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I'm trying to understand Fanout better. I ran a test with a planning appeals points dataset where I set the output to split the source data into subset .tab files based on a the 'decision' field. This worked and created 19 tab files as there are 19 possible decision values in the source data. However there are two issues:

 

 

1

 

The process places the outputs into their own folders (e.g.: the process creates a folder called Split decision which then contains the tab file showing just the split decision valued records. (It’s doing this because of the issue raised in point two below)

 

 

Is it possible to places all 19 output .tabs into the same directory folder?

 

 

2

 

The output tab files are all called the same name as the source file. The source file is called ‘LBS Planning - Decided appeals’ and all 19 output files are also called ‘LBS Planning - Decided appeals’. Can FME rename the output files along the lines of the value it is sub-setting? So, for example, I’d want one of the 19 outputs to be called ‘LBS Planning - Decided appeals – Split Decision’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, what you wantis Feature type fanout. That's because .tab format is folder based format.

What you did is (probably) Dataset Fanout. Look at this post for more info, and enjoy. fanouting is quite fun.

https://knowledge.safe.com/articles/565/fanout-1.html

 

There are different places you can set the fanout, and exactly how this behaves will depends on the format you are dealing with.

A fanout for tab files needs to be set on the featuretype, not on the fanout on the writer. The fanout on the writer in the navigator controls the folder that features are written to

Thanks for that @zzupljanin and @ebygomm. I've had some success. I now have the output files named in line with the 'decision' field value. This is good, but....

 

 

1

 

Now that they have different file names, which is good, how can I now get them all published into one folder? They are still outputting to separate folders within the set directory, which is bad.

 

 

2

 

Is it possible to manage the names of the output files? For example, could I prefix all the outputs with 'Planning appeal -'?

 

 

 

Thanks for that @zzupljanin and @ebygomm. I've had some success. I now have the output files named in line with the 'decision' field value. This is good, but....

 

 

1

 

Now that they have different file names, which is good, how can I now get them all published into one folder? They are still outputting to separate folders within the set directory, which is bad.

 

 

2

 

Is it possible to manage the names of the output files? For example, could I prefix all the outputs with 'Planning appeal -'?

 

 

 

It sounds like you still have a fanout on the writer, make sure in the navigator on the left fanout is set to no

You can prefix the output directly in the writer, use the drop down arrow to access the text writer and create the structure for your filename

 

It sounds like you still have a fanout on the writer, make sure in the navigator on the left fanout is set to no

You can prefix the output directly in the writer, use the drop down arrow to access the text writer and create the structure for your filename

 

Great, thanks. It works now. Output is going into the same folder with prefixed names.

I am very impressed with this.

 

 

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