Forms: File Exporter
A File Exporter creates files with a format that matches that of the input stream.
Form: File Exporter Details
The following fields are configured on the Details tab:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the file exporter. |
| Enabled | Tick when the configuration is complete and the file exporter is ready for use. |
| File Name Expression | An Expression that generates 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 expression:
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| Output Directory Expression | An optional Expression used to generate the name of the directory into which generated files should be written. It must evaluate to a plain text string. A number of Internal Variables are available in this expression:
If no expression is provided, or the expression evaluates to blank, the generated file will not be saved to disk and PhixFlow will check that the Send By Email tab details are completed. |
| FTP Site | The FTP Site on which the generated file is to be moved to. |
| Ignore Base Directory | Normally the base directory, specified in the "System Directories" tab of the "System Configuration" screen, is prepended to the output directory specified on this form. However, if this flag is ticked then this does not happen and the output directory alone is used as the full path specification for the export file. |
| Export File As | Files can be exported in the following formats:
If Excel Spreadsheet or HTML File are chosen, a field to specify the Excel template for the data to be exported into will become available. If Excel Spreadsheet or HTML File are chosen and no Excel Template is specified for the File Exporter or in the Drilldown View, PhixFlow will export a table of data to Excel or HTML respectively. The output format for an excel file can be controlled by the extension given in the File Name Expression field:
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| Overwrite Existing File | File exporters can now be configured to overwrite 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, e.g. to update the content of an HTML page on an intranet. |
| Character Set | 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). |
| Include Header Row | If ticked, a header line will be written to generated files containing the names of each field written in the following rows. |
| Line Separator Style | The 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:
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| Line Separator Chars | This field is only available if Line Separator Style = Other. Allows a custom new line separator to be entered. A sequence of multiple characters is allowed. |
| 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. |
| Separator Chars | This field is only available if Column Separator = Other. Allows a custom column separator to be entered. A sequence of multiple characters is allowed. |
| Excel Template | Optional field, if export file type is Excel Spreadsheet or HTML File, to use an Excel template for data to be exported into. If a Drilldown View has been configured with a specified Excel Template on the input pipe to the File Exporter, setting an Excel Template here will override it. If no Excel Template is specified here, PhixFlow will check if an Excel Template is specified on the Drilldown View of the pipe. If Export Type is set to "HTML File" and an Excel Template is specified, PhixFlow will build and output data only for unhidden worksheets in the Excel Template. |
| 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. |
| Quote Character | This field is only available if Quote Style = Other. Allows a custom quote style character to be entered. |
| Maximum Records per File | This is the maximum number of records that will be written to each file. |
| Input Multiplier | The input mulitplier expression should evaluate to a list of one or more values. For each value in the list, the internal variable _inputMultiplier 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. |
The following fields are configured through separate tabs on the form:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Description | Description of the file exporter. |
Form Icons
The form provides the standard form icons as well as the following:
 | Shows the model predecessors of the file exporter. |
Form: Send Result By Email
On this tab you can set up an automated email to be sent when a file is exported, optionally with the exported file attached.
If an input multiplier expression is provided for this exporter then several files may be produced and 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 then generate a single email and attach all files to that email. If the subject and body messages for each file are different then createone email for each subject and body message pair and attach to each email all the files for which the subject and body expression evaluated to the same subject and body message.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Email From | The Email Address the generated email will appear from. An Expression that must evaluate to a plain text string. |
| Subject Expression | Allows the user to build a PhixFlow Expression which will be used to create the Email Subject. Must evaluate to a plain text string. |
| Attach File | Whether or not the file should be attached to the email sent. |
| Zip File | This option only appears when the option to Attach File is selected. This specifies whether or not the attached file will be zipped. |
| Message Expression | Allows the user to build a PhixFlow Expression which will be used to create the message body of the email. Must evaluate to a plain text string. |
| User Recipients | Tab containing a summary list of each Recipient set up to receive the email. |
| Recipients Expression | Allows the user to build a PhixFlow Expression which will be used 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 Rules on the Email Recipients tab. 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 either be a single plain text string which should be a valid email address or a list object which contains one or more strings, each of which must be a valid email address. |
List: User Recipients
Columns
The Recipients list shows a summary of each Recipient set up to receive the email. Selecting a recipient with a double click will bring up the details for that recipient in a User Notification Rule form.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the recipient. This must be a user that has been set up in PhixFlow. |
| Email As | Specifies how the email is to be sent to the recipient TO/CC/BCC |
| Expression | User Notification Rule - the rule that governs whether the email will be sent to this user. See Notification Rule for further details. |
List Icons
The Recipient list provides some of the standard list icons. The Recipient list also provides the icons:
 | 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. |
 | Add a new Recipient to the recipient list. This will bring up an empty User Notification Rule form. |
Form: Set Encryption Parameters
On this tab you can set whether exported files are encrypted, along with the encryption parameters and the password which must then be used to open the files.
Encryption only applies to zipped email attachments.
| Field | Description | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encryption Type | The following Encryption Types are supported:
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| Password | The password that must be supplied 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 Password | The Confirm Password must match the main Password. |