12 Exporting data to files

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

• Set up a file exporter

In this exercise you will create an export of the customer summary report, to a file:

1. In your model, to add a new file exporter hover over the table Customer Summary by Region, and press  File Exporter.
2. Give the new exporter the Name: Send Customer Summary Report
3. Click  Apply and Close to save your changes.
4. You will now see the new file exporter in the model.
5.  Save your model layout. 

As well as exporting the file to a directory on the PhixFlow server, you will email the file to yourself. Before you set this up, you need to update the user Train with your email address:

1. Click  User Options from the header menu.
2. Update the Email Address with your email address.
3. Click  Apply and Close to save your changes.

Complete settings for the file exporter.

1. Double-click on the new file exporter icon on your model to open its properties.
2. Tick the flag Enabled.

3. In the field File Name (Expr) enter the value:

   "customerSummaryByRegion.txt"

4. In the field Output Directory (Expr) enter:

   "customerReports/customerSummaryByRegion"

5. Tick the flag Overwrite existing file
6. Tick the flag Header
   
7. Go to the Send By Email section, and set the following:
   
   • Email from: system@PhixFlow.com
   • Subject Expression: "Export of customerSummaryByRegion.txt at " + now()
   • Message Expression: "Please find file customerSummaryByRegion.txt attached. Generated at " + now()
   • Attach File: tick
8. Go to the User Recipients section and click .
9. In the New User Notification Rule properties that opens, set:
   
   1. Email As: To
   2. Click  Apply.
   3. In the Users section, click  Users to open a list of users.
   4. Drag the user Train (the user you are currently logged in as) into the Users section within the User Notification Rule properties panel.
   5. Save and close the notification rule. PhixFlow adds the user to the list of User Recipients.

10. In the file exporter configuration form, click  Apply and Close.

    The pipe to the file exporter is dotted to indicate that it is a Push pipe. When linking a table to a file exporter you must always use a push pipe. This is because you cannot run a file exporter on its own; it must always be driven from a table. Otherwise, it has no data to process

11. Run analysis on the table Customer Summary by Region
12. Check the log messages generated in  Administration →  System Console(– in particular scroll to the end; you should see messages telling you that a file has been exported)
13. Now find your file - you should have received an email with the file attached.
14. The file has also been exported to the PhixFlow server.
15. In the model window, click  Save.