they are very different in name or data. There are too many to add using the Infer task template OR you want to add fields without creating attributes to hold them manually.
- Overwriting Data: When you want to overwrite data. The two data sources have similar field names and you want to replace all of the values in your input data source attributes with the appending set’s values.
- Filling Whitespace: When the two data sources have similar field names and you want to fill any white space in your input data source attributes while retaining existing values.
Use the Infer Task Template
The Infer task template is better suited for complex matches involving multiple criteria between two sets to return only specific attribute values. For example: by order of priority or load-balanced between all possible matches that are then mapped to existing attributes or new attributes you can create on-the-fly in the task.
- Round Robin: When you want to use a counter to distribute inferred matches on your source records.
- Priority: When you want to maintain a hierarchy of importance in the reference data returned on matches.
- Complex Logic: When you want to use complex logic. Examples would be using excludes logic or multiple matching rules for successful matches.
- Limit Reference Data Source: When you need to set a filter on the reference data source.