Welcome to the FME Community, a vibrant and resourceful online community dedicated to users and enthusiasts of FME by Safe Software.
The FME Community is where you can ask questions about FME, find out about the latest FME releases, see upcoming events, suggest new ideas to enhance FME, and connect with other passionate FME users.
For an in-depth look at the FME Community, please see Welcome to the FME Community.
Here’s what you’ll find inside this article…
Community Purpose and Values
The FME Community is a place where users from around the world come together to discuss FME and to help each other achieve their respective goals. It is also where Safe Software employees can interact with users in a public forum.
We hope to make the community a positive and welcoming environment for everyone. For more information on Safe’s official Code of Conduct, please click here.
Community Purpose
To help define our community values, the community team at Safe came up with this purpose statement:
We gather together persons with an interest in FME and how it can be applied,
To allow them to work, learn, network, and socialize together, in a friendly, fun, and collaborative space,
So that all members can advance their personal goals while sharing and building up the wisdom of the community.
Community Values
The values that we believe forge a strong community are as follows:
- Respect
- Respect is a cornerstone of the FME Community. All users have the right to be respected regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, language, sexual orientation, age, health, or any other status.
- Respect also includes basic politeness, such as the effort by users to ask questions in a complete way, and not to take advantage of the goodwill of others.
- Teamwork
- The FME Community exists as a way for users to work with each other and to help each other. This might be in a simple question-and-answer forum, sharing knowledge with others, or giving feedback and thanks for the assistance that you receive.
- Enjoyment
- The Safe ethos is to carry out life and work in a fun and enjoyable way. We aim for the FME Community to operate along the same lines. In other words, enjoyment is as much a goal of our community as working, learning, and networking.
- We hope that users experience happiness in their community interactions and that they are drawn to community events for entertainment just as much as prizes or personal satisfaction.
- Progress
- Progress is about growing as a person and takes many forms. It can be progress through learning and mastering a certain skill, progress through career progression, progress through recognition, or even progress through self-improvement.
- The FME Community exists to assist its users in making these sorts of progress.
- Achievement
- While progress is about growing as a person, often towards a specific goal, achievement is the meeting of that goal. For example, users may learn about FME in order to achieve the goal of becoming FME Certified.
- The FME Community exists to assist its users in reaching their goals and to share in the joy and celebrations that go with their successes.
Note that, although we at Safe wrote this set of values, IT IS YOUR COMMUNITY! We welcome user feedback and are happy to work with members who wish to step up and help improve the community in any way.
Please get in touch with our team by filling out our feedback form or emailing community@safe.com.
Community Venues
We at Safe take the FME "Community" to exist at any public venue where FME users can interact with each other. We don't restrict our community to this one site and we may recognize a person as a member of the FME Community even without having an active account here!
This includes online forums such as X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitch, Discord, YouTube, and Slack.
Even if we can't enforce it, we'd like the same community values to be used on these sites, though, of course, each of them will have their own values and their own terms and conditions that you should be sure to comply with.
Posting Guidelines
Anything related to the FME Platform, Safe Software, or data integration is allowed in the FME Community.
If you have encountered a bug, or a technical issue, or are unable to open the product, please Contact Support. See the Support Policy for more information on what is covered by Safe Software support.
Regardless of where you are on your journey with FME, we would love to hear from you in the FME Community! You have a fantastic community of FME users at your disposal 24/7, who generously help with their expertise and experience. We at Safe Software are also in there helping out where we can.
However, there are some guidelines to abide by:
- Content Relevance:
- Focus discussions on topics related to the FME Platform, Safe Software, and data integration.
- When seeking assistance, mention your FME version and provide ample details. Feel free to enhance your query with screenshots, data samples, and workspaces. For more information, see Asking and Answering Questions.
- Refrain from posting spam, engaging in self-promotion, or conducting sales in the Forums. However, you are welcome to share FME-related events in our designated Events section or include a link to your website in your profile.
- Intellectual Property Considerations:
- Be aware that this is a public forum; any content posted or uploaded is accessible to all. If you need to share confidential information, please opt for creating a Support Case. For additional details, refer to the 'License of Your Content' section in our Website Terms of Use.
- Utilization of Artificial Intelligence:
- While we embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) here at Safe Software, we value the human connection in our community. Given that AI is not extensively trained in FME specifics, we discourage the use of AI to ask and answer questions in the FME Community. Nonetheless, we acknowledge the usefulness of AI in text translation for our predominantly English-speaking community. Please exercise caution with translation tools, as they may not always accurately convey FME-specific technicalities.
- Privacy and Safety
- Please refer to the Safe Software Privacy Policy
Should you encounter any content that violates these guidelines, we encourage you to use the Report button or create a Support Case to notify us.
Wondering what you can post here on the FME Community?
Here are some ideas:
- How-to questions
- Can “this” be done in FME? Can I tackle my project using FME?
- Are you getting unexpected results?
- Interpreting an error
- Installation, licensing, security, etc.
- Share your favourite FME tips & tricks
- Enhancement ideas and suggestions on how to make FME even better can be posted on our dedicated Ideas Forum
- Connect with other FME users and tell us about your FME Story with our Question of the Week
Code of Conduct
Aligned with the Safe Software’s Code of Conduct, the FME Community also emphasizes several key aspects:
- Embracing Diversity and Inclusivity: Recognize and respect the diversity of humanity in our interactions. Be mindful of the impact that our words can have on others, both directly and indirectly.
- Welcoming All Skill Levels: Create a welcoming environment for users regardless of their knowledge level. The FME Community is a place for sharing and learning from each other, embracing users of all expertise and experience.
- Mindful Language in Forums: Be aware of the evolving nature of language and its social implications. Some terms historically used may no longer be suitable due to changes in social awareness. For example:
- Replace "master/slave" processes with terms like "parent/child" or "primary/secondary".
- Use "allowed list" or "unblocked list" instead of "whitelisted", and "deny list" or "blocked list" instead of "blacklisted".
- Avoiding Offensive Language: Steer clear of language and topics that might be offensive, exclusionary, or derogatory. This includes content that can be perceived as racist, sexist, heterosexist, or demeaning towards any age, ability, or religious belief.
Private Messaging
Private messages is how you will be notified of badges, replies, and other FME Community interactions. Private messaging is open for communication with other FME users; please abide by the Safe Software Code of Conduct and FME Community Guidelines (outlined in this article) in this space as well.
In addition, it is important to remain vigilant in this space as it is unmoderated.
- Do not share personal information or emails unless you trust the person
- Partners should have their company name in their profile, if unsure please review our Partner Locator.
- Safe Software employees will never ask for passwords or personal information in private messages
- To contact Safe Software Support, please create a Support Case.
- Technical support will not be offered from Safe Software via private messages. Support interactions will occur in the public forums or via a support case.
Tagging Other Users
You can tag another user by using the @ with their username. @mentioning should only be used to reply to people in the thread. Users and Safers can follow tags that they are interested in or are experts of to receive additional notifications.
@mentioning specific users outside of the thread will not get extra views and if abused may result in the user being banned from the community.
Moderation
The FME Community is moderated by Safe Software. The role of moderators is to ensure that the posts abide by the community guidelines. In some cases, a simple edit to the post will be made by the moderator to resolve an issue. However, posts will be removed without warning if the moderator deems the post inappropriate for the FME Community, based on the above guidelines.
In cases where the conversation in the post has gone off-topic, the moderator reserves the right to lock the post from further comments. This measure helps maintain the focus and relevance of our community discussions, ensuring a productive and respectful environment for all members.
Community members can also help to moderate posts by using the Report button on any posts they feel violate the FME Community Guidelines. If the Report option is not available, please create a Support Case.
Safe Account
Our community is available to be viewed by anyone to assist in quickly solving similar FME-related questions. However, an FME Community account is required to post, comment, and vote in the FME Community.
Your FME Community account is also connected to the FME Academy, where you can access free training. Additionally, your account enables you to submit technical support requests and track ongoing cases.
For more information on Safe Software Accounts, see Safe Account FAQ.
Let’s Get Started
Ready to get involved? Here are some activities you can carry out in this community:
- Ask how-to questions in the Forums (see tips for Asking and Answering Questions)
- Share ideas in the Ideas Exchange (see Idea Guidelines)
- Learn about upcoming activities and events
- Have fun with our FME quizzes and games
- Get alerts about new FME functionality
- Read technical articles and user case studies in the Blog
- Earn reputation, badges, and rewards for participation (see FME Community Gamification)
For more ideas on the types of discussions to start, see the “Posting Guidelines” section