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Comment: DOC-99 further changes to make the page use more direct language. Move Notification field infor into the User Notification Rule page

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The file exporter tab provides some of the standard list icons and the following settings.

Bring up the list of users configured in PhixFlow
  • .
A user can be selected from this list and dragged into the list of email recipients.
Enter a User Notification Rule that governs whether the email will be sent to this user. This must evaluate to 1 ("true" - send the email) or 0 ("false" - do not send the email). However, if you leave this field blank, it will default to "true" - send the email
FieldDescription

Basic Settings

NameThe name of the Enter a name for this file exporter.
EnabledTick when the configuration is complete to indicate you have completed the settings and the file exporter is ready for to use.
File Name (Expr)An expression that generates Enter an expression to generate the name of the file being exported. It must evaluate to a plain text string, and can include text expressions. A number of internal variables are available in this expressionYou can use the internal variables:
  • _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.
  • _inputMultiplier: the value returned by the input multiplier, if one is being used.
Output Directory (Expr)

An optionalexpressionused Optionally, enter anexpressionto generate the name of the directory into which generated files should be written. It must evaluate to a plain text string.

Note

As 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 written to a directory on a Windows platform. For you must surround plain text paths with quotes.

Directory separators must always be a forward slash /, for example  "C:/data/address/export/".

The internal variables you can use in this expression are

 Never use a backslash \ even if the output file will be written to a directory on a Windows operating system.

You can use the internal variables:

  • _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.
  • _inputMultiplier: the value returned by the input multiplier, if one is being used.

If no expression is provided, or you do not enter an expression or if the expression evaluates to blank, when you run the analysis model:

  • PhixFlow does not save the generated file
will not be saved
  • to disk
and
  • PhixFlow
will check
  • checks that you have completed the options in the Send By Email section
details are completed
  • .
FTP Site

The Select an FTP site  to to which the generated file will be moved. If no site is specified then the file is assumed to be generated and left on the local machine. If a site is specified then all directory paths specified on this form should For details about how to add sites to this list, see FTP Site. FTP directory paths must be the full path to the file . The because PhixFlow ignores the local machine's base directory specified in System Configuration is ignored because the base directory is specific to the .

If you do not select a site, PhixFlow assumes the output file will be saved on the local machine.

Ignore Base DirectoryNormally

When this check box is unticked, the base directory

, specified

is prepended to the location specified in Output Directory.  The local machine's base directory is set in the System Configuration tab → System Directories section

, is prepended to the output directory specified on this form. However, if this check box is ticked only the output directory is used

.

When ticked, PhixFlow uses the location specified in Output Directory as the full path for the export file.

Export File As

Files You can be exported export files in the following formats:

Comma Separated Values: Data will be read from a single push pipe and written to CSV files.

Excel Spreadsheet: Data will be read from a single push pipe and written to Excel Spreadsheet files.

Optionally, If the push pipe may specify a drilldown view which may in turn specify has a drill-down view with an Excel template .Optionally, the file exporter may specify an Excel Template which supersedes specified, this will be used to export the data. Optionally, use the Excel Template field for this file exporter. Specify an Excel template, which will supersede any template specified on a the push pipe drill-down view.

If you specify an Excel template is specifiedTemplate, each output file is generated by copying the Excel template file and overwriting the values in the first worksheet. In this case, the type of file generated is the same as that of the template.

If no Excel template is specifiedyou do not specify an Excel Template, each output file is generated by creating a new, empty empty Excel file and writing values to the first and only worksheet. In this case, the file type of file generated is determined by the extension generated by the the the File Name Expression field:.

.xls will generate a file in Microsoft Office 2003 Excel format.

.xlsx or .xlsm will generate a file in Microsoft Office 2007 Excel format.

any Any other extension will generate a file in the format set as the configured in System Configuration →  Default Export Excel Version in System Configuration..

Excel Spreadsheet (Multiple Inputs): Data will be read from all input pipes and written to Excel spreadsheet files. At least one input pipe must be a push pipe.

The Excel Template Expression must evaluate to the name of an Excel template file. The Excel template must be annotated with instructions to the exporter to insert data from any of the input pipes into specific ranges of cells. See File Exporter Excel Multi-input.

HTML File: Data will be read from a single push pipe and written to HTML files.

Optionally, If the push pipe may specify a Drilldown View which may in turn specify has a drill-down view with an Excel template .Optionally, the file exporter may specify an Excel Template which supersedes specified, this will be used to export the data. Optionally, use the Excel Template field for this file exporter. Specify an Excel template, which will supersede any template specified on a the push pipe drill-down view.

If you specify an Excel template is specifiedTemplate, each output file is generated by copying the Excel Excel  template file , and overwriting the values in the first worksheet, then writing the first worksheet out as HTML.If no Excel template is specified. In this case, the type of file generated is the same as that of the template.

If you do not specify an Excel Template, each output file is generated by creating a new, empty Excel file , and writing values to the first and only worksheet, then writing that worksheet out as HTML.

Overwrite existing fileThe file exporter overwrites existing files with the same name as the file to be generated. This can be useful where you want PhixFlow to replace a file at regular intervals, for example to update the content of an HTML page on an intranet.
Maximum Records per FileThe Enter the maximum number of records that will be written to each file.
HeaderIf ticked, Tick this box to include a header line will be written to generated files containing the names in the exported files. The header row contains the name of each field written in the following rows.
Character Set

The Select the character encoding to be used. Select a value from the drop-down list.:

  • utf-8
  • utf-16
  • ascii
  • other - see Other Character Set, below
  • cp1252
  • iso-8859-1
Other Character SetAvailable when Character Set = Other. Enter a different character set. For the full list of available character sets, see the Oracle Java documentation about encoding; you can use the canonical names from both columns can be usedeither column.
Line Separator StyleThe user can specify the line separator on each file exporter where a particular exporter needs to use a style other than the system default. Options available are:
  • Windows
  • Unix
  • Other
The system default line separator style can be configured on the first tab of the system configuration screen. If a default style is not specified then the default will revert to be the default of

When PhixFlow generates the file, it uses the line separator configured in System Configuration →  Advanced section → Line Separator Style. If this is not set, Phixflow uses the default for the operating system on which the PhixFlow server is running.

You may want to generate an export file that uses a different line separator, for example if PhixFlow runs on Linux, but the file will be sent to Windows users. To set a different line separator, select:

  • Windows
  • Unix
  • Other -  see Line Separator Chars, below
Line Separator Chars

Available when Line Separator Style = Other. Enter either one a single character or more multiple characters to use as a new line separator. The characters entered may be the literal characters or a sequence from the table below which may be useful where . These sequences are useful if the required separator character is not valid to be stored in the database.

SequenceDescription
\tTabtab
\nNewlinenewline
\rCarriage carriage return
\fForm form feed
\u + hexadecimal codeUnicode unicode character specified by the hexadecimal code


Column Separator

Select a value from the drop-down list. If Other is selected, a new box opens and a new column separator can be entered.

  • Comma
  • Space
  • Tab
  • Other -  see Separator Character, below
Separator CharacterAvailable when Column Separator = Other. Allows Enter a custom column separator to be entered. A or a sequence of multiple characters is allowed.
Excel Template

Available when Export File As is one of following:

  • Excel Spreadsheet (Multiple Inputs): thisexpressionis evaluated to determine the Excel template to be used.  enter an expressionthat evaluates to an Excel template.
  • Excel Spreadsheet or HTML File: this is the name enter the name of the Excel template to be used.
Evaluate Formulae Before Saving FileWhen checked, the file exporter will Tick this box to generate the export file and then to evaluate any formula in the spreadsheet before saving the file, so that when . When a user opens the file is next opened in Excel, the calculations have already been done.
Quote Style

Select a value from the drop-down list.

If Other if selected, a new box opens and a new quote character can be entered.

  • Double Quote
  • Single Quote
  • Back Tick
  • Other - see Quote Character below
  • None
Quote CharacterAvailable when Quote Style = Other. Enter a custom quote style character.

Input Multiplier

Input MultiplierThe input multiplier expression should evaluate to a list of one or more values. For each value in the list, the internal variable _inputMultiplier will  will be set to that value and the file export process will be repeated i.e. the pull pipes will be read and the data from those pipes processed to generate file output data, and a new export file will be written.

Inputs

A list of pipes into the File Exporterfile exporter.

Send By Email

In this section you can set up an automated email to be sent when a file is exported, optionally with the exported file attached. Create the list of recipients in the User Recipients section.

Emails are generated in an outbound queue and actually sent by a separate email demon process. If the email demon cannot send emails immediately, for example because the email server is down, the email demon process will try to re-send periodically until either it succeeds or the timeout period has passed.

If an input multiplier expression is provided you specified an Input Mulitplier for this file exporter then , several export files may be produced and each generated. Each file may be assigned to several recipients. The subject and body expressions may also evaluate to different values each time (for example if if _inputMultiplier  is included in the expression). In this case PhixFlow will try to generate as few emails as possible by applying the following rules.:

  • For each recipient identify the files to be sent to that recipient.
  • If the subject and body message calculated for each file is the same
then
  • , generate a single email and attach all files to that email.
  • If the subject and body messages for each file are different
then create
  • ,  generate one email for each subject and body message pair
and attach
  • . Attach to each email all the files for which the subject and body expression evaluated to the same subject and body message
.

Emails are generated in an outbound queue and actually sent by a separate email demon process. If it is not possible to send emails immediately, e.g. because the email server is down, the email demon process will try to re-send periodically until either it succeeds or until a timeout period has passed.

Extra buttons:

Image Removed
Email FromThe generated email will appear to be from this email address. Anexpressionthat must evaluate to a plain text string.
Subject ExpressionEnter a PhixFlowexpression to create the email subject. Must evaluate to a plain text string.
Attach FileWhether or not the exported file should be attached to the email sent.
Future Attachments Expression

This expression is evaluated to give a list of external files that should be be attached to the email.

These files are created outside PhixFlow, and may or may not exist when the file exporter runs. If the files don't exist, the generated email will be held in the output queue until either they are created by some external process, or a timeout period has passed.

Zip File

Available when Attach File is selected or Future Attachments Expression is set. This specifies whether or not the attached file(s) will be zipped.

Message ExpressionEnter a PhixFlowexpression to create the message body of the email. Must evaluate to a plain text string.

Encryption

Available when Send By Email section → Zip File is selected. Set whether exported zip attachments are encrypted, along with the encryption parameters and the password which must then be used to open the files.

Encryption Type

The following encryption types are supported:

  • leave blank: If the Encryption Type is blank, then the file will not be encrypted.
  • Standard Zip: Standard ZIP 2.0 encryption is the encryption type that is accepted by most applications, and is the weakest supported encryption type.
  • AES 128-bit: All variants of AES encryption are stronger than Standard Zip encryption, but AES encryption is the weakest type of AES encryption supported and is accepted by fewer applications.
  • AES 256-bit: AES 256-bit is the strongest type of AES encryption supported.
Password

Email recipients must enter this password in order to open any exported zipped files.

When setting the password, you should make a note of the password used and communicate it separately to the recipients of the emails to be sent out. It is not possible to display the current password.

Confirm PasswordThis must match the main Password.

User Recipients

A list of email recipients. The rules to determine whether each recipient will be sent the email are configured in the User Notification Rule. For each rule, in the list, the following fields are shown:

UserThe name of the recipient. This must be a user that has been set up in PhixFlow.
Email AsSpecifies how the email is to be sent to the recipient TO/CC/BCC
ExpressionNotification

This table has the standard toolbar plus the extra button  

Insert excerpt
_user
_user
nopaneltrue
.

To add users to this table, click

Insert excerpt
_user
_user
nopaneltrue
 to display a list of users. Select users and drag them into the table. 

  • Name: The user name.
  • Email As: The email send-type.
  • Expression:  A PhixFlowexpression.

 To change any of the data, double-click on the row to open the User Notification Rule tab.

Recipient Expressions

TO Expression

Enter a PhixFlow expression to calculate the recipients for the email. The recipients returned by this expression will be added to the list of recipients returned by the individual User Notification Rule on the Email Recipients section.

For example to simply enter a list of email addresses you can enter an expression such as: ["john.smith@acme.com","jane.doe@corp.com"]
The result of the expression must be:

  • either a single plain text string that should be a valid email address
  • or a list object that contains one or more strings, each of which must be a valid email address.
CC ExpressionAs in the TO Expression, the list of users returned by this expression will be included on the CC line on the email.
BCC ExpressionAs in the TO Expression, the list of users returned by this expression will be included in the BCC line on the email.

Analysis Models

A list of Analysis Models using this file exporter.

Description

DescriptionDescription of the file exporter.

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