PDFs with AI

Got access to Azure OpenAI, but it doesn’t look like any of the Azure OpenAI transformers or connectors support files like the OpenAIConnector does. Anyone have any experience with that?

Hi ​@runneals!

Did you mean the AzureAIFoundaryConnector? I’m on 2025.1 and it seems like it now does support files along with other functionalities.    

Let me know if you were hoping for some other functionality or if I might have misunderstood your question!

Also, not sure if you were aware of this before, but this (like other) FME Hub custom transformers can be downloaded and customized as needed! You can embed it, make edits, then save it as a new FMX file. I’ve done something similar before when I was comparing my custom transformer to another similarly working one off the Hub.

Here’s more information about custom transformers if you’re interested! 🙂

• https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME-Form-Documentation/FME-Form/Workbench/Using_Custom_Transformers.htm

Hi ​@runneals!

Did you mean the AzureAIFoundaryConnector? I’m on 2025.1 and it seems like it now does support files along with other functionalities.    

 

Let me know if you were hoping for some other functionality or if I might have misunderstood your question!

Also, not sure if you were aware of this before, but this (like other) FME Hub custom transformers can be downloaded and customized as needed! You can embed it, make edits, then save it as a new FMX file. I’ve done something similar before when I was comparing my custom transformer to another similarly working one off the Hub.

Here’s more information about custom transformers if you’re interested! 🙂

• https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME-Form-Documentation/FME-Form/Workbench/Using_Custom_Transformers.htm

I saw the file search initially, but that functionality seemed to allow you to upload files as resources to the model as a whole instead of passing them through for a single user message, so I ended up not going down that path. If it indeed is only used for the user message, I’d recommend renaming/updating the documentation.

Thanks for explaining! I think I understand what you mean. You're looking to pass a file as part of a single message/query (like attaching a document to one specific question), rather than uploading it as a persistent resource for the assistant to reference across multiple interactions.

Could you share a bit more about your use case or any particular issue you encountered? What would this message-level file passing allow you to do that the current approach doesn't support?

It might also be helpful to see a template workspace (.fmwt) if you're getting unexpected responses. That should help me better understand what you're working with! 🙂

Hi ​@runneals,

Thanks for posting your question on the FME Community!

If you’re looking for an AI transformer that can handle PDFs without permanently uploading the file, the OpenAIConnector or AzureAIFoundryConnector custom transformers should fit your use case. These two custom transformers both have the File Search capability.

Both connectors temporarily upload your file for a single request, process it, and then delete it automatically before the workspace completes. Here’s what happens under the hood in the OpenAIConnector:

The uploaded file is removed automatically when the translation finishes, so it won’t be a permanent upload unless you remove the deletion step from the custom transformer workflow.

OpenAIConnector documentation from the FME Hub:

The file to include in your file search request and temporarily uploaded to the [Files endpoint](https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/files. The uploaded file is automatically deleted after the workspace completes). This file will be uploaded and used in the context of the query.

For more background, we also have some helpful Knowledge Base articles on working with PDFs in FME using the OpenAIConnector:

• Getting Started with AI in FME (File Searching)
• Classifying Unstructured PDF Files (Intermediate Example)

Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions, I’d be happy to help!