Overview
A pipe is a connector that links two elements in a PhixFlow model and sends data from the input to the output. Pipes allows you to control which attributes and which records from the input are delivered by to the output, although in most cases - with minimal configuration - you will get all columns and the records from the current run.
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| Field | Description | ||||||||||||||||
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| Name | Enter a name. The name is used to refer to the pipe in other model elements. Pipe names default to The name:
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| Enabled |
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| Static | Normally when a pipe requests data from a non-static input stream, that stream will first attempt to bring itself up to date, generating new stream sets as necessary, before supplying the data requested. However, if this field is ticked, the input stream will not run. Pipes from collectors cannot be marked as static.
Pipes from collectors cannot be marked as static. | ||||||||||||||||
| Mandatory |
If this is a push pipe with positive offsets and this option is ticked then the notification to create another stream set will only be pushed along the pipe if the last stream set created contains at least one record. This causes the pipe to present each candidate set to the output stream in a different way than usual. | ||||||||||||||||
| Multiplier |
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| Type | Select:
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| Data to Read | Select the type of input data to use.
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| Read Future Data | Use this option to exclude or include input streams sets that have future dates relative to the stream set you are generating. For details about how future stream sets occur, see Managing Future Stream Sets, above.
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In some circumstances the input stream may have stream sets that have dates in the future relative to the stream set being generated for the output stream. This may happen, for example, if:
- you roll-back some stream sets on the output stream
- but do not roll-back the corresponding stream sets on the input stream
- and then request that the output stream is brought up to date.
Some of the stream sets on the input stream will have dates in the future relative to some of the stream sets you are rebuilding.
By default, the Read Future Data checkbox is not ticked. This means pipes ignore any stream sets with dates in the future relative to the stream set you are generating. You want to ignore future stream sets when you rebuild an old stream set, because you want the pipe to retrieve the same data on the rerun as it retrieved when the stream set was first built.
When you run analysis on a stream with a transactional period, it is possible that as your analysis is still running, a different run can start and complete. This run can generate additional stream sets on the input stream with a future data relative to the date of the stream set you are generating. For transactional input streams, you want the pipe to use these future streams. To do this, tick the Read Future Data checkbox.
Filter
Filters are made up of a set of clauses; each clause in turn contains a number of conditions. These conditions must be satisfied for data to be passed through the pipe.
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Field | Description | ||||||||||||||||
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| Include History Records |
to filter out superseded records.
to include superseded records. | ||||||||||||||||
| Condition | Select one of the options
To add more conditions, hover your mouse pointer over this field to display the
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Hover your mouse pointer over the Condition field to display this button. | |||||||||||||||||
| Clause | Select an option from the list. PhixFlow adds more fields where you can:
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Hover your mouse pointer over a filter clause to display this button. | |||||||||||||||||
Indicates the value entered is a literal value. Click this icon to treat the value as an expression. | |||||||||||||||||
Indicates the value entered is an expression. Click this icon to treat the value to a literal string. Note: ["123", "234", "345"] looks like a literal value but it can be evaluated as an expression. | |||||||||||||||||
 | Open the expression in a larger editor. | ||||||||||||||||
| Cache Extraction Filter | A cache extraction filter allows you to further filter the data retrieved by a pipe. These are not commonly used, but are sometimes helpful when either:
For case 1, when using a lookup pipe, data retrieved is stored in a cache. See cache size for details. The cache extraction filter allows you, as you are processing a set of output records, to use different cached entries from the lookup for each of the records are you are processing. This is very fast compared to looking up from the source (i.e. going back to an external DB table or even another PhixFlow stream) for each output record. E.g. you want to look up the credit rating for a customer for a set of transactions - in the output, each transaction is represented by a single output record. You create an indexed lookup pipe using CustNo as the key for the index. This means that for each new CustNo you encounter in the data, all the credit rating entries for that CustNo would be retrieved by the pipe and placed into the cache. The credit rating for each customer is fully historied, so you get a number of entries for each CustNo. To get the relevant lookup entry for each output report (each transaction), you need to compare the transaction date of the output record to the dates of credit rating entries in the cache. So to extract the relevant record, you include a cache extraction filter in the form:
Cache extraction filters are entered free hand. The attribute names referenced must exist in a stream. This means that the each attribute must be one of:
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Country Is in ["England","France","Germany"] fx
Sort/Group
Use this section to group and sort data as it comes through the pipe.
This section has a toolbar with standard buttons.
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The grid contains a list of attributes from the input stream
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To add a stream attributes to the list
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- click
Insert excerpt _attributes_
show _
attributes_show nopanel true
To remove an attribute, use 
Permanently Delete in the toolbar.
A list of the stream attributes used to sort the data.
To add attributes,
- to open the list of attributes in the input stream
- drag a stream attribute into the grid.
To remove an attribute, click
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To set the sort or group properties for an attribute, double-click it to open its properties. following fields:
OrderThe order that the sorting will be appliedNameThe name of the stream attribute - in the sort order attribute editor, this is read-only.Direction
One of:
(A-Z) - ascending, e.g. A to Z, 1 to 9, earliest to latest date
(Z-A) - descending, e.g. Z to A, 9 to 1, latest to earliest date
DescriptionDescription of the sort order attribute.Access Permissions
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its name in the grid. If you want to create a new attribute that is not present in the input stream, in the section toolbar, click
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| Attribute | For input stream attributes, PhixFlow displays the attribute name. (Read-only) For a new attribute, enter a name. | ||||||||||||||||
| Order | Enter the number for the order the attribute appears in the grid and the order in which it is processed. Other attributes are renumbered. | ||||||||||||||||
| Direction | Select the sort order
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| Group |
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| Audit Summary | See Common Properties. |
| Field | Description |
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| Aggregate attributes | Specify any aggregate attributes on the pipe. |
| Advanced | Configure advanced features on the pipe. |
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