Hello,
I am new to FME Server and would like to know if there is a way to filter the output of a workbench with automatons?
I my case i have two Schedule triggers that run a workspace. When the workspace if finished it updates a Excel file on a network drive. Now I would like to filter the contents in the Excel file so that i send an email to one person or another depending on what values are in the updated Excel.
IS this possible with automatons?
I believe that you currently (2019.1) will have to use something like the Emailer transformer inside your workspace to accomplish this. This is because the Automations logic doesn't know anything about what happened inside your workspace, it only has general information like the job id and whether the job was successful.
There have been several requests to allow the Automations to react to logic within the workspace, but as far as I know there is no concrete information about how/when/if this will be implemented.
You may also want to vote for this idea: https://knowledge.safe.com/content/idea/95161/automations-ability-to-pass-workspace-published-pa.html
Hmmm. A workspace can't pass a custom output key, which would be the ideal solution. The only way I can think of is to have the workspace carry out its work in such a way as to trigger a different stream of automation. For example use an FMEServerNotifier with a different message for each user to be notified.and have a trigger in the automation to listen for that message. Might need a workspace in there too to process that message, but I think it would work.
I agree with @david_r. Automations are a great enhancement to FME Server 2019 but some things you still need to do inside the workspace. If you need to perform a conditional action based on the value of some data that is being processed by the workspace then the workspace is the logical place to do this. The Emailer transformer will do this directly inside the workspace. Alternatively, you can use a set of FMEServerNotifier transformers inside the workspace to trigger a different notification based on your data conditions.
With the Emailer transformer you'll be embedding the email content and SMTP connection details in your workspace (or, at the very best, making them published parameters). Either way, you'll need to update your workspace if the target email details change.
Using the FMEServerNotifier you can have a more general workspace and pull the email notification configuration out to the FME Server side, which may be an advantage for maintenance.