How to serve folder/files created by SystemCaller (python) in FME Flow?

Question

I am using SystemCaller to run a pyton script (uses conda env) that creates a bunch of files and I am trying to figure out how I can get FME to then read the folder location and serve that to the user as a .zip file. The folder location is an attribute that I use to pass to SystemCaller but I cant figure out how to pass this attribute value to say a FileCopy or even a FeatureReader. The output folder is a concatonated path $(FME_WORKSPACE_DIR) + _output that I made as a new attribute value (_output_folder).

In the pic below, I tried to connect the Logger to FileCopy but that doesnt seem to do anything

here is the FileCopy settings i am using.

Am I doing this correctly or any other suggestions?

takashi · Accepted Answer

Hi ​@norris,I suppose you are attempting to archive all the resulting files savedin "$(FME_WORKSPACE_DIR)_output" folder into "$(FME_WORKSPACE_DIR)_output.zip" file. If I understand your requirement correctly, FeatureWriter could help you.Rename the attribute "_output_folder" to "filecopy_source_dataset" with AttributeManager or AttributeRenamer.Add FeatureWriter and set parameters as in:Format: File CopyDataset: @Value(filecopy_source_dataset).zipSubfolder Name: <a preferable subfolder name. "." or "/" if subfolder is not needed>See also the scrennshot.

hkingsbury · Answer

You’re on the right track, and i’ll be honest, I always forget how to setup the filecopy writer

As the name suggests, the filecopy_source_dataset attribute is the folder/file you want to copy

In the writer, the Destination File Copy Folder is where you want to copy the above file to

On the canvas, the feature type (subfolder name) is the name you want to give the folder/file

Now this is where it gets a bit confusing, specifically for folders. You say you’d like to zip it? so you’d think you’d just change the feature type to end in .zip. However if you do that, it copies it to a folder with the name .zip

To zip it up, you actually need to add the zip type to the writer. But in doing this, you’ll then copy the source folder into a zip file, so the structure would be “/folder.zip/folder”.

To fix this, you set the feature type on the canvas to ‘\’ then set the writer to the full path of the output zip file.

Example:

You want to copy C:\temp\New Folder to C:\temp\copiedfolder.zip

Filecopy_source_dataset	Destination File Copy Folder	Feature Type/Subfolder Name	Final output location
C:\Temp\New folder	C:\Temp	copiedfolder	C:\Temp\copiedfolder
C:\Temp\New folder	C:\Temp	copiedfolder.zip	C:\Temp\copiedfolder.zip (not an actual zip file)
C:\Temp\New folder	C:\Temp.zip	copiedfolder	C:\Temp.zip\copiedfolder (actual zip file)
C:\Temp\New folder	C:\Temp\copiedfolder.zip	\	C:\Temp\copiedfolder.zip (actual zip file)