Authoring

I’m testing the new OPENFILEGDB Reader in 2026.1 that supersedes the old Open GDB Reader, but it doesn’t resolve my subtypes and domains. Am I missing something?If not, please bring this functionality back, as it is/was one of the main reasons for using the Open Reader.Workaround for now: the old one is still present albeit marked as deprecated, so I guess it may disappear in the near futureOld Open GDB ReaderNew Open GDB Reader 

We’re currently in the process of looking to move to a newer version of FME Form (2025.2) but we’ve hit an issue where we can’t meet the required dependencies for adding a Smallworld reader regardless of having the correct files in the right locations. If we open an older workspace with the reader already added, it will still complain about missing dependencies but the workspace will execute correctly.If you select ‘Update Reader’ from the navigator you can add additional feature types etc and change parameters, but you can’t add a new reader due to the missing dependencies. I noted that there was a Fix in Build 25811, but when I tested in 2025.1 (before the fix), there are no issues adding a Smallworld reader. I understand that the Smallworld user group probably isn’t the largest but is anyone

I’m trying to follow the FME Form course from a MAC and one of the very first exercises is using a Esri Geodatabase (File Geodb Open API) writer. Unfortunately I’m getting this error on the platform. Is there any workaround for this?

Moving this to FME Form Q/A.  

Within the new ArcGIS Feature Service reader (part of the Esri ArcGIS Connector Package) if you choose a source type of Enterprise it’s not possible to connect to a feature service that is shared across an entire organisation and not in a group.This can be done if you use a Source Type of Standalone Server (but it’s not obvious).It would be nice to have and Item Source of Organisation which would allow connection without specifying a Group 

In Form v2026.1, what exactly does the new option “Read Best Fit View if Selected view is Missing” do? The “Help” says:“This parameter controls reader behavior if a selected view is missing.By default, if a view specified in the Specify View to Read parameter is missing, the reader selects the next available view.”Does it select the very first view that pops up when clicking the 3 ellipses (...) or is it referring to something else?Was that option a hidden feature in previous versions that got exposed as a parameter in 2026.1?

This seems like is should be so simple, but I can’t get it to work! I want to take a CSV file that has Feature Class Names, FieldPrefixs, and Feature types. For example:FeatureClass, Prefix, FeatureTypeRoads, Road, LineWildLandUrbanInterface, WUI, Polygon. This CSV file will be dynamic, meaning that the Feature Classes that will be summarized will change.I then have a SummaryPolygon Feature Class which defines the polygons on which to summarize. I want to iterate through the CSV file, summarize the data for each CSV record, and then add two fields with the prefixs (ie Road_Miles, Road_MilesPerAcre or WUI_Acres and WUI_PercentArea) to the SummaryPolygon. I thought the workspace runner would work well for this, but the Child workspace isn’t updating/showing the new fields that were created after each iteration. Meaning the schema isn’t dynamically updating with the two new fields on the next iteration. In my Reader, I have Workflow Options set

I want to embed a DB connection in my workspace without the password being saved in the workspace.A password should not be saved in an FME workspace file. But I want the connection details to be saved in the workspace file.What I've tried:- If I leave the password blank, the workspace does not run because the connection requires a password. I could save the workspace with a blank password. But if I want to run the workspace, I need to edit the Reader/Writer or Transformer properties and enter a password. FME detects this as unsaved changes in my workspace and it could easily happen that the workspace gets saved with the password by accident. This is a stupid solution.- I could create a user paramter for the password field. When I run the workspace, I have to make sure that the "Save As Parameter Default Values" option in the parameters dialogue is disabled. To ensure that, I could add a custom message to the parameters dialogue telling the user to be care

Hi.This may be a simple or a complex question, I’m not sure which.I’m attempting to use a dynamic expression, that I construct dynamically from values read from a file or table, and evaluate it on all relevant feature read from a database or file. Including AND/OR etc.How can this be achieved in Workbench ?I’ve tried to utilize ExpressionEvaluator with the expression @Value(@Value(expr)), but it doesn’t return any value in the “_result” variable.What am I doing wrong, and is it even feasable ?Are there better ways to achieve this ?Using 2025.2.4Cheers

Hello I’m experiencing some issues using Dissolver. I want to take a polygon dataset which contains 160,455 independent polygons objects. Some of the polygons overlaps with other polygons. Some are not overlapped by others. I want to merge all of the polygons, whilst dissolving any overlaps, to create just one polygon object. Using Dissolver I am only able to merge polygons where they are overlapping, whilst input polygons that are not overlapped by other are remaining unmerged. This means that I’m getting 80,090 records in the output. But I don’t want that. I want just one polygon object as one record. This diagram illustrates (conceptually) what I have, what I’m getting with Dissolver, and what I require.How do I use Dissolver to do this? Or should I use a different transformer.

I’m not sure if this is a bug in FME or if it’s expected behavior. We work in versioned, replica file geodatabases. The issue that has presented is that when our data was being checked back into the Enterprise database, the change records in our replica were being applied to features outside of the AOI of replica. In other words, somewhere in our FME processes it was not managing the OBJECTIDs in the INSERT/UPDATES/DELETES tables correctly. We believe we have tracked it down to the ‘Fast Deletes’ parameter of the FileGDB Writer. From my research it looks as though this truncates the tables, and re-inserts the features that weren’t deleted. I’m also reading that this may cause issues because it bypasses the A/D change tables. This tracks with the errors we are seeing.Is there any validity to that? If so, I’d like to suggest that the Fast Deletes parameter be defaulted to ‘No’ instead of ‘Yes’.

Hi, a client is using nb_NO (Norsk Bokmål) Locale on a Windows Server machine and the produced FFS filename is incorrect. They are using FME Form 2024.2.3.0.I have tested same om my machine Windows 11, FME Form 2025.1.1.0 - build 25615. I want to produce a filename “t2_æøå”.FFS (where æ, ø and å are Norwegian alphabet letters)using en_US Locale the produced file is t2_æøå.FFS using nb_NO Locale the produced filename is t2_æøå. FFSI repeated the test wiriting to Esri Shapefiles - and both Locale will give the result t2_æøå.shp. Seems like the FFS writer have an issue with Locale. Might be a known issue  but I was not able to find it. Thanks 

Hi.I’m looking into whether I can use InlineQuerier for a Workbench validation of data using a list of criterias.One of the things I need to do is use RegEx, and is thus trying to use the REGEXP construct mentioned in the documentation. However, this is the error I’m getting:InlineQuerier_2 (InlineQueryFactory): Error preparing database query: no such function: REGEXP Unable to execute statementThe full query is here:SELECT * FROM "Data" WHERENOT(("tvaersnitsform" IS NULL OR "tvaersnitsform" REGEXP '^(other: )[0-9a-zA-ZæøåÆØÅ]{2,}$' OR "tvaersnitsform" IN (SELECT "key" FROM "LOOKUP.Tvaersnitsformtype")))If I remove the REGEXP part of the criteria, it works just fine.Has anyone used InlineQuerier much, and have some insights into what might be wrong here ?Is it just a subset of SQLite’s SQL language being available in InlineQuerier ?

Hello Forum, I need to run a polygon-in-polygon attribute update process. I would normally use the AreaOnAreaOverlayer transformer for this where I know that features from the first polygon dataset are all fully within any individual feature from the second polygon dataset. But I now have a dataset where any feature from polygon dataset 1 could be… a) fully within a given polygon from polygon dataset 2, b) straddling between two or more polygons from the other polygon dataset. This is what I need… If a feature from polygon dataset 1 is fully within a feature from polygon dataset 2 then populate a new attribute with the value of the feature from polygon dataset 2 If a feature from polygon dataset 1 is partially within two features from polygon dataset 2 then populate a new attribute with the values of the two features from polygon dataset 2. These diagrams explain it further….

Hello, I have a dataset containing an attribute PROP_TYPE. This contains any one of the following values: HOUSE_MNGD; FLAT; DUPLEX_SHRD; MAISONETTE; FLAT_TYPE2. I want to change these values within the FME Form workspace… HOUSE_MNGD change to House managedFLAT change to FlatDUPLEX_SHRD change to Duplex sharedMAISONETTE change to MaisonetteFLAT_TYPE2 change to Flat type 2 I know I can change a stated value within a StringReplacer. This works well, but it’s only on one of the possible values (e.g: Text To Replace = HOUSE_MNGD; Replacement Text =  House managed). How can I use the StringReplacer to specify all possible values within the PROP_TYPE attribute and replace them with the values I then specify? And do that in one

This seems pretty basic so it’s probably a configuration that I’m missing, but I’m using FME Form v2025.1.1.0 and I have a half dozen Loggers set up to capture features that are repaired or failed in GeometryValidators that precede them.  When I run the workbench I have ‘Enable Record Counting’ set so I can see the counts going to the Loggers, but none of the messages I would expect are getting written to either the Translation Log window in FME Form nor to the log file on disk.  I’ve set the Navigator > Workspace Parameters > Log and Troubleshoot > Max Features to Log to -1 to log everything, and I’ve confirmed that the ‘Severity Level’ in each Logger is ‘Information’.  I’ve tried all 3 settings for ‘Feature Logging’ of ‘Log Only’, ‘Log and Record’ and ‘Message Only’ in various combinations of the Loggers and I’ve confirmed that the ‘Max Messages to Log’ for each Logger is larger than the number of features being routed to them. The expression in each Logger is pretty simp

Hi there,In Esri ArcGIS Connector safe.esri-agol version 3.17.0 a number of changes were made to the way the Esri writer handles global IDs.  Some of these changes resulted in previously published workspaces no longer functioning after the package on Flow was updated.This is an admin nightmare, as unless we prevent all publishers from uploading packages, we cannot prevent them from deploying a new version of a package that may break existing workflows.I have two suggestions:Please put the latest changes of the package at the top of the description in the FME Form Dialog box. Currently the user has to click a link to go to the item in the Hub and then find the version in the History. Please clearly indicate any changes that are more than bug fixes, and that may impact previously published workspaces.Thanks,Marc

I am in the process of moving my FME Desktop 2021 workspaces into FME Form 2025. I know I can open the FME 2021 workspaces in FME Form 2025. As I get farther along in this process, is there anything I need to be aware of? example, is it best to just rebuild my FME 2021 workspaces in FME Form 2025 instead of just opening and saving the FME 2021 workspaces in FME Form 2025?I have run a few FME 2021 workspaces in FME Form 2025 with no issues. But wanted to reach out to the FME community to see what their experience has been in bringing in older FME workspaces into new versions of FME.

Is there a way of Auto switching Parameter between Form vs Flow?ie Local while working on FME From (C:\FME_SHAREDRESOURCE_DATA) vs FME Flow($FME_SHARERESOURCE_DATA)Workspace Locally with FME Form is add “C:\FME_SHAREDRESOURCE_DATA” to the FME Flow Parameters to test and work on the solution. When I upload the Workspace to FME Flow I always need to remember to remove the local value for everything to work.  I forgotten a couple of time and wondering if Deployment Parameters is the solution?  

My workbench tries to read features from ArcGIS Online feature services, write them to a different database and, if successful, delete them from their ArcGIS Online feature service. I’ trying to use as few feature writers as possible, so I use attributes to descern feature services and their layers. Most feature services contain only one layer, but the name of the layer can be different from the name of the feature service.I can get the name of the layer from the format attribute “fme_feature_type” and use that for the “Layer Name” in the Feature Writer parameters: But in the “Writer” group (button: “Parameters...”) I also want to use an attribute for the parameter “Selected Feature Service”. 

Does anyone know if FME can be used to notify via email when one or more SSL certs are due to expire. I have a boatload of SSL certs whose expiration dates I keep track of using a spreadsheet. Just wondering if FME could make it easier? The OS I use is Windows Server 2022. 

I dug out one of my old FME 2014 workbenches. It has this PythonCaller defining a local CRS. It had worked beautifully for years.import pyfme#define custom CRSmyCSMan = pyfme.FMECoordSysManager()fmeParams = {}fmeParams['CS_NAME'] = "local_polyconic_cs"fmeParams['DESC_NM'] = "Dynamic CS"fmeParams['DT_NAME'] = "WGS84"fmeParams['PROJ'] = "PLYCN"fmeParams['UNIT'] = "FOOT"fmeParams['X_OFF'] = 0.0fmeParams['Y_OFF'] = 0.0fmeParams['MAP_SCL'] = 1.0fmeParams['SCL_RED'] = 0.9996fmeParams['SOURCE'] = "HESS"fmeParams['QUAD'] = 1fmeParams['ZERO_X'] = 0.0001fmeParams['ZERO_Y'] = 0.0001surf_lat = float(feature.getAttribute('surf_lat'))surf_long = float(feature.getAttribute('surf_long'))        fmeParams['PARM1'] = str(surf_long)fmeParams['ORG_LAT'] = str(surf_lat)myfmeCS = myCSMan.defineCoordSys(fmeParams, "myfmeCS") Now I am at FME 2024 where

Hi,has anyone had any success creating User Parameters for the SharePointOnlineConnector Site, Document Library and Path values?I’m using FME 2025.2.2 (latest version) and SharePointOnlineConnector version safe.microsoft-sharepoint  [1.13.1] (latest version)I would like to embed a SharePointOnlineConnector in a custom transformer but I don’t want to hard-code the Site, Document Library and Path values. However, when I create User Parameters to expose these as custom transformer parameters I am not able to actually select values for them. I have also tried creating User Parameters for these values as input parameters for a SharePointOnlineConnector in the main workspace but run into the same issue.This is how my SharePointOnlineConnector is configured (I have used all default values when creating the User Parameters):

I’d like to maintain my database documentation in an Excel spreadsheet like this:Attribute Name FME Data Type LandID int32 Acres real32 Name varchar(128)  And then I’d like to import that into an AttributeCreator. When I try importing, the attribute names come through, but FME Form sets all the data types to varchar(200) instead of what I specified in the field ‘FME Data Type’ and imported in the import dialog.How can I fix this or set up my spreadsheet differently?

I have a SQL Server Database that has 156 tables. I need to extract the schema for each table and table names into a CSV. I know one way is to add all 156 tables to the workbench as separate Readers and then use FeatureReader (with Features to Read set to Schema Features). This could be a start, but it seems rather tedious.  Is there a better way? I want to write to a CSV that has the attributes in one column and the table names in another column.  Any thoughts on the best way to tackle this?