File Exporter

A File Exporter creates files with a format that matches that of the input stream.

Form: File Exporter Details

The form provides some of the standard list icons.

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 (Expr)

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:

_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.

Output Directory (Expr)

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.

Note that because this is an expression field, if you supply a simple directory definition in plain text it must be surrounded by quotes. Also, directory separators must be / and not \, even if the file is being written to a directory on a Windows platform. E.g. "C:/data/address/export/".

A number of Internal Variables are available in this expression:

_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 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 which the generated file will be moved to.

If no site is specified then the file is assumed to be generated and left on the local machine.If a site is specified then all directory paths specified on this form should be the full path to the file since the base directory specified in system configuration is ignored (since the base directory is specific to the local machine).

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.

Type

Files can be exported in the following formats:

Type	Description
Comma Separated Values	Data will be read from a single Push pipe and written to CSV files.
Excel Spreadsheet	Data will be read from a single Push pipe and written to Excel Spreadsheet files. Optionally, the Push Pipe may specify a Drilldown View which may in turn specify an Excel Template. Optionally, the File Exporter may specify an Excel Template Expression in which case it must evaluate to the name of an Excel template file and the result supersedes any template specified on a Drilldown View. If an Excel Template is specified, 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 no Excel Template is specified, each output file is generated by creating a new, empty file and writing values to the first and only worksheet. In this case, the type of file generated is determined by the extension generated by the the File Name Expression field: .xls will generate a file in MS Office 2003 Excel format .xlsx or .xlsm will generate a file in MS Office 2007 Excel format any other extension will generate a file in the format set as the Default Export Excel Version in System Configuration.
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. The format and rules for these instructions are explained in more details here.
HTML File	Data will be read from a single Push pipe and written to HTML files. Optionally, the Push Pipe may specify a Drilldown View which may in turn specify an Excel Template. Optionally, the File Exporter may specify an Excel Template Expression in which case it must evaluate to the name of an Excel template file and the result supersedes any template specified on a Drilldown View. If an Excel Template is specified, each output file is generated by copying the Excel Template file, overwriting the values in the first worksheet, then writing the first worksheet out as HTML. If no Excel Template is specified, each output file is generated by creating a new, empty Excel file, writing values to the first and only worksheet, then writing that worksheet out as HTML.

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.

Maximum Records per File

The maximum number of records that will be written to each file.

Header

If ticked, a header line will be written to generated files containing the names of each field written in the following rows.

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).

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:

Windows
Unix
Other

The system default line separator style can be configured on the first tab of the system configuration screen. If a default style is not specified then the default will revert to be the default of the operating system on which the PhixFlow server is running.

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 Character

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 (Expr)

If Type is Excel Spreadsheet, Excel Spreadsheet (Multiple Inputs) or HTML File, this Expression is evaluated to determine the Excel template to be used.

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.

Input Multiplier

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.

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.

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 create one 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.

Extra buttons:

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.

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

A list of email recipients. The rules to determine whether each recipient will be sent the email are configured in the form User Notification Rule. For each rule, in the list, the following fields are shown:

User

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.

Recipient Expressions

TO Expression

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.

CC Expression

As in the TO Expression, the list of users returned by this expression will be included on the CC line on the email.

BCC Expression

As in the TO Expression, the list of users returned by this expression will be included in the BCC line on the email.

Description

Description

Description of the file exporter.

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:

Type	Description
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 accepted by fewer applications. AES 128-bit is the weakest type of AES encryption supported.
AES 192-bit	AES 192-bit.
AES 256-bit	AES 256-bit is the strongest type of AES encryption supported.

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.

HELP74R

File Exporter

Form: File Exporter Details

Form: Set Encryption Parameters

See Also