Question

FME Server Automation to Website (Reposting: Not sure what happened to the previous one)

  • 3 April 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 34 views

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A client has a website that allows for uploading and downloading of data. That’s not the issue here. There is one button on their website that when clicked it lists all of the feature types and their last time an upload was completed. This output is in HTML.

 

At the present time we are now realizing that the results from an FME Workspace, that is sitting on FME Server, properly formats the output in HTML. But here’s the issue … We discovered there was no job set up to run in FME Server which also means it is not set up to do anything related to automation. We have also discovered that the results of that job were just periodically being manually run and then directly uploaded to their website (We are the ones that built the site and maintain it, but none of those individuals who originally did this are with our company today).

 

So, it was just a stagnant picture in time, and totally dependent on someone always remembering to go in every day, week, month, or year (We truly do not know what their timeframe for updating that HTML was). Obviously at this point it is totally worthless sitting on FME Server because of the way it was being done, they could have just run the FME Workspace and posted the HTML it produced over to the website. Which is probably what they were doing.

 

NOW MY QUESTIONS:

 

What are our options to automate this for that website (Made with React) so that when they click that button it can do one of two things.

 

Number 1: It can be manually kicked off by anyone on that client website (Who has client website access credentials) pushing that button and the results appear on their screen.

 

OR

 

Number 2: The job to runs nightly on FME Server and it posts the results somewhere accessible to their website. Then that their website can retrieve and just display the formatted HTML whenever they click that button on the website?

 

This sounds easy when typing it, but I’m sure it is very complicated to pull off. What is the best way to make this happen so that we can get away from this manual updating that just doesn’t make much sense. Especially when we have tools available to create this or assist us. We are open to any suggestions.

 

Sorry for such a long post. I wish to thank everyone in advance for your input if you should have any.

 

I hope all of that makes sense.

 

FYI: I uploaded a screenshot of what the output looks like. I have blacked out confidential info. The blacked out top row has county info for 10 counties. The blacked out left column has info for the 16 different features. Each has a date of the last upload listed. Blanks in the dates just mean no upload has ever been done for that County/Feature.


2 replies

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Here is the image of what the job produces.

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Hi @texlds !

I agree with you that this sounds both very complicated and somewhat simple at the same time. 

So you have the workspace that streams the HTML report and you’re needing to embed it in a website to run real-time when the client kicks it off or run it on a daily schedule and save the report somewhere accessible, correct?

On FME Flow (formerly FME Server), I believe your first scenario could be accomplished by integrating the workspace into a Flow App that access can be controlled so that your client needs to log in to run it.

Your second scenario could be accomplished with Schedules or Automations. Automations would allow a bit more customization features than the schedules option, which might be needed depending on where the file location is that’s accessible to the client’s website. 

If I’ve totally missed the mark on what you’re trying to do or you’re encountering some issues, feel free to Submit a Case with our Support team to help you out some more. 

-Bailey

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