File Controller¶
File controllers provide the functionality to read-from /write-to a file location. The file location can be either a local or a UNC path. IMan must have the necessary Permissions for the read/write operations.
Read Mode¶
Readers will read matching files in a path. If multiple files are found to match the criteria, each file will be read by the Reader and the data processed as a single batch.
File Path¶
The path used to read the files to a file location. The path can either be either to a local or remote (UNC) directory.
File Name¶
The name of file(s) to read.
The file name can use Wildcards (‘?’ or ‘*’) to match single or multiple characters respectively.
Write Mode¶
When writing data the File IO Controller will write new file(s).
File Path¶
The path to write the files to a file location. The path can either be either to a local or remote (UNC) directory.
File Name¶
The file name for the file being created.
Note
The file name can be literal or generated from an inline VBScript expression. The Evaluate FileName option must be checked.
Example
To generate a file name in the form of:
where the middle section of the field contains the date/time of export, you would enter:
It is also possible to use Expando Fields within the file name field to reference field values within a dataset, for example:
Where OrderId refers to a field within the Transaction usually selected in the ‘Create a File Per Transaction’.
Create File Per Transaction¶
This property controls how files will be created. When set to (none), a single file is created for the entire dataset.
When set to a value other than none, a file will be created for each transaction (record).
It is recommended to use either a field reference in the file name to uniquify the filename , or deselect 'Overwrite Existing File' so the correct number of files are written.
- (none)
- When set to (none) only the fields and values of the topmost transaction in the dataset can be referenced in the file name.
- Transaction Type selected
- Fields and their values corresponding to the Transaction.
Encoding Method¶
The character encoding method for the file(s).
See Appendix B – Character Encoding for further details.
Write Byte Order Mark (BOM)¶
For Unicode encoding types, selecting this will write the BOM.
See Appendix B – Character Encoding for further details.
Evaluate File Name¶
When selected, the file name value is evaluated using VBScript
When unselected, contents of File Name field will be treated as literal.
Overwrite Existing File¶
When selected, if the file being created has the same name as a file in the destination folder described by the File Path field, the file will be overwritten.
When unselected, the file being generated is made unique through the addition of a suffix (_1, _2, _3, etc.).
Check Existing File For Contents¶
When selected, if a file is generated with a file name that is the same as an existing file, the contents of the existing file are compared to the file being generated.
If the file contents match, the new file will not be written.