I am reading an Excel file online where the sheet name and attribute names sometimes change. I therefore need to read the sheet and attribute names dynamically. I can get the schema but I haven't figured out how to read in the data using a dynamic schema. ("Scan Schema in Dynamic Workflow" doesn't appear to work for the Excel Reader.) I figured out how to use a FeatureReader to get the sheet name dynamically using fme_feature_type_name and then pass it to a second Feature Reader but I haven't figured out how to get the attribute names dynamically and then pass them along to the second FeatureReader so I can read in the data. Or is there another way?
Question
How read Excel data with dynamic schema (sheet name and attributes)?
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+14- Contributor
Hello @aaron ,
You may need to use a Schema reader to read the sheet names and then a FeatureReader to read all the features in all the sheets. They will be output in a single (Generic) port though.
You need to expose the fme_feature_type attribute in the FeatureReader and then use it to separate records from different sheets in the writer.
I attached a sample workspace you may inspire from.
+12- Contributor
Hello @aaron ,
You may need to use a Schema reader to read the sheet names and then a FeatureReader to read all the features in all the sheets. They will be output in a single (Generic) port though.
You need to expose the fme_feature_type attribute in the FeatureReader and then use it to separate records from different sheets in the writer.
I attached a sample workspace you may inspire from.
Hi @germang, thanks for the example workspace. It dynamically exposes the sheet name, which I need, but I also need to dynamically expose the attribute names from the Excel spreadsheet so I can read in the data and then do some processing before creating output. I don't know what the attribute names will be called ahead of time. It's my experience that attribute names have to be exposed beforehand in the Generic port in the FeatureReader. I don't see how to read them in dynamically.
I can get the attribute names from the Schema port but I don't know how to pass them into a parameter which could then be read by a second Feature Reader. Do you have an idea how that might work?
+14- Contributor
Hi,
Attribute names can be obtained in the Schema port or in the Schema reader as you mentioned, unfortunately, I don't know a way to expose those dynamically in an Excel reader.
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