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Hi FME'rs!

 

Recently an FME user ran into an issue with the ListIndexer where it did not return the desired output. The user initially generated a list from the Format Attribute, fme_feature_type and so appropriately gave the list the same name, fme_feature_type_list{}. However because the list name began with fme_ it is not processed. This is because _fme is a reserved word in FME used by Format Attributes and as a result, some transformers are unable to correctly handle User Attributes/Lists that contain this prefix.

In general we would recommend the fme_ prefix should be reserved for use by format attributes only and I have filed TECHPUBS-6273 to ensure this is highlighted in our documentation. However it would also be great to compile a list of known transformers that can have trouble handling the fme_ prefix on user attributes, and this is where the Community can help!

Please comment below to share your experiences if you have encountered anything that sounds similar to the scenario described above or if you've encountered any other reserved words in FME that interrupted your workflow.

I really appreciate this follow up my bug report! In general I would strongly advise to make users aware of 'functional restrictions' they need to consider, like this case.

Maybe I can start giving the right example. The following topic seems to show this functional restriction is around for already quite a while, and also pops up with e.g. the SchemaMapper transformer: https://knowledge.safe.com/questions/63531/schemamapperreader-issue-loading-excel-sheet-with.html

More importantly, in this topic and its response it also becomes clear that it is not only default prefixes of schema attributes (like 'fme_') one should avoid for the names of 'user attributes', but also default prefixes of format attributes (like 'csv_') that one should be hesitent about using.

As mentioned by @thijsknapen, I posted an experience with similar background in February 2018. It would be helpful to add some information about these restrictions to the appropriate documentation parts.

Not sure it's quite the same thing, but the BulkAttributeRemover will not remove attributes with the fme prefix.

As mentioned by @thijsknapen, I posted an experience with similar background in February 2018. It would be helpful to add some information about these restrictions to the appropriate documentation parts.

yep, some mention in the documentation should be present.

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