1. A computer-implemented method for generating code from a data flow associated with an extract, transform, and load (ETL) process, the method comprising: identifying a data exchange requirement between a first operator and a second operator in the data flow, the first operator being a graphical object that represents a first data transformation step in the data flow and being associated with a first type of runtime engine, the second operator being a graphical object that represents a second data transformation step in the data flow and being associated with a second type of runtime engine; and generating code to manage data staging between the first operator and the second operator in the data flow associated with the ETL process, the code to exchange data from a format associated with the first type of runtime engine to a format associated with the second type of runtime engine.