Transformations overview

A transformation takes data from one or more data sources, reshapes it, and delivers the result to a destination. It’s how you turn the data you’ve brought into Connecto into the exact output another system expects — the right columns, in the right shape, matched and combined the way you need.

Every transformation belongs to a provider organization and is made up of versions. You edit a version, activate the one you want live, and run it to produce output.

What you need first

Before you build a transformation, make sure you have:

• At least one data source to read from — an upload, an SFTP source, or an HRIS source. For a provider building on a client’s data, the client must have shared the source with you.
• An output target to deliver to (a file-storage or SFTP destination). This defines the output schema — the columns your result must produce.

Note

Transformations are managed by organization administrators on a provider organization. If you don’t see Transformations in the sidebar, your account doesn’t have permission to manage them.

Two ways to build

Connecto gives you two surfaces for the same underlying pipeline. You can move between them.

• The New Transformation wizard — a guided, step-by-step flow: name the flow, pick a source, optionally enrich it with a second source, choose a target, and map the output fields. This is the quickest way to create a straightforward transformation. See Creating a transformation.
• The pipeline editor — a visual canvas where a transformation is a diagram of steps (load, filter, join, aggregate, unpivot, compute, output). Use it when you need more than a single source and a field mapping — for example filtering rows, grouping and summarising, or reshaping wide data. See The pipeline editor.

The wizard creates the first version; the pipeline editor is where you refine it and build anything more involved.

Versions and their lifecycle

A transformation is never edited in place. Every transformation holds a list of versions, each with a status:

Status	What it means
Draft	A version you’re still editing. Not runnable until you activate it.
Active	The live version. This is the one that runs. Only one version is active at a time.
Deprecated	A version that used to be active and has been superseded.
Invalid	A version that was deactivated because it could no longer run correctly.

You edit a Draft, then activate it to make it live. Changing an already-active version doesn’t overwrite it — Connecto opens your changes in a new Draft so the live version keeps running untouched until you’re ready. See Running and versions for the full lifecycle.

The path end to end

1. Create a transformation with the wizard, or start one and open the pipeline editor.
2. Build and map it — connect sources, add steps, and map every required output field.
3. Resolve any issues the editor flags — a version can’t be activated while it has blocking problems.
4. Activate the version you want live.
5. Run it, and watch the result on the Activity page, where you can download the output or review any row errors.

Ready to build one? Start with Creating a transformation.