Hello FMEers,
Here's your weekly dose of news from the world of FME.
Scavenger Hunt Results
The Scavenger Hunt just finished and the results could not have been closer:
Team Nordend won from Team Zipster by just 65 points. And it wasn't just close in points, it was also close in time. Team Nordend made the winning submission just seconds from the game closing. I thought that was a deliberate tactic, but it appears that they really did get the winning solution at the last second:
So congratulations to them, Team Zipster, and Team Transformer - in fact, to anyone who participated. And thank you all for taking part. The whole idea was to learn a little about FME while having fun and to help build teamwork. It seems we succeeded:
If you want to have a go at solving the problems for yourself - or just check out the answers - then you can find most of them on the community:
- Fun with Flags Puzzles/Solutions (easy level)
- Where in the World Puzzles/Solutions (medium difficulty)
- Brain Teaser Puzzles/Solutions (medium to exceedingly hard!)
Everyone, look out for more activities in the coming months, but I think the next big one (i.e. has prizes) will be the 12 Days of FME in December.
Hub Updates
As it's the start of the month, I have the usual Hub monthly digest to share.
Dave Kazemi has been busy with a MultiVariableSetter/Retriever, a CSMultiChoiceExpander and a CSTempPathnameCreator:
But we also have work from:
- con terra: Convert CityGML 2.0 to 3.0
- European Environment Agency: Reportnet3 and Reportnet3PackageInfo
- Safe Software: KickboxConnector
- Plateau (Takashi?): Multiple templates
If you're interested in the Hub, then you might have attended the user conference talk by my colleague Stewart, entitled "Introducing the new Package SDK, Create and Share Python Based Transformers". I'm looking forward to when that talk becomes available online, because when this functionality becomes available it will be a huge leap forward for the Hub.
Server Apps and API v4
I've been using Server apps for a while now, and many of them work by streaming HTML responses (sometimes reports) back to the user. Many items on the FME Community Cafe work this way.
But I'm often frustrated designing HTML that looks like the original app. I can design the app in Server but I don't have the same controls in the HTMLReportGenerator.
However, while I was experimenting this week, I found that v4 of the Server API promises some solutions with these commands:
[server]/fmeapiv4/apps/galleries/[id]/files/headingbanner
[server]/fmeapiv4/apps/galleries/[id]/files/headinglogo
[server]/fmeapiv4/apps/galleries/[id]/files/footerbanner
[server]/fmeapiv4/apps/galleries/[id]/files/footerlogoThese are part of new apps calls on the API that let you discover what apps are available, download and upload files, and - most importantly for me - retrieve the header/footer components.
So I simply added some custom HTML to my HTMLReportGenerator, like so:
Choose City Guesser > Current Leaderboard on the Community Cafe site to see for yourself what the result looks like.
I don't know if this is what the API call is intended for, but it works very well for me! If you want to try v4 of the API on your own Server, then you can visit:
http://<serverhost>/fmeapiv4/swagger-ui/index.htmlJust remember. This version of the API is a "technology preview". It's still under active development and should not be used in a production environment.
FME Conference Follow Up
I'm almost constantly clicking "Like" when I'm on LinkedIn now because so many posts from the FME User Conference keep appearing! One interesting post is from our partner Tensing, and is a podcast episode that interviews Safe founders Don and Dale.
I saw the interviewer - Dave Laurier - around the user conference, but never found time to chat. So I'll listen to this podcast instead to get his thoughts on FME through the questions he asks! Don't worry; only the first 2 minutes are in Dutch.
Also from Avineon/Tensing at the conference, this marvellous animation took a prize during the FME Hackathon.
It's a busy week for Tensing. I notice that they have 3 new FME-certified employees:
...and also have an FME-related position open, if you are interested in working there.
European Update
In fact, it appears to be a busy time for everyone in that part of the world.
Also in the Netherlands, Red Geographics published Transformer Friday - their weekly look at FME transformers - about the Duplicate Filter.
In Poland, our partner Globema is offering - if I understand correctly - a discount on their FME training that you can claim in September but use at any later date.
In Sweden, Sweco is also hosting training. Among others, they have an Advanced FME course that takes place in Stockholm, on 21-22 September.
Congratulations
In addition to the Tensing trio above, congratulations this week to:
- Oliver Smith, Stuart Steel, Luke Cooper, Helen Whitely (FME Certified Professional)
- Raghavendran S (SRG), Mark McCart, Neil Stephenson (FME Server Certified Professional)
- Karolina Borkowska, Wiktor Sawicki (FME Business Professional)
...and to Tom Farrington, for something even better than FME certification!
