Some FME scripts developed in 2017 version are not working in 2016 version. See the attached zip file for details. It seems like the transformers that are not working in these specific scripts are 'DatabaseJoiner' and 'FeatureMerger'.
What are the alternate solutions ?
This is normal and as expected. Older versions of FME aren't guaranteed to be future compatible.
Newer versions of FME can run older workspace files, but nothing is guaranteed the other way around.
You could open your workspace in FME 2017, type Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C to copy all to clipboard. Then try to paste into FME 2016. Some transformers might go missing however, so you'll have to add those manually.
Yes, we work very hard to make sure that workspaces developed in an older FME work in a newer one, but we cannot go back the other way. Best practice is to use the oldest FME you require use of to develop. Hopefully you do not have too many workspaces you need to backport -- sorry to hear you're in this situation.
Yes, we work very hard to make sure that workspaces developed in an older FME work in a newer one, but we cannot go back the other way. Best practice is to use the oldest FME you require use of to develop. Hopefully you do not have too many workspaces you need to backport -- sorry to hear you're in this situation.
As I understand it, a lot of the missing transformers doing a "downgrading" are due to newer versions having replaced older ones. Is this a correct perception ?
If so, would it be possible to have FME look for the latest version of a given transformer (by name) when either opening a newer workspace version, or pasting transformers from such ?
Or does this happen already ?
As I understand it, a lot of the missing transformers doing a "downgrading" are due to newer versions having replaced older ones. Is this a correct perception ?
If so, would it be possible to have FME look for the latest version of a given transformer (by name) when either opening a newer workspace version, or pasting transformers from such ?
Or does this happen already ?
Personally I'd be ok with an automatic downgrade when pasting into an older version of FME, but only if all the downgraded transformers were visible flagged as needing manual revision. Otherwise the risk isn't worth it (to me).
Also, some transformers are merged or split up between versions and I can see that creating some tricky issues for an automatic downgrade.
The other problem of course is that I can't go back in time and put the downgrade code into old FMEs. We could look at doing something along these lines however it is hard to take resources away from making new FMEs better and better and better to slightly improve the process of taking something new into something old -- knowing it is going to need manual intervention and rework.