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Comment: DOC-94 Reformatting file collector page

A File Collector describes Use a file collector to specify the structure, content, naming patterns and location of files of data to be imported into PhixFlow.

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. When you run the file collector, PhixFlow imports the data. You can also use a file collector to process files

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inside compressed file archives such as zip files

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; see Compressed Files

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, below.

You can also use a file collector to

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import email messages and

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their attached files

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; see How To: Read data from an email account

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Form: File Collector Details

The form provides the standard form icons.

Extra buttons for details.

To open a file collector's settings tab, double-click on:

  • the file collector name in the repository browser
  • the file collector icon in a model.

 The toolbar has the standard icons and an extra button:

Image Modified

If a valid location has been configured in the file collector to locate an existing CSV file, the user can click on a button at the top of the grid to automatically create the file column descriptions in this form.

The column names are taken from the first row of the file. To construct the name all invalid characters are stripped out of the value found in each cell and the result is assumed to be the name of the column.

The remaining rows are examined to try to determine the type and length for each column definition based on the values found in the file. If a type cannot be determined then the column is defined as a string. The length of the field is set to be the length of the longest value found.


The following fields are configured on the Details tabsettings tab has the following sections:

FieldTypeDescription

Basic Settings

NameTextThe name of the file collector.
EnabledCheckboxTick when the configuration is complete and the file collector is ready for use.
Source TypeDropdownThis field can have any of the following values:
  • Specified Directory: This option will cause the file collector to use the Import File Location (specified in System Configuration on the System Directories tab) as the root input directory when looking for files to load.
  • Managed File: This option will cause the file collector to use the File Upload Directory (specified in System Configuration on the System Directories tab) as the root input directory when looking for files to load.
Number of Header LinesTextThe number of lines in the header of the file. These are ignored when reading the file. (This option is not available for Binary File, XML and HTML file types).
File TypeDropdownCan have values:

Comma Separated Values: fields are delimited by a comma, (or other character).

Fixed Length Records: fields have a fixed column width.

Binary File: Data is extracted from the file using a Binary File Grammar (in XML) specified in the File Format Description tab.

File Details Only: Only attribute details about the file itself will be available.

Excel Spreadsheet: Data is extracted from the an excel spreadsheet supporting a .xls or .xlsx extension.

Tip

.xlsx type excel files containing in excess of 10,000 rows are not supported by PhixFlow and should not be imported using a

File Collector

file collector.

XML File: Data is extracted from an XML file

HTML File: Data is extracted from an HTML file

Allow Non-Scheduled CollectionCheckboxIf this is turned on, then the collector will run as part of any ad-hoc Analysis Engine run which requires this data. If not, it will only run as part of a scheduled task under the Analysis Engine.
FTP Site
The FTP Site on which the import file is stored. If no site is specified then the file is assumed to be on the local machine. If a site is specified then all directory paths specified on this form should be the full path to the file since the base directory specified in system configuration is ignored (since the base directory is specific to the local machine).

File Location Strategy

 Drop-downCan have values:

All Files in Folder: read all files matching the pattern specified in File Pattern Expression.

Read File Paths: read in file path names from a collector or stream.

This input database collector or stream must be attached to the file collector by a lookup pipe with no index set. The attribute of the input stream or collector which contains the file path names is specified in the field: File Name Attribute. The value entered into this field should be plain text, e.g. myFilePaths but not quoted "myFilePaths".

Each file path name is interpreted as a pathname relative to the Import Directory. A path name may be a simple file name, or it may have multiple levels of directory, including compressed files (which will be interpreted as directories). The directory separator must be '/' (forward-slash), and not '\' (back-slash), even on a Windows platform. There should be no leading '/'.

E.g. 'abc.csv', 'dir1/dir2.zip/abc.csv'

Please note that once an attempt is made to read a file via the Read Paths method, the stream will not attempt to re-import the contents of that file if instructed to do so during another analysis run, even if the original import failed.
Please also note that the stream containing the file paths will not run automatically in this situation, and so must be added to a taskplan if it is required to run it before the file collector stream.

Read Names:

read

This option is deprecated.

Read in file locations from a collector or stream. This input collector or stream must be attached to the file collector by a pipe. The attribute of the input stream or collector which contains the file locations is specified in the field: File Name Attribute.

  • Read Names is deprecated.
    • Tag

    Text Expression

    (special case: only string literals allowed, no PhixFlow variables)

    This field is only available if the Source Type field is set to Managed File. When files are uploaded by PhixFlow they are placed into a directory whose full path is a combination of the root File Upload Directory (specified in System Configuration on the System Directories tab), the tag value specified here and the Input Directory specified below (hard coded to 'in' for Managed files).
    For example, if the System Configuration File Upload Directory is set to C:\ManagedFiles and Tag is set to CVFiles then the File Collector will look within C:\ManagedFiles\CVFiles\in for files to process.

    If you are creating a file collector to load email messages and/ or attached files, you can specify a tag here if one has been provided in the subject line of the incoming emails. See How To: Read data from an email account for further details.

    Ignore Base Directory

    		 CheckboxThis field is only available if Source Type = Specified Directory.
    Normally the base directory, specified in the "System Directories" tab of the "System Configuration" screen, is prepended to all directories specified on this form. However, if this flag is ticked then this does not happen and the directories specified on this form alone are used as the full path specifications for the import file.
    Input Directory ExpressionText Expression

    Source Type = Specified Directory

    If the Source Type is Specified Directory, files will be ready from the directory specified in Input Directory Expression.

    Unless the flag Ignore Base Directory is ticked, the path specified in this field will be added to the default input directory root - this is specified in the System Configuration File Upload Location. If the flag Ignore Base Directory is ticked, the full path for the input directory must be specified.

    In fact, this field is an expression. This must evaluate to a plain text string. In the simple case, this will be text surrounded by quotes, e.g.

    Code Block
    "C:/data/address/input/accountValues"
    Also, because this is an expression, you must always use / rather than \, even on windows platforms.

    You can include PhixFlow variables in this expression, e.g.:

    Code Block
    "C:/data/address/input/" + _inputMultiplier

    If you need to include wildcards or some other variable element in the resulting path, you must use the Directory Pattern Expression.

    If File Location Strategy = All Files in Folder PhixFlow will look in this directory to find files matching the pattern specified in File Pattern Expression.

    If File Location Strategy = Read Names this is added to the start of the file location read from the file name attribute.

    Source Type = Managed File

    If the Source Type is Managed file, this will contain a non editable value of "in"
    This will be appended to the combined path of System Configuration File Upload Directory and Tag to give the input directory that files will be read from.

    Directory Pattern ExpressionRegular Expression

    This field is used to identify valid sub-directories of the input directory.

    If a Directory Pattern Expression is provided then PhixFlow will not only check the Input Directory for files but will also check all sub-directories of the Input Directory. Each file found will then not only have its name checked against the File Pattern Expression but will also have the relative path from the Input Directory to the file (referred to as the sub-directory path) checked against the Directory Pattern Expression.

    For example, suppose the Input Directory has the sub-directories: 'region1/teamA'; 'region1/teamB'; 'region2/teamA'. If you want all the files across all regions for teamA, but not teamB, then you could use the following Directory Pattern Expression to pick out just the files for teamA:

    ".*/teamA/"

    Alternatively, if you wanted all the files for all teams in region 1 only, you could use the following Directory Pattern Expression:

    "region1/.*"

    Regular expression rules are used to perform this match rather than the sort of pattern matching rules you might be used to when listing files. For example:

    • To match any string of characters, you must use ".*" and not "*"
    • To match a "." you must use "\\." and not "." (which means any character)
    • You must use forward slashes "/" instead of backslashes "\" for directory separators

    A number of internal variables are available in these expressions:

    • _fromDate: the start date of the period of the stream being processed.
    • _toDate: the end date of the period of the the stream being processed.

    Note that there are also a number of predefined compressed file expressions that will always be checked to determine if a file within a valid sub directory is actually a compressed file. If so then this file will assumed to be a valid compressed file and hence will be recursed into as if it was a standard matching directory. Please see Compressed Files for a list of valid compressed file expressions.

    Exclude Dir. Pattern Expr.Regular Expression

    This field can be used to exclude certain sub-directories found by the Directory Pattern Expression.

    For example, suppose the Input Directory has the sub-directories: 'region1/teamA'; 'region1/teamB'; 'region2/teamA'. If you want all the files across all regions for teamA, but not teamB, then you could use the following Directory Pattern Expression to find all files:

    ".*"

    combined with the following Exclude Dir. Pattern Expr to exclude those for teamB:

    ".*/teamB/"

    Regular expression rules are used to perform this match rather than the sort of pattern matching rules you might be used to when listing files. For example:

    • To match any string of characters, you must use ".*" and not "*"
    • To match a "." you must use "\\." and not "." (which means any character)
    • You must use forward slashes "/" instead of backslashes "\" for directory separators

    A number of internal variables are available in these expressions:

    • _fromDate: the start date of the period of the stream being processed.
    • _toDate: the end date of the period of the the stream being processed.
    File Pattern ExpressionText ExpressionThis field is only available if File Location Strategy = All Files in Folder. An expression used to generate a list of files to be read. This expression must itself resolve to a Regular Expression, used to match files in the input directory. Note that regular expression rules are used to perform this match, not the shell replacement style rules used in many file systems. E.g. to match all files, you must use ".*" and not "*". A number of internal variables are available in these expressions:
    • _fromDate: the start date of the period of the stream being processed.
    • _toDate: the end date of the period of the the stream being processed.
    • %SEQ%: the current sequence number.

    Examples:

    "inputRecords.txt"

    will read files called "inputRecords.txt" from the input directories.

    ".*"

    will read all files in the input directories.

    ".*\\.txt"

    will read all files in the input directories with the extension ".txt"

    "teamA.*"

    will read all files in the input directories starting with "teamA."

    "record_" + toString(now(),"yyyy-MM-dd") + "\\.txt"

    will read files in the input directories with the format "record_yyyy-MM-dd.txt", where yyyy-MM-dd is the current date. E.g. "record_2013-03-26.txt".

    "("+listToString(_context.f,"|")+")"

    will read files with name contained in the list of files uploaded by the Stream Action which caused the File Collector to run, but only if a Context Value called 'f' is set in the Action and its value expression is '_files'

    Archive Directory ExpressionRegular ExpressionIf set, processed files will be written to this directory. This field is an expression that must resolve to a Regular Expression. Note that because this is an expression field, if you supply a simple directory definition in plain text it must be surrounded by quotes. Also, directory separators must be / and not \, even if the file is being moved to a directory on a Windows platform. E.g. "C:/data/address/archive/".
    Error Directory ExpressionRegular ExpressionIf set, files that error during processing will be written to this directory. This field is an expression that must resolve to a Regular Expression. Note that because this is an expression field, if you supply a simple directory definition in plain text it must be surrounded by quotes. Also, directory separators must be / and not \, even if the file is being moved to a directory on a Windows platform. E.g. "C:/data/address/error/".
    Local Archive DirectoryCheckbox For files retrieved via FTP, whether the archive directory is on the PhixFlow server (local) or on the original server.
    Local Error DirectoryCheckbox For files retrieved via FTP, whether the error directory is on the PhixFlow server (local) or on the original server.

    Advanced

    Maximum FilesTextSpecifies the maximum number of files that will be processed whenever the collector runs.
    Minimum FilesTextSpecifies the minimum number of files that are expected to be found whenever the collector runs. If fewer files are found then this is treated as an error.
    Max Records Per FileTextSpecifies the maximum number of records that will be read from each file processed.

    Anchor
    fileCollectorErrorsBeforeRollback
    fileCollectorErrorsBeforeRollback
    Errors Before Rollback

    		Text

    The maximum number of errors PhixFlow will permit during the processing of a file before. Once this number has been exceeded, PhixFlow will abandon the attempted file load.

    See error handling summary below.

    Parallel ReadersTextThe number of files to process in parallel. If blank, this defaults to 1.If the collector is configured to read files in sequence, this field is ignored and a single file reader is used.
    Next Sequence

    The next sequence number expected to be found within the name of the file being imported.

    This field is only available if File Location Strategy = All Files in Folder.

    Unreadable DirectoriesDrop-downThe action to take on finding an unreadable directory when searching a directory hierarchy for files to import.
    • Error: unreadable directories will be reported, and if any are found, the file search will fail.
    • Warning: unreadable directories will be reported, but the file search will continue unaffected.
    • Ignore: unreadable directories will be silently ignored
    XPath ExpressionXPathThis field is only available if File Type = XML File or HTML File

    This field should be populated according to valid XPath syntax. Please see XPath Examples for how to use XPath expressions and how the returned data can be used and evaluated in the corresponding stream attribute expressions.

    Character Set

    Text/

    Dropdown

    		The character encoding to be used.
    Select a value from the drop down list. If Other if selected, a new box opens and a new character set can be entered. Full list of available character sets can be found here (Canonical Names from both columns can be used).
    Column Separator

    Text/

    Dropdown

    		Select a value from the drop down list. If Other is selected, a new box opens and a new column separator can be entered.
    Separator CharacterTextThis field is only available if Column Separator = Other. Allows a custom column separator to be entered.
    Quote Style

    Text/

    Dropdown

    		Select a value from the drop down list. If Other if selected, a new box opens and a new quote character can be entered.
    Quote CharacterTextThis field is only available if Quote Style = Other. Allows a custom quote style character to be entered.

    Anchor
    fileCollectorIgnoreExtraColumns
    fileCollectorIgnoreExtraColumns
    Ignore Extra Columns

    		CheckboxThis field is only available if File Type = Comma Separated Values.

    If this flag is set then PhixFlow will not throw an error if the record being read contains more columns than expected. If this flag is not set then an error will be reported if there are too many columns.

    See error handling summary below.

    Anchor
    fileCollectorIgnoreMissingColumns
    fileCollectorIgnoreMissingColumns
    Ignore Missing Columns

    		CheckboxThis field is only available if File Type = Comma Separated Values.

    If this flag is set then PhixFlow will not throw an error if the record being read contains fewer columns than expected. If this flag is not set then an error will be reported if there are too few columns.

    See error handling summary below.

    Import Rows MatchingRegular ExpressionPhixFlow will attempt to match each line in the file against the expression, and only those that match will be imported.
    Replace Text MatchingRegular ExpressionIn each imported line, replace all occurrences of the text matched with Replace Text Matching with With.
    WithRegular ExpressionSee description of Replace Text Matching above.
    Anchor
    excelRangeExpression
    excelRangeExpression
    Excel Data Range Expression    		Expression: List

    This field is only available if File Type = Excel Spreadsheet.

    This field is an expression that must evaluate to a list of ranges with the format "WorksheetName!TopLeftCell:BottomRightCell"

    If this field is left blank, PhixFlow will read the first worksheet it finds in the excel file (even if this is a hidden sheet) with a range covering the whole sheet.

    E.g. if just a single range is needed: "DailyCallsSheet!A1:G100"

    E.g. if a list of ranges is required: ["DailyCallsSheet!A1:G100", "A1:B20", "Calls!A1:C100"]

    Remember that in all cases PhixFlow will only read the columns that have been defined in the File Columns tab.

    Because this field is an expression, the resulting list can be generated with any valid PhixFlow expression. You can also use the internal variable _worksheets which gives you the list of worksheets that PhixFlow found in the file. See the example below for how you might use this.

    Related internal variables

    See notes for the internal variables _worksheet and _range below. These can be used in stream attribute expressions to record the source worksheet and range for data you have loaded into PhixFlow.

    Constraints

    If a worksheet is specified, then the full cell range must also be specified. Hence it is not possible to select a 'worksheet only' or 'columns only for a specified worksheet'. e.g DailyCallsSheet or DailyCallsSheet!A:C are not supported.

    If the worksheet name contains spaces or single quotes, it must be enclosed in single quotes and embedded single quotes must be doubled up.

    E.g. if the Sheet name is "Gary's Sheet", a single range expression would look like "'Gary''s Sheet'!A1:G100".

    Examples

    Example - Specify all rows and columns in the default 1st worksheet

    Leave this field empty as this is the default behaviour

    Example - Specify columns A to C only on the 1st worksheet

    Set the range expression to "A:C"

    Example - Specify columns A to G, rows 1 to 10 only on the 1st worksheet

    Set the range expression to "A1:G10"

    Example - Specify columns A to G, rows 1 to 10 only on the "Daily" worksheet

    Set the range expression to "Daily!A1:G10"

    Example - Specify columns A to G, rows 1 to 10 only on the "John's Data" worksheet

    Set the range expression to "'John''s Data'!A1:G10". Note the additional and doubled single quotes.


    Example Examine the list of worksheets that have been found and specify ranges for only certain sheets, if they exist

    The worksheet names contain spaces and/or single quotes.

    Set the range expression to:

    Code Block
    do (
    $rangeList = [],
    forEach($sheet, _worksheets,
        if ( listContains(["sheet A", "sheet'B"], $sheet),
            do(
                $safeSheet = "'" + replaceAll($sheet, "'", "''") + "'",
                $range = $safeSheet + "!A1:B10",
                addElement($rangeList, $range)
            )
        )
    ),
    $rangeList
)

    This expression will evaluate to the list of a maximum of two ranges, if both worksheets sheet A and sheet'B exist. Crucially, if a sheet is not found, the range will not be included. This is important for error handling. If you specify a range that is not in the excel file PhixFlow will error. So if you are not sure that a worksheet will always be included, write an expression like this to check, and only specify the range when the sheet is found.

    Note the expression for $safeSheet, which doubles up embedded single quotes and wraps the result in single quotes - if this is omitted, PhixFlow will not recognise the generated ranges as valid.


    Ignore Undefined ValuesCheckboxThis checkbox is only available if File Type = Excel Spreadsheet.

    This checkbox should be ticked if all unsupported excel values such as #N/A, #REF! #DIV/0 etc should be ignored and replaced with null values during processing. In this case a single warning message will be displayed to the user once processing has completed stating the number of unsupported cell values found during the processing and a detailed message about the first unsupported cell value.

    If this checkbox is unticked then each unsupported excel value will be reported as an individual warning/error in the console and processing will be terminated if the maximum number of errors/warnings is exceeded.

    File PasswordText

    This checkbox is only available if File Type = Excel Spreadsheet.

    If you are reading a spreadsheet which is password protected, enter the password here so that the file can be unlocked.

    Confirm PasswordText

    This checkbox is only available if File Type = Excel Spreadsheet.

    If you are reading a spreadsheet which is password protected, confirm the password here so that the file can be unlocked.

    File Columns

    Extra section toolbar buttons:

    Image Modified

    Shows the list of Streams.

    Image Modified

    		Shows the list of File Collectors.


    NameTextThe name of the column. The attribute will be referred by this name elsewhere in PhixFlow. This can contain any combination of letters and numbers, and the characters: '_'.

    Order

    		NumberThe order in which the attributes are placed. This must match the order of the fields in the files that will be read by this file collector.
    TypeDrop-downThis can be one of:
    LengthNumberFor a String, the maximum length of the String. For an Integer, the maximum number of digits. Note that for a comma-separated file it is not necessary to set field sizes; only the field sizes of the fields in the stream that this collector will write to are important. Of course, for a file with fixed length records it is crucial to set the fields lengths correctly.

    Xml Namespaces

    Xml Namespaces are used for providing uniquely named elements and attributes in an XML document. An XML instance may contain element or attribute names from more than one XML vocabulary. If each vocabulary is given a namespace, the ambiguity between identically named elements or attributes can be resolved. Note : this tab is only available for XML File Collectors.

    NameText

    Name of the XML namespace.

    However, this is not mandatory - you can give any namespace any name - all that matters is that the names defined here match those you use in XPath expressions to extract data from the XML response.

    In particular, default namespaces, e.g. xmlns="urn:xmlns:company-com:message" can be given any name, providing that you use this name in XPath expressions.

    ValueTextValue of the XML namespace. E.g. http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/

    File Format Description

    This tab is only available for

    Available when File Type is Binary File

    Collectors.

    Validate File FormatCheckboxValidate that the file matches the XML description.
    Stream Item NodeExpression:
    list of strings

    A list of target node names - that is, the names of nodes that will generate an output record.

    Example of a single target:

    "DATA_RECORD"

    Example of a list of targets:

    ["DATA_RECORD1","DATA_RECORD2","DATA_RECORD3"]

    File Format Description
    		A Binary File Grammar, in XML, describing the format of data in
    the file.

    Description

    DescriptionTextDescription of
    the file
    collector
    .

    Anchor
    fileCollectorErrorHandlingSummary
    fileCollectorErrorHandlingSummary
    Error handling

    ...