Overview

Use a file exporter to create files with a format that matches that of the input stream.

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

• the file exporter name in the repository
• the file exporter icon in a model.

Basic Settings

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 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 to disk
• PhixFlow checks that you have completed the options in the Send By Email section.

Select an FTP site to which the generated file will be moved. For details about how to add sites to this list, see FTP Site. FTP directory paths must be the full path to the file because PhixFlow ignores the local machine's base directory specified in System Configuration.

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

You can export files in the following formats:

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

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

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.

If the push pipe has a drill-down view with an Excel template 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 the push pipe drill-down view.

If you specify an Excel Template, 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 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.

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

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

Available when Export File As is one of following:

Available when the Export File As is Excel Spreadsheet.

• either the Output Directory,
• or the PDF Target Path.

PhixFlow reports on the PDF conversion in the console's PDF Chore tab.

Available when the Export File As is Excel Spreadsheet.

Enter an expression that evaluates to a path where PhixFlow will save the PDF file.

Input Multiplier

• Log Input Multiplier Messages: when ticked, PhixFlow writes a message to the log every time the input multiplier value changes during an analysis run, whatever is set here.

Inputs

A list of pipes into the file 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 you specified an Input Multiplier for this file exporter, several export files may be 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 _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, generate a single email and attach all files to that email.
• If the subject and body messages for each file are different,  generate one email for each subject and body message pair. Attach to each email all the files for which the subject and body expression evaluated to the same subject and body message.

Enter an expression that evaluates to 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.

Specify whether or not the attached file(s) will be zipped.

• is not ticked the expression must evaluate to a plain text string. 
• is ticked, the string can include HTML tags, for example to format text or provide links.

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.

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.

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.

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

Recipient Expressions

• 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.