Any Source System
Applaud offers the ability to quickly and easily extract data from any source (legacy) system. RDBMS data sources are accessed using Applaud’s efficient tools. In addition, Applaud can directly access a wide variety of flat files including ASCII, binary, delimited, Excel, Btrieve, and mainframe EBCDIC (with both fixed and variable length records). Applaud can directly access data formats that are common in mainframes as well as other legacy systems such as packed fields, binary fields, Julian dates, etc. Applaud can also access files with multiple record types (i.e., multiple formats of data in the same file), and files with "repeating sections" (i.e., non-normalized sections of data that occur multiple times in a single record). Specific records may be omitted from any extraction based on any number of flexible criteria. Data may be easily consolidated from any combination of multiple records and/or multiple data sources.

Consolidate Data from Disparate Sources
Applaud’s extraction tools also make it easy to consolidate data from any number of disparate sources. Applaud’s extract feature allows the user to specify how data is processed when key values match data that has already been extracted. Options include updating the previously extracted data, inserting a new record, or producing an error report (because the situation should never occur).

The "Visual Record Layout"
Applaud offers the ability to define flat files with advanced GUI tools. Applaud’s "visual record layout" allows the user to define the file format while viewing the data in the actual file at the same time. The entire file may be quickly scanned and searched for various data values.

Automatic Data Format Analysis
Applaud’s Visual Record Layout allows the user to "drag & drop" data in the file when defining files. This causes Applaud to automatically analyze the data in the selected field to determine the correct format to use for the extraction.

Automatic Identification of Invalid Data Formats
If the user defines a field incorrectly, Applaud automatically displays the data in red. For example, in the above screen, the user has incorrectly specified that the birth date is in the format YYYYMMDD, but the data value is in the format MMDDYYYY. As a result Applaud displays the birth date value in red to alert the user to the problem. Applaud’s GUI tools speed the process of defining external files.

Automatic Handling of Data Exceptions
If Applaud detects data exceptions (such as non-numeric data in a numeric field or an invalid date in a date field), an automatic report alerts the user. The report shows the field(s) involved along with the actual data in the field, as well as all key information (for example the account number, part number, supplier number, customer number, employee ID, etc.). The process is entirely automatic, with no effort on the part of the user.