Where are the attributes created by attributecreator?

Hi @ramcgreg

Thanks,

Danilo

Did you run your Workspace after you created the new Attribute? I see you are inspect with cache enable.

@ramcgreg , one of the more useful shortcuts to know for showing other FME users what you have done or are trying to do is Ctrl - Shift - K. If select the AttributeCreator Transformer on the canvas, and use this shortcut, it will create a Summary Annotation that shows other users what Parameters have been set, so they can properly see what has been used in the workspace like this:

Note that AttributeCreator generally puts new Attributes at the Top of the list. In your case, it appears that "facility_id" was created, but that can only be confirmed if we can see what the actual Transformer parameter settings were.

I appreciate the responses, but have not had time to follow up. I use attribute exporter after creating attributes. I create a table of unique values from the field that I want to create field names from, export it to a table, then import those values into the parameters for the attributeexporter.

It feels like about three extra steps, since I have already created the attributes with the attribute creator.

I will investigate your suggestions and get back in here. Thank you,

I think this is it. I do expose them, but was hoping there was a way I could eliminate this step. I am getting field names from unique values in a field. To acquire the list of attributes to expose, I have to either enter them by hand or import them from a table that I have to create. I actually create a separate fme process to do this.

Maybe this is working as designed and I just need to make peace with it, but I was hoping to streamline this process.

Thank you,

Randy

I have created new attributes, I just can't see them without attributeexposer, which may just be how it is supposed to work.

Thanks,

Randy

Unfortunately right now if you want them exposed on the canvas, i.e. available for later transformers then you do need to do this slightly convoluted step. However, if you are just looking to write the newly created attributes to a file for example, with dynamic writers, it's not necessary to have the attributes exposed in order to write them out.

@ramcgreg If the Attribute Names are being created with a function like @Value(Attribute Value) instead of a fixed string value, then there is no way that the Workflow can know what the resulting Attribute Names will be at Design time and hence why AttributeExposer exists as the Transformer to address this. Attribute Names created with a function like this only become known once the Workflow is run and the data read and transformed.

As @ebygomm suggests, you only need to use AttributeExposer on Attributes needing to be used as further inputs into later Transformers. Most use cases that create Attribute Names dynamically like this typically don't need the Attribute Names to be exposed because it becomes equally hard to design downstream Transformers with Attribute Names that can be variable.

Any unexposed Attributes can still be written, and can still be reviewed in Data Inspector.

Otherwise the broader question that you may wish to consider is if there really is a need to create a table formatted like this. Most cases that generate dynamic Column labels are as the result of creating a CrossTab. There are better ways of structuring data for processing, and CrossTabbing is a process that generally should be left as the very last step in the data processing workflow, and is usually only for report formatting purposes.

For example, a CrossTab table of:

"Country" "State" (As Row Headers), "Population", "GDP", "Birth rate".... etc. (As Column Headers)

Works better in most worfklows if the underlying data tables are themselves actually maintained and processed in a relational/normalised way like this:

"Country", "State", "Measurement Name", "Measurement Value"
"United States", "AL", "Population", 4900000
etc.

This way you are dealing with a fixed and known Schema and in which optimal data queries can be performed by Eg. Filtering by Measurement Name.

Thanks

Randy McGregor

I want to create the attributes from values in a field, then I need to act on those attributes. I am not able to act on them until I can see them and I think I can't see them until I run "expose attributes."

Thanks

"Country" "State" (As Row Headers), "Population", "GDP", "Birth rate".... etc. (As Column Headers)

"Country", "State", "Measurement Name", "Measurement Value"
"United States", "AL", "Population", 4900000
etc.

Thank you. That is informative and helpful.

Thanks. That helps.