Shape the future of FME with your ideas
Open ideas have been reviewed by our Product Management and are open for commenting and voting.
Hi,It would be a nice feature to add support for SLD files. They're XML files, so it ought to be fairly straight forward.Some sort of cross-format support to input/output styles handled by the various style transformers, so I could e.g. read an SLD at designate it to output as MapInfo styles directly, or e.g. output an SLD file based on MapInfo styles, would also be very neat. This is nice-to-have though, and may be a little more complicated.Note that there may be version issues to consider.If this can be achieved by packaging some templaters etc., that's great too.Cheers.
White Box Tools is an open source geoprocessing package made by the University of Guelph.Its key benefit is its extreme speed, being able to process tools between 5 and 50 times faster than ArcGIS Pro. It would extremely beneficial if FME included an WBT transformer which could allow users to pass FME data to WBT and allow the user to select which WBT to run (there are hundreds). This would greatly expand the raster capabilities of FME, and include some functionality which is currently lacking in FME (viewshed)Whitebox Geospatial
Currently FME Server is routing jobs to available engines with the round robin circulation. One of the main benefits of dynamic engines is that job can use these (only) if there is peak demand. Currently jobs can also be assigned to dynamic engines if a standard engine is available but the circulation system decides to use the dynamic engine.My suggestion is to have FME Server 'see' dynamic engines differently than standard engines to be able to only assign jobs to dynamic engines if no standard engine is available.With this we don't have to pay for standard engines that are idle most of the time, can use dynamic engines only when needed and we don't lose credits on using dynamic engines when a standard engine is available.See also discussion here.
Enable a feature that allows user to view the workspace (either as an image before you open it - like Windows) or by opening the workspace in View only model. When editing is required, a license is checked out. Not a money spinner for Safe (!), but would allow users to check logic/undertake basic QA without checking out a production license.
Hi there, Sometimes in a large workspace, I need to zoom out and select a large area of transformers (to either create a bookmark, select them to move or delete, etc.), however at a certain zoom level I don’t have the granularity to control exactly what I’m selecting (I might be selecting things that I don’t want to select, then I need to zoom in and unselect these things). It would be helpful, at a certain level of zooming out a workspace, to show a little pop up window when you start clicking and dragging the cursor to select things, so that you can see where in the workspace the cursor is and then control what is being selected. Cheers
This idea has come up in the 2016 thread (now released) about adding any output ports to FeatureWriter but the use case for Rejected features remains - e.g. some web-based format has a transient HTTP error, the failed features need to be retried after a wee delay, or a field overflows and can’t be written. @markatsafe @rylanatsafe you guys were on that thread. FeatureReader has a Rejected port, very handy for retry logic in a looping custom transformer, lets see it for FeatureWriter!There might need to be a Rejected port for each output port if you're going to loop it, or filter on feature type before looping to an input.
Allow certain output ports to have their feature caching disabled to improve performance.As an example, I quite often use the FeatureMerger. With Feature Caching turned on it will cache all the output ports, as described here under the 'Unconnected Output Ports' heading - https://knowledge.safe.com/articles/79739/feature-caching-and-performance.html - I often don't care about the UnusedSupplier and UsedSupplier, but they tend to be the largest datasets and add significant time on first run/uncached runs.What would be ideal is an option to turn off the feature caching for certain output ports, perhaps under the right click menu of the output port itself.Admittedly this right click menu only appears once the feature caching is done, but you get the idea.This is similar to this proposal - https://knowledge.safe.com/content/idea/77431/feature-caching-woes-reuse-large-attributesturn-so.html - But a bit more granular, whereas that proposal suggests allowing feature caches to be turned off for entire transformers, this one proposes only turning them off for certain output ports.
I wondered, maybe Safe could add an option to the Sampler to drop unsampled data, instead of sending it out of the unsampled port.Why?Because when I run a workspace with caching turned on, it’s using up resources caching unsampled data that I don’t need. This is especially true since I was set up to sample only the first feature. Having obtained that single feature, I really don’t need the Sampler to carry on storing other data. In fact, I don’t really need it to carry on processing at all!
I often want to view the source data is the native software and open it from FME Form via Open Containing Folder, then open that file. My suggestion is to add an option to open that file in the native Windows program, e.g. ‘View Source Data’ in native, or ‘Open in Native’ so you remove a step. If the file was a DWG it would auto-open in whatever Windows/user has assigned to open a DWG, e.g.AutoCAD 2027. If it’s a CSV, it opens in Excel (or Notepad++ for example) if that’s what the user has set. Thanks.
Our customers are asking for this, when creating APIs with FME Server's REST. At the moment REST API Service only uses tokens for authentication and not OAuth.
A function to enable|disable the Startup|Shutdown Python Script at once would be desirable.It is always very expensive if you have to comment out all lines just jor testing
FME currently does not provide a native way to control compression of raster overviews (pyramids) when generating outputs such as GeoTIFF or COG, limiting the ability to optimize file size and performance.In real-world workflows, especially when handling large raster datasets, overview compression is essential to ensure efficient data access and reduced storage requirements.At present, achieving this requires the use of external tools, which breaks the native FME workflow and adds unnecessary complexity.Request:Add native support for overview compression (method, quality, predictor, etc.) in raster writers or transformers.This would enable fully native workflows within FME and significantly improve efficiency in production environments.
Currently you have to go directly to a remote engine job logs and log in to see job logs, It would be great to be able to see all logs from one place i.e the parent flow instanceIf a job runs on a remote engine, I would still like to see the logs in the parent flow instance
If a user changes the Connection Storage to FME Flow some challenges need to be solved.Every time the user wants to add a new (Web) Connection which FME Flow doesn’t know, it can’t be added because the Service Definition need to be uploaded first.For example, on a completely new FME Flow only three Web Services are available. If the user wants to add a Dropbox Connection it is not possible at all and the Web Service dropdown stays empty [1].For now to upload the Service Definition the user has to change the Connection Storage back to Local Storage and choose one of the following wayscreate a connection for this type and upload it to FME Flow upload just the Service Definition to FME Flow via FME FormAfter that the user needs to change the Connection storage back to FME Flow. Idea:Add the functionality toupload the Service Definition if it doesn’t exist on FME Flow directly in the creation process for a new Connection, so that if a new Connection will be created it will automatically upload the Service Definition in the backgroundorstore the details in the background and upload these during the Publishing Wizard if it will be necessary for the process to run on FME Flow[1]
When inspecting features, particularly identifying point geometries, I find myself wanting to visualise the Identifier attribute for alot of points, sometimes along lines and centre of polygons. Obviously desktop GIS have this functionality…. but I’m asking to build on the Mark location option which already has a Label option. Can this same code be added under the Display Control, where users edit the styling of each dataset/layerData Inspection lacks functionality to add simple labels for a point dataset/layerA workaround in workbench is to use LabelPointReplacer transformer to create text geomSo the updated UI will need Label section in the drawing style… and as pictured belowability to select the Attribute Value column and make this the label text the font and colour would be nice label size (replacing font size?) may also be of assistance, though projected coordinates are likely needed to display in metresDisplay Control drawing styles to include a Label
At the moment, it takes some effort to figure out what Python install is used by FME Form and what Python install is used by FME Flow. This becomes a problem once additional libraries need to be installed on FME Form and FME Flow, especially if they are installed on the same physical machine or AWS instance. I would like to propose some changes which will improve user experience:making Python install locations more obvious during FME install; having the same default location for FME Form and FME Flow Python installs; exposing Python install(s) used by FME Form in Utilities > FME Options; somehow exposing Python install(s) used by FME Flow in FME Flow WebUI; making repointing FME Form/FME Flow to the preferred Python install… well, effortless.
Can FME add support for Vulcan files (by Maptek): .00t, .isis, .isixIf anyone else is interested, vote for this idea and add a comment about what transformations you envision performing in FME with the Vulcan files.
I am forever accidently closing the Data Inspector after I inspect some data. Please can you add an FME Option to bring up a “Are you sure you want to exit?” dialog box when you click the top right X close button. Thanks.
I'm curious if there's a straightforward way to make FME lineage information accessible for data catalog systems. Have you all thought about enabling FME with OpenLineage? I’m not sure how that could work, but I’ve noticed that data catalog products are beginning to adopt this standard. Imagine how great it would be if FME could effortlessly share lineage info with popular data catalog tools like Microsoft Purview, Collibra, and Alation! This could be a game-changer for organizations that truly value solid data governance and tracking. What do you all think? Is this feasible, or are there other existing alternatives?
As noted here, it would be nice to have the ability to write additional components such as Classification, Intensity etc, with our Cesium writer.
I would want to be able to retrieve information about automation schedule.I see several similar requests in Ideas, and it looks like it was possible to do with FME Flow v3 API using schedules endpoint. I’ve tried <FME_URL>/fmeapiv4/schedules?limit=100&offset=0&includeAutomations=trueThe API call didn’t fail, however it returned only schedules and no scheduled automations. The v4 API documentation doesn’t have includeAutomations param, so I am rather surprised the call didn’t fail.The automations endpoint has nothing about triggers or schedules either.In general, it would be helpful to be able to retrieve information about automation trigger and, if the trigger is a schedule, information about the schedule. One of the use cases for this would be administration of an FME Flow hosting multiple projects and used by many users/teams. Somehow, midnight seems to be the most popular choice when scheduling automations. As a result, there is a long list of automations triggered at midnight, and if one of them gets stalled… there is a surprisingly long queue with time sensitive jobs in it in the morning. If I was able to retrieve schedule info, I would create a dashboard to monitor scheduled triggers distribution
Currently, when transferring projects between different environments (e.g., TEST to PROD) in FME Flow, it is necessary to use the same “global” encryption key across those environments.From a security standpoint, reusing the same encryption key across multiple environments is not considered best practice.It would be great to have “project-level” encryption keys, allowing each project to be encrypted independently of a global system key.
The following improvements to Role Based Security would be useful:1.Increased Granularity for Job Viewing and Job Management PermissionsI need the ability to allow users to see specific other user’s jobs and logs rather than all jobs and logs. We use different service accounts for different enterprise projects and currently I am having to share all jobs/logs with users so they can monitor their processes. Since not all groups need to see each other’s jobs this is not the best solution. (Thank you Safe for new search options in 2019 as they slightly help with this issue.)Likewise, in the current Role system being able to view all jobs requires job management permissions which let users cancel jobs in the queue or terminate running jobs. This puts me in a difficult position regarding how we implement SOX compliance. It is preferred users be locked out from managing running production processes. If the ability to view all logs but not manage jobs was made available that would be a move in a positive direction. If the option to say kill queued jobs but not running jobs was an option that may also be useful.2. Additional Options on Database ConnectionsHaving a Read option alongside the Full Control option for database connections would be excellent. I am seeing issues when I grant users access to connections without giving them full control over a connection. Since we have many processes using the same named database connection it is not ideal to grant users management access since one incorrect change by any user with access could disrupt jobs for all users using the connection. Something similar to how the Notification items are broken out would be amazing.3. Automatic Content Sharing with Administrator AccountsIt would be helpful if FME Server automatically shared user created content with members of the Super User role. If this could be an option for the FME Admin role that would also be appreciated. I have a plethora of users creating content and when they ask for help it is cumbersome to have to share their content with myself and my fellow Admins before I can help troubleshoot.
Level up to the parquet format (updates and snapshot)
The web connection/webservice features have been around for a few years and it needs some improvement in the UX, especially to help new users. Here’s a few suggestions:1. once a web service is created by a user, services, templates and connections are all mixed up in the drop downs or that long list of templates and web services. Some type of separation or categories between user created services from web services templates either on the long list in FME options or the drop downs in the connectors.2. The Add Web Connection drop down from the transformers is confusing to new users, when the web connection is not a simple token or key or the web service is not created yet. 3. On the MCP Caller (Beta) web connection from FME Options, I have to type the MCP URL and API key three times before I can use it. Once the URL is configured from the template ans applied. Once applied, the URL should persist in the drop down when I Test the web service and create with Add my Web Connection.
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