Shape the future of FME with your ideas
Open ideas have been reviewed by our Product Management and are open for commenting and voting.
There are some parameters I use in a lot of different workspaces (ex the scripted parameter that put's a time stamp on the log file name). It would be nice if I can save them to a favourites list and then add parameters from favourites.
***Note from Migration:*** Original Title was: Add a new parameter Common Attribute Values for transformers that group attributes and builds list like TopologyBuilder Using TopologyBuilder, to retain the common values of an attribute as an edge and node attribute. Add a new parameter Common Attribute Values with a predicate textbox named _common_ to attributes found to have the same values on the grouped attributes. E.G. a road or a network line which has a common ObjectID or unique name, 30526 or Happy Hill road, an attribute called _common_ObjectID = 3052 and _common_Road_name = Happy Hill road will appear on the attributes of each edge and each node.
Use the TAB key as selector of a choice in pull downs and to go to the next focus, instead of using Enter first for selection and than TAB to go to the next focus.
I think the documentation is in desparate need of improvement. Some examples and clearer wording would be very helpful.This excerpt from the Intersector Transformer is a good example of a help page that needs some improvement:"Note that you could also access the individual street names by "exposing" some elements of your list (by right clicking on the attribute unqualified list name (in our example, "all_streets{}.NAME") and saying "Expose Elements", and entering the number of elements to expose. You'd then have to do something with those elements in your translation. (The disadvantage of this approach is that you need to know ahead of time how many list elements you want to work with -- so if 3 streets intersect at the same node and you only set yourself up to handle two, you'd have to do something special to handle that.)"Ok, I need to do something special. Care to elaborate?
Problem: FME has hundreds of transformers, with sometimes interesting names, that can be difficult for a newer user to understand. In this scenario, we borrow from online shopping sites (like Amazon) and provide recommendations for other similar-ish transformers based on our usage stats. Hopefully users then discover "new powers" to get the job done and don't feel so lost. Hypothetical example: "Other FME users who placed a Clipper also used a FeatureMerger, Tester, and AttributeCopier." Then use the Transformer Help to port in the quick description and/or image for context (maybe that information is hidden by default?). Where and how does this information get presented? I'm not sure, but I imagine it'd get most use if in product. Whether or not it's a good idea or even feasible is something I leave for you to assess.
Some of the ideas are very common problems and have either a non-obvious solution or have been implemented. It would help if all the implemented and solved ideas were collected together into a hot tips or put into the knowledge base or even the help for relevant transformers.I really liked the method for bulk changing of the width of 200 char fields on the writer. Who knew that? Yet I have been using and teaching FME for years!
The Transformer Reference Guide in A5 format is much prized by students in the Basic Course. It would be great if there were similar handbooks for other parts of FME such as readers and writers, server and maybe the store. i know the trend is to webify all documentation and help for ease of updating, but a small summary booklet when learning is a great aid - and marketing giveaway.
I think the opacity of the bookmarkfilling is not enough sometimes the connections between the transformers aren't really vissible.
The same way fmwt files can install data , fme would delete the files and directories it has created.
In FME 2016.1 RC, I found that the user has to click [Help] button or an equivalent command to access the help doc of a transformer. It's good for regular transformers, but custom transformers don't have [Help] button, so you cannot change the Help window to the help doc for a custom transformer while editing its parameters. [Defaults] button in the parameters dialog of custom transformers is useless, but [Help] button might be helpful.
Currently the Dataset Fanout cannot create multiple zip files. A workspace with this setting will archive all destination files into a single zip file, even if the value of "_fanout" varies depending on the features. Hope FME will do fanout zip archiving.
Add an .fmw reader - reads a workspace and outputs stats from the workspace -Reader/FeatureTypes/Attributes -Transformers/Count of/output ports connected -Testers/Query/etc.. Mainly the first point there, the ability to output a table that gives you the workspace name, reader type, feature types per reader, attributes per feature type. Would allow for a quick assessment of what scripts interact with what data and hence give a sense of what is impacted if a source or destination is changed.
***Note from Migration:*** Original Title was: Introduce "Attribute Accumulation" parameters group into SpatialFilter and SpatialRelator In FME 2015, a common parameters group called "Attribute Accumulation" has been introduced into some transformers, which allows users to control how to resolve conflict between attribute names. e.g. Clipper, FeatureMerger, NeighborFinder.Like that, I think that the SpatialFilter and SpatialRelator may also have the "Attribute Accumulation" parameters group.
Regarding these commands in the Options menu of the Text / Arithmetic Editor.Show Line NumbersShow Spaces/TabsWord WrapCurrently the initial status of those commands (checked or unchecked) is always the same.I think the most suitable status is different depending on user's preference and the current context that the user is working with, so it would be better if the status that the user has set could be preserved as the next initial status.
While reading the reader, FME reads all the attributes whether it is required or not for translation. Most of the times, all the attributes are not required so we are using attribute keeper or attribute remover transformer and allowing only the required.I suggest FME should read only those attributes which are having tick mark in User Attributes tab in reader. This will reduce in memory issues as well.
Add for all tests the option Attribute Has Value, which should mean that the Attribute: Not Is Empty, Not Is Null, Not Is Missing and != ""
It would be useful to be able to prompt for parameters in a workspace when debugging as errors can occur in different places with different input parameters. Currently, the workaround is to prompt and run workspace, immediately abort the translation and then run with breakpoint.
***Note from Migration:*** Original Title was: Docker Deployment. Faster Scalability, Enhanced Security, Simpler deployment across different Operating Systems
Leaving the original idea below for future reference. In FME 2016.1, we have a right-click on a connection to allow you to "hide" it. And you can again see it faintly if you click on either its source or destination transformers. You can "Show" the hidden connection again by right clicking on the source/destination transformer to bring it back. In combination with the new "Junctions" that are in 2016.1, we intend to yet make a right-click shortcut on a link to "replace with tunnel" which will inject 2 junctions, label them, and hide the line connecting them. That will complete the original vision. Without the most cool terminology :-( The ability to connect two points on a workspace without a visible connection line. Each wormhole would have 2 ends to it -- you'd have a depiction of the entrance, and then elsewhere a depiction of the exit, and you could route things through them without needing a long line crossing your workspace.
***Note from Migration:*** Original Title was: ArcGIS Online Writer writes to shape and then uploads. Why don't we use File geodatabase.
The order in which features are read play an important part in the performance or simplicity of a workspace. Reader order can be specified by changing the order in the Navigator. Creators only have two options: read at start or read at end. I feel better control concerning Reader/Creator order would be a great improvement.This idea has been mentioned before by @david_r and @takashi here (though I couldn't find the idea mentioned in his last reply) and by @fmelizard here. Apparently this call has been logged with Safe already, but perhaps we can gather some votes or ideas on how it should work on this post.Some possibilities:Creators also showing up in the Navigator inbetween the readers. Simple and uses existing functionality to determine order.A seperate window to rearrange all Creators/Readers in one go. Seems a bit clunky.An option on a Creator to 'Read [before/after] [Reader/Creator] X. Quite simple, but not deterministic if you schedule two Creators to run after the same Reader.
Sometimes you want to increase the drawing-thickness of an object in the data-inspector. It's also handy to have the ability to change the thickness and color of a selection.
When User Logs in they are presented with Dashboard containing things like a) Last 5 workspaces uploades b) Last 5 jobs run c) active Jobs d) Jobs in queue and position
At the moment you can create a new repository, add a description and then when not required, delete it.But if you fluff the description first time round or want to expand on it, you can't. I'm sure a hack to this is to open up your database administrator of choice and manually edit the description in the database table, but that's less than user friendly. Can we edit in the interface please?
If the output of a transformer/reader is split into two or more Connections, it would be incredibly helpful for more complex workspaces to specify which connection features should go down first. Or at the very least the ability to see what order the connections will be used in would be nice.
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