The Application Default Settings

Application Default settings allow you to specify global work settings for Monarch Data Prep Studio.

Row Limit

You can specify a row limit to enable partial data loading of excessively large files and improve the application's performance. To do so, in the Row Limit tab of the Application Default Setting dialog, select the drop-down button for Default Source Row Limit and then click on Limit: from the options that display. In the field that appears to the right of this selection, specify a row limit to apply when opening tables and then tick the Apply to existing tables check box if you wish to use this limit on all currently open tables as well.

Note that the number of rows displayed does not affect the number of rows obtained when a table is exported. You could, for example, set a limit of 10,000 rows to view when opening a table with 1,000,000 rows. When ready, you may opt to export only 10,000 rows or all 1,000,000 rows as necessary.

Note also that the application imposes a 2,000-record limit when opening SalesForce reports. To get a full view of the data when opening SalesForce reports with over 2,000 rows, export the data to a CSV file in SalesForce and then use the Text plugin to import the data.

Finally, the row limit specified as an application default applies to Knowledge Hub tables opened in Monarch Data Prep Studio.

Default Folders

By default, Monarch Data Prep Studio saves all work data, workspaces, changes lists, exports, and data source (i.e., library) catalog files to C:\Users\Public\Documents. You can configure Monarch Data Prep Studio to save to a different folder by clicking on the Folder icon that displays beside each field. To enable folder tracking (i.e., use the last-accessed folder for subsequent file opening/saving activities), tick the check box for Track Last Folder. Note that changes to this setting are reflected only when the current Monarch Data Prep Studio session is closed and a new one is opened.

You can create a new library file and store it at a location of your choosing from the Application Default Settings > Default Folders tab. You could do this, for example, to create "snapshots" of your library at predetermined time intervals for easy access to previous versions of a specific data source. You may also want to do this to create backups of your library.

To create a new library file, click the Create new Library File icon located to the left of the Library File field and use the Save As dialog that displays to specify a new filename and location for your library file. Click Save on the Save As dialog and OK on the Application Default Settings dialog to save and apply your changes.

Conversion

These settings affect how information from text-based data sources is interpreted and converted to either the numeric or date/time format. You can specify a decimal separator (for converting text to numeric) and a date format, first year of century, and date/time extraction pattern (shown when the Show advanced options box is ticked) (for converting text to date/time). Ticking the Apply to current workspace check box applies all of your settings to any open workspace.

Note that while most data sources, such as delimited text, excel, XML/JSON, etc., will correctly use the default column format settings to display the data. Monarch files will not use the default column format settings of the workspace since the column formats are applied in Monarch Data Prep Studio and attached to the model when exported. Files opened in Report Design (such as Text and PDF Reports) also do not take into account the default column format settings since each field created in Report Design allows the column formats to be set within Report Design. These column formats take precedence over the default column format settings of the workspace.

Display

These settings allow you to specify the default format when data are displayed in tables. The Default Locale parameter sets the global language to be used by the application. The Default Date Format parameter specifies the default format of date/time columns.

Note that while most data sources, such as delimited text, excel, XML/JSON, etc., will correctly use the default column format settings to display the data, Monarch files will not use the default column format settings of the workspace since the column formats are applied in Monarch Data Prep Studio and attached to the model when exported. Files opened in Report Design (such as Text and PDF Reports) also do not take into account the default column format settings since each field created in Report Design allows the column formats to be set within Report Design. These column formats take precedence over the default column format settings of the workspace.

Time Intervals

This setting allows you to set the characteristics of a fiscal year, fiscal weeks, and fiscal periods

Fiscal Year Settings

Field	Description
Month-based	Specifies that the fiscal year consists of 12 calendar months.
First month of the fiscal year	Selects the month of which the first day begins the new fiscal year.
Week 1 starts on January 1	Specifies that the first week of the fiscal year begins on January 1.
Each week starts on a specified weekday	Defines the start of a fiscal week and the week number of a partial week.
Week-based	Specifies that the fiscal year consists of 52 or 53 whole weeks. You can specify the first day of each fiscal week, a reference month and day, and a rule for year start or end. Select to divide the year into four 13-week quarters, then pick one of the following: The week distribution pattern is 4-4-5 - Select to specify that each quarter is divided into a period with a pattern of 4 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks. The week distribution pattern is 4-5-4 - Select to specify that each quarter is divided into a period with a pattern of 4 weeks, 5 weeks, 4 weeks. The week distribution pattern is 5-4-4 - Select to specify that each quarter is divided into a period with a pattern of 5 weeks, 4 weeks, 4 weeks.
The year is divided into four 13-week quarters	Divides the year into four 13-week quarters and allows you to choose a week distribution pattern and quarter and period in which to place the 53rd week if necessary.
The year is divided into thirteen 4-week periods.	Divides the year into thirteen 4-week periods and allows you to choose a period in which to place the 53rd week if necessary.

Calendar Week Settings

Field

Description

Week 1 starts on January 1.

Specifies that the first full week of the year starts on the first day of the week on or after January 1.

Each week starts on a specified weekday

Specifies that the week begins on a specific weekday and allows you to set a week number for a partial week.

Formatting Settings

Field	Description
Interval	Lists the names of the time intervals available.
Formatting Mask	Displays the formatting mask applied to the adjacent interval. To edit the formatting mask, double-click on the desired time interval, or select an interval and press the Edit Formatting Mask button .
Sample Value	Shows the effect of the formatting masks on today’s date. To change the date that the sample value is based on, adjust the sample date calendar control accordingly. This control is located on the right-hand side of the dialog immediately below the table containing the time intervals.
Description	Displays a description of each time interval.

Server

Allows you to set connection settings to the following servers:

Server	Required Fields
IBM Cognos Analytics	Server URL
Altair Knowledge Hub	Server URL Username Password
Tableau Server	Server Address Username Password Proxy Address Path to TABCMD

Note that connections to Knowledge Hub may be done over both HTTP and HTTPS. The protocol applied is specified during installation of the Knowledge Hub application.

File Import

excel

These settings allow you to specify options when importing new data from Excel.

Excel Import Connector
Select whether to import new Excel data using the Monarch Excel Table connector (i.e., the Aspose engine) or the ACE OLEDB connector (i.e., the legacy engine).
Upgrade settings for existing workspaces
When a existing workspace containing an existing Excel data source is opened, select whether to retain the use of the original import connector to load the data or use the Monarch Excel Table connector instead.
Default Sample Size

The sample file size specifies how Monarch Data Prep Studio determines the data type of a column coming from Excel.

Take the following example:

Column A

Row 1 1234

Row 2 4569

Row 3 4568

Row 4 4562

Row 5 4562A

If the default sample size is set to 4, Monarch Data Prep Studio will scan up to Row 4 and the column datatype will be Numeric. When the table is displayed, Row 5 will be NULL. If the default sample size is set to 5, Monarch Data Prep Studio will scan up to Row 5 and the column datatype will be Text. All values from Rows 1-5 are displayed.

Select a sample size that ensures Monarch Data Prep Studio can make a correct assessment of the data type. At the same time, be mindful that if you select a very large sample size, you sacrifice speed in loading data.

Show Excel named ranges when opening an Excel workbook

Check to import Excel named ranges as individual tables. When you load an Excel source containing multiple sheets and sheets with named ranges, each sheet and named range will be listed as individual tables in Preview Data.

Named ranges will be visible only to Excel workbooks you open after this settings is enabled, including Excel files added to the Prepare window via drag and drop.

This setting is not affected by the “Apply to current workspace” or the “Apply to recent data sources” checkboxes.

Import all columns as text to avoid potential loss of data during type conversion

Check to convert all columns imported from the data source as text regardless of their original type. Note that toggling this checkbox in Application Default Settings will not affect the column types in existing load plans.

delimited text

Rows to scan for data types

In the box provided, indicate a number of rows that must be scanned by Monarch Data Prep Studio to determine what data type to assign to a certain column. Note that setting this number to a very high value may negatively impact the application's load performance depending on the number of rows and columns in your input source.

REPORTS

The following settings allow you to specify options when importing new data from Report files. These settings are also made available to you when you click Report Design Settings > Input in the Report Design window.

Field	Description
Formatting
Encoding	Use this setting to specify the default report file format. The following encodings are supported by Monarch Data Prep Studio: ASCII: Select to make Monarch Data Prep Studio interpret report files as ASCII text and perform the conversion to ANSI. This is the default setting because most report files are created as ASCII text files. ANSI: Select to make Monarch Data Prep Studio read report files as ANSI text and perform no conversion. While most report files are created as ASCII text files, report files generated from Windows applications may be created as ANSI text files. The difference lies with characters 128 - 255 in the character set: in these positions, the ANSI character set includes international characters not present in the ASCII character set. UTF-8 (8-bit Unicode Transformation Format): Select to make Monarch Data Prep Studio interpret report files as UTF-8 files. UTF-8 is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode, which is able to represent any character in the Unicode standard, yet it is backwards compatible with ASCII. If a valid BOM (Byte order mark) is detected within the input file, then Monarch Data Prep Studio will automatically select the UTF-8 type when opening the file. UTF-16 LE (16-bit Unicode Transformation format, Little Endian): Select to make Monarch Data Prep Studio interpret report files as UTF-16 LE files. UTF-16 LE is the Unicode Transformation Format that serializes a Unicode value as a sequence of two bytes, in little-endian format. If a valid BOM (Byte order mark) is detected within the input file, then Monarch Data Prep Studio will automatically select the UTF-16 LE type when opening the file. UTF-16 BE (16-bit Unicode Transformation format, Big Endian): Select to make Monarch Data Prep Studio interpret report files as UTF-16 BE files. UTF-16 BE is the Unicode Transformation Format that serializes a Unicode value as a sequence of two bytes, in big-endian format. If a valid BOM (Byte order mark) is detected within the input file, then Monarch Data Prep Studio will automatically select the UTF-16 BE type when opening the file. EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code): Select to make Monarch Data Prep Studio interpret report files as EBCDIC files. EBCDIC is an eight-bit character encoding system used mainly on IBM mainframe and IBM mid-range computer operating systems. These options may also be accessed in open files by right-clicking on the report in Report view.
Code page	Select the appropriate code page to use with the chosen input file encoding format. This option is only applicable to the ASCII (14 codepages available), ANSI (10 codepages available), and EBCDIC (16 codepages available) encoding systems. These options may also be accessed in open files by right-clicking on the report in Report view.
File Type	This option is enabled only when EBCDIC is selected as the encoding type. Choose from one of the following options: Auto - Selecting this option instructs Monarch Data Prep Studio to automatically determine the record/line delimiter. Line Feed (LF) - This file type includes files where the end of record is an ASCII line feed character. Carriage Return (CR) -This file type includes files where the end of record is an ASCII carriage return character. EBCDIC New Line (NL) - This file type includes files where the end of record is an EBCDIC new line character. EBCDIC Line Feed (LF) - This file type includes files where the end of record is an EBCDIC line feed character. Fixed-length record - This file type includes files where each line (or record) consists of a fixed number of characters/bytes. Variable-length record - This file type includes files consisting of variable length lines (or records). Each record is preceded by a 4 byte record descriptor that specifies the record length. Variable length block - This file type includes files similar to variable-length records but also includes a block descriptor. Undefined-length record - This file type includes files with no defined record length or block. Custom byte as EOL - This file type includes files where the end of line is marked by a custom number of characters/bytes
Ignore Print Control Characters	Select this setting to have Monarch Data Prep Studio ignore all print control characters below ASCII 32 except for: Form Feed (ASCII 12) Line Feed (ASCII 10) Carriage Return (ASCII 13) TAB (ASCII 09) Null (ASCII 0) which is converted to a space (ASCII 32).
Hide n Leading characters on each line	When you download print files from a network, a mini-computer, or a mainframe, one or more extra characters may appear at the beginning of each line. The exact number and type of characters depends on the operating system. These introductory characters are typically used for form feed, carriage return, or line feed printer commands. They are usually not needed in a PC file and may affect the way the file is displayed by Monarch Data Prep Studio. A few communications programs are smart enough to either discard unnecessary characters or translate useful characters into the corresponding PC character codes. However, a form feed command is typically the only useful character you may get, and most communications programs are unable to translate it. Use this setting to specify the number of leading characters to strip from each line of the report. Typical values are 0, 1, and 2. The value can be in the range 0 - 99. For example, if you download from an IBM 3090 mainframe computer using an IRMA communications card, each line in the report will be preceded by two non-productive characters. You can strip those characters from the data by entering 2 in the Hide leading characters box.
Page Break
Ignore the Form Feed Character	Selecting this setting causes Monarch Data Prep Studio to ignore all form feed (page break) characters in a report. Use this setting to turn off the hard-coded page breaks in a report file and replace them with page breaks based upon a Page Header trap or based upon the ForcePageBreakAfter n Lines setting (see below).
Page break on hidden leading text: n	For some mainframe and midrange system generated reports, especially from AS/400 systems, a page break could be indicated by a leading control character in the report file. This option allows you to hide the control character and to force a page break when a specified character is encountered. Note: This option is not accessible unless you specify a Hide n Leading Characters setting.
Force page break after n lines	Use this setting to add page breaks to a file at regular intervals by specifying the number of lines you want on each page. Monarch Data Prep Studio scans the report for existing page breaks and inserts a virtual page break whenever a real page break has not been encountered before the number of lines specified. The action of this setting is modified by the ForcePageBreakLookAhead setting.
Security
Automatically redact sample text	Use this option to automatically redact the sample text line in Report Design.

Advanced

These settings allows you to specify the following:

The log level to apply when log files are created. Select the maximum log level allows an administrator (or Altair Support) to more easily debug issues, however this may cause the system to slow down.
A location in which to place log files
A work path in which to store temporary files created while using Monarch Data Prep Studio.
File extension mappings. Data sources created using other applications may be saved to a custom file extension that must be mapped to a supported file extension in Monarch Data Prep Studio to enable correct loading. Use the Add button to map as many custom extensions as necessary.

Security

These settings describe how passwords should be handled in Monarch Data Prep Studio.

Saving Data source passwords and sensitive connection string parameters

This setting tells Monarch Data Prep Studio what to do with passwords and sensitive connection string parameters from data sources and connections in workspace files and local library items. This setting only affects local workspace and library save behavior. Passwords are always sent to Knowledge Hub during upload.

You can instruct Monarch Data Prep Studio how to save passwords and sensitive connection string parameters in one of three ways:

Always - Always save the password/sensitive connection string parameter each time you save a workspace or data source without prompting
Prompt - Prompt whether to save the password/sensitive connection string parameter each time you save a workspace or data source. The following prompt displays.
Never - Never save the password/sensitive connection string parameter when the workspace or data source is saved.

Credentials to Clear from Saved Items

This settings specifies what types of credentials should be cleared from saved items, such as workspaces:

Password (always deleted when clearing is employed)
Account ID
User name
Service account email
Access token
Refresh token
Secret key

Sensitive Connection string Parameters

This list identifies strings that should be considered a sensitive connection parameter when saving details for OLE DB data sources and connectors for which the field Other Connection Options is provided in the connection dialog. When Monarch Data Prep Studio saves a connection detail and encounters the specified sensitive connection parameter (e.g., "password"), it "scrubs" (i.e., deletes) the following string according to the save behavior selected:

Always - Saves workspace as is without clearing any credentials. When this option is selected, all passwords and credentials are saved, regardless of the parameters indicated in the Sensitive Connection String Parameters list.
Prompt - Returns a prompt asking the user whether to save the string credentials or scrub them clean if data sources containing passwords or parameters matching any entry in the Sensitive Connection String Parameters list are used in the workspace

Never - Scrubs all passwords and sensitive connection string parameters from all connections in the workspace before saving

Note: Microsoft Jet/ACE drivers use a specific password parameter for connection strings that must be added to the default clearing settings to maintain parity with password clearing in other sources.

This parameter is: "Jet OLEDB:Database Password"

This parameter will be added to the default parameters in its normalized, lower case form and will appear as: "jet oledb:database password"

Overwrite Workspace Security Settings

Ticking this checkbox instructs the application to replace all workspace security settings with those currently selected.

Runtime Parameters

Allows you to define and set values for runtime parameters that can be used by all tables in all workspaces within the application.

Refer to Working with Runtime Parameters for details on defining and using runtime parameters.

About

Displays relevant information related to your Monarch Data Prep Studio application, including the version number and Altair and Datawatch copyright notices.

Clicking the Configure License button launches the Monarch License Manager, which will allow you to modify the license used with your Monarch application. If your Monarch Data Prep Studio installation is licensed via License Server, you can click License Server Credentials to launch a dialog through which you can enter the appropriate credentials and connect to a Monarch License Server instance. If your license allows it, you will also be able to check out/in your license for offline use through this tab.