In order to be able to easily share both plug-ins and custom transformers (both using the .fmx extension), it would be great to introduce a new file type, that basically is a packaged/zipped FMX with a bunch of auxiliary files added to it. This would be similar to the .fmwt file (Workspace Template), that has the ability to include source datasets with the workspace.
Why?
- If you developed an FME plug-in using Python for example, you typically end up with a .fmx file and one or more .py files. This can't be shared on FME Hub unfortunately (as discussed here). Bundling it and adding support for it might solve that for those users who are not familiar with Git (if FME moves in that direction): the code file would simply be included in the package and when the user downloads the plug-in, it will all be installed in the FME transformer directory.
- An FMX package would allow us to include required resources, e.g. when the custom transformer requires some kind of lookup table (e.g. CSV).
- You could include images (GIF, JPG) that can be used for creating examples in the transformer description/help section. If you want to do that now, you'd have to host the image on a server (which means keeping it online "forever") and link to it in the transformer description/help.
