What happened to the reader and writer drop down menus in FME 2025.2? Why would they remove them? Am I just missing how to add them back in? So frustrating.
Question
What happened to the reader and writer drop down menu in FME 2025.2?
+21- Enthusiast
These were moved to the Build drop-down. Additionally their icons are still also in the ribbon.
This is from 2025.1:
+4- Safer
Hi
To answer your question (chriswilson got it right): The Reader and Writer menus weren't removed, they were moved to the Build menu as part of a menu redesign released in FME 2025.1. Here are some resources that walk through this and other changes:
- FME 2025.1: Redesigned Menus and Updated Terminology Video Demo — short video walkthrough of the new menu layout
- 2025.1 Feature Highlights - all the major changes in that release.
Additionally, in 2025.1+ there's a new Add button directly on the canvas that lets you insert Sources (anything able to read data in to a workspace), Destinations (anything to write data out), and Transformers — which is another quick way to add readers/writers beyond the buttons on the toolbar highlighted in the screenshot above, or just typing to search on canvas through the Quick Add.
I've moved this from Ideas into Forums since it's a question about the current UI. If after trying the Build menu or other options you still feel something could work better, we'd welcome a new Idea post with specific suggestion on what you are looking for.