I am using FME 2020 (Build 20218) and I find that if I expose the fme_basename and fme_dataset in the Reader Feature Type they are read normally and have no issue, however I am curious why if I use an AttributeExposer to expose those attributes in the workspace, the values for these attributes are exposed with null values. What is causing the AttributeExposer to remove the values when it exposes these format attributes?
Hi @gmbutler2 , it looks like according to the AttributeExposer Usage Notes, fme_basename and fme_dataset are not read unless they are exposed in the Reader Feature type or in a FeatureReader. In other words, I don't think these fme attributes exist in the workspace unless they were exposed at the reader level. Is that the case for what you’re noticing for the AttributeExposer?
Yes! That appears to be the case. I wanted to try and make a workspace more simplified for a user who has never used FME so that they don't have to do anything when adding new files except choose the new file location. Then expose those later so that I could make an exact copy of the same file at that location with a suffixed file name to let the user know when the file is successfully updated. However I just have to make note of a few extra steps to expose those at the reader level so that the workspace runs the same way.