By the end of this page you will be able to:

Create a new file collector

Before starting this exercise, you will need to download train.zip. Extract the files to a convenient location on your local drive. Throughout the course, these will be referred to as the input files.

A file containing details of customer addresses can be found in the input files, at: 

[unzipped location]\inputData\AddressCheck\custAddrFiles\input\custAddr_20090322_1.txt

Open this file and have a look at the data in it. Notice, in particular, that there is a header line in the file with the column names of the data in the file.

You will now add a new file collector to your Introduction to Modelling analysis model to read this file into PhixFlow.

1. From the model toolbar, drag Hover your mouse over 

   Insert excerpt
   _file _file nopanel true

   s in the toolbar to show the list of File options.
2. Drag 

   Insert excerpt
   _file_collector _file_collector nopanel true

    onto the model.
3. In the new file collector settings tab that opens, enter the Name: Customer Addresses.
4. Click 

   Insert excerpt
   _finish _finish nopanel true

   .

5. You will now see the new file collector on the model.

   In the toolbar, click Insert excerpt _save_saveModel _save_saveModel nopanel true  to make sure that the new file collector will be shown when you re-open this model. Remember to save the model layout every time you add a new modelling component.

   
   

Set up a file collector and table

1. Hover over your new file collector, and click

   Insert excerpt
   _upload_file _upload_file nopanel true

   .
2. In the file explorer, go to: …\inputData\AddressCheck\custAddrFiles\input.
3. Select the file custAddr_20090322_1.txt and click Open.
4. In the Upload File window, click the Upload File button.
5. PhixFlow adds a new table to your model. PhixFlow has automatically configured the file collector and the table to load the file into PhixFlow.

Pause file data

In this course you will build up a model by adding components and running them. In PhixFlow, running a component causes each of its inputs to also run. This is so that you only need to run the final component in a model and it will, in turn, run everything you need to populate it, all the way back to the raw inputs to PhixFlow (via file collectors and database collectors).

In this case, once you have loaded the file, you will "pause" the file data so that you do not need to reload the file from your computer every time you run the model.
We will cover pausing components in PhixFlow in more detail in the Modelling Concepts course.
To pause the data loaded from the file:

1. In your model, hover your mouse pointer over the the Customer Addresses

   Insert excerpt
   _tableOnly _tableOnly nopanel true

    icon for Customer Addresses icon.
2. In the popup toolbar, click 

   Insert excerpt
   _static _static nopanel true

   .

Run analysis on the table

You will now run analysis on your new table. Analysis is the process that does all PhixFlow's data processing.
To run analysis:

1. In your model, hover your mouse pointer over the Customer Addresses

   Insert excerpt
   _tableOnly _tableOnly nopanel true

   icon.
2. In the popup toolbar, select the

   Insert excerpt
   _run_analysis _run_analysis nopanel true

   . PhixFlow runs the model, reading in data from the file of customer addresses via the file collector.
3. You will get a confirmation message when this has completed. We will look at messages in the console later.
   1. Image Added

View table data

To view the data you just loaded:

1. In your model, hover your mouse pointer over the Customer Addresses 

   Insert excerpt
   _tableOnly _tableOnly nopanel true

   icon.
2. In the popup toolbar, click 

   Insert excerpt
   _view_show_icononly _view_show_icononly nopanel true

   .In the drop-down list, select   Insert excerpt_view_default_view_defaultnopaneltrue Show the list of Views.
3. The Customer Addresses (Default View) window will show.
4. In the model window, click 

   Insert excerpt
   _save_saveModel _save_saveModel nopanel true

   .