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Paths in FME training workspaces

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  • August 1, 2017
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redgeographics
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The FME training material comes with a number of sample workspaces with hardcoded paths. If you place the .zip file in C: and unzip it there all the paths in those workspaces will be correct. However, depending on where you are doing a training course you may not have access to the C: drive due to IT policies or it simpy not existing (Mac and Linux). That means the workspaces won't work right away, any paths in there have to be fixed first. This is a bit annoying and it can be confusing for novice users.

So with that in mind I have uploaded a workspace to the Hub to fix this. When placed in the FMEData2017 folder and run from there it will look for all the other .fmw files and fix the paths in there.

I would like to suggest this (or a workspace with similar purpose) to be added to the standard training material.

(Anybody who wants to use this workspace for their training feel free to do so but do note that I haven't tested it against all workspaces in the training material)

FME rocks! \m/
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2 replies

mark2atsafe
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  • mark2atsafeSafer
  • Safer
  • August 1, 2017
This is something we can look at for sure. One solution is that we use relative paths (eg ../data/file.shp etc) but that's not simple enough to do for a lot of workspaces and it doesn't really match what the content of the training is teaching. We might be able to do something with an installer. But even then the training content isn't updated, so won't match the workspaces. How big a problem is that? Is it worth making a variable in the training manual to handle multiple paths?

 

 

FME Evangelist to the Rich and Famous!!
redgeographics
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Perhaps the section in the training manual that covers the sample dataset could explain that it's recommended to place it in C:\\FMEData[year] and that all the paths mentioned in the manual assume the data and workspaces are there? If the data is placed somewhere else the user can run the workspace to update all the paths in the .fmw files but then still has to remember that all paths in the manual are the defaults.

Alternatively: Adobe Acrobat (not the free reader) lets me do a find and replace so I could quickly run that at the start of a course and distribute new PDF's. It'd be a bit of a hassle and you'd have to wonder whether or not the time and effort spent on that weighs up to the trainee having to do a little bit more thinking.

FME rocks! \m/

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