Would be helpful to have a way to explicitly order MSWordStyler transformers. Currently the order is determined primarily by the order of the connectors (unless you have a Creators initiate every MSWordStyler with their order set). The simplest way to order them would be to allow the user to daisy-chain the MSWordStylers where successive MSWordStylers append to the the incoming from the previous MSWordStyler. An alternative would be to have an Order parameter in the MSWordStyler that you can set with the Word writer sorting them before it begins writing the output.
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Provide Mechanism to Order MSWordStyler Transformers
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BTW I've tested the idea of having an order parameter by adding an attribute "Order" to the MSWordStylers then sending all to a Sorter and then to the Writer. It seemed to work but requires that there be a transformer to set the order for each and every MSWordStyler. This makes for a very busy script when creating a large document.
+22- Safer
Hi @mikefrommaine -- thanks for this feedback. We did add this ordering option to the PowerPointStyler and it definitely is useful there. We talked about having it for Word but weren't as sure it would be useful. It sounds from your situation like it definitely would be. Would you be able to share your scenario and sample workspace so we could better understand why the ordering causes trouble? (I do believe you, but seeing it would help build the justification to restart this.)
Unfortunately I am not able to share the fmw script but I can describe it. We analyze facility assets for a utility for regulatory compliance reasons. The results are saved in an SQL Server database. For each asset we need to generate a report, and we have recently developed a script to do so. The content of the reports are dynamic since the assets vary in type, size, quantity, and location among other attributes. The reports vary in length, number and type of sections, and so on. Building a static report script is not an option, and the reports also change over time with the needs of the customers. These reports include dynamically replaced text, charts, summary result tables and, in the future, maps. Having an explicit ordering method will greatly improve our ability to generate these reports and to maintain them going forward.
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