In addition to this, today I find that a reference to a file geodatabase in a reader has been "corrupted" the same way:

Unable to connect to the File Geodatabase at 'I:\\BEHEER\\Temp\\Ferdinand\\FME_Taskforce\\Geheugengebruik\\64-bits/WSV_Geometrie.gdb'

This line I copied from the log for a run where I removed everything from the parameter that point to the file geodatabase, except for the geodatabase itself. It is in the same directory as the FME model. In a text editor I saw that the reference was actually:

#!  DATASET="$(FME_MF_DIR)WSV_Geometrie.gdb"

So I concluded that I could leave out the path. Now it seems the error is in the FME-variable containing the forward slash, or somehow being added.

What could be the cause of this?

Hi @ferdinandbogman​ ,

Sounds like something isn't quite right here. By any chance are you able to send in your workspace(s) and the log file so our team can take a closer look into this? https://community.safe.com/s/submit-case (if you do, please feel free to either reference this question or the issue number: FMEENGINE-48741)

From what it looks like, the issue mentioned in the linked question has not yet been addressed so I have linked your question to ensure this post is updated in case there is a status change.

What build of FME are you using when you observe this behaviour (Help > About FME Workbench).

Thanks @chrisatsafe​, for replying.

The zipfile attached contains two versions of the workspace, one with the fault (_a), the other without it. Logs are included, which show the difference in results.

They were both run today in FME 64-bit 2019-2.3.2 (build 19825).

Perhaps you can draw some conclusion about the cause.

Kind regards,

Ferdinand.

Sorry @chrisatsafe​ ,

I overlooked the suggestion to submit a case.

See case C657413 for

The file included with the case is the same as the one included here.

We're using FME Desktop 2019.2.3.2 (20200320 - Build 19825 WIN64)

And, importantly, the problem still exists.

Kind regards,

Ferdinand.

@chrisatsafe​ ​,

I'm not sure if I should put this here, or add it to the case. Anyway, I let a colleague, for whom I built this workbench in the first place, test the thing. I hoped the error would be some location-specific issue and he would test in in a different one. He got the same issue.

That is, he was able to reproduce the variant which I described in the PS of my original question. One of the lines that is output reads:

mkdir "I:\\BEHEER\\Werkprocessen\\Landmeten\\Projecten lopend\\LM250_KW WS ObjectMeldingen\\7_foto/test GUI TEXT Kunstwerkmappen Geef de locatie van de kunstwerkmappen:\\Duikers\\KDU-8863"

Here we see the forward slash again. But also the text in bold, which is added in between the text that should be output. The text consists of:

• a parameter (GUI TEXT)
• the text that appears in the GUI when the workbench is run
• the text that was filled in by my colleague

It might help to say that, while we see a path, this is actually defined as a text parameter, since it needs to be added to a string.

Hope this helps,

Ferdinand.

I'm having a very similar issue. I have the following SQL in the "SQL To Run After Write" on a featureWriter, writing to SQL Server table:

insert into event.import.dataload (KEYCOL, recordType) VALUES ('U:\\Systems\\POLER\\Data Migration Plans\\Migration FME Workspaces\\ORI_Level1_ETL_config\\01ETL_ORI_validationEvents.json', 'M')

The value in the table is:

U:\\Systems\\POLER\\Data Migration Plans\\Migration FME Workspaces/ORI_Level1_ETL_config\\01ETL_ORI_validationEvents.json

which has one backslash converted to a forward slash...

I just tried exactly the same SQL writing to the same table using an identical transformer and it wrote the backslash correctly

This was causing me grief too. I was trying to pass a folder containing a file geodatabase parent path as a parameter to arcpy using a system caller.

Its all down to FME automatically replacing the beginning of paths within a workspace which match the workspaces's folder with $(FME_MF_DIR).

Documented here: https://community.safe.com/s/article/fme-mf-dir-environment-variable

Unfortunately the FME parameter adds a trailing forward slash onto the end of the $(FME_MF_DIR) parameter, even on windows.

My user Parameter containing desired Path for Geodatabase folder 

$(TemporaryGeoDatabaseLocation) = D:\\BatchProcesses\\ServiceArea\\TemporaryData

My FME workspace was in D:\\BatchProcesses\\ServiceArea\\

So $(FME_MF_DIR) = D:\\BatchProcesses\\ServiceArea/

Causing the parameter to be rewritten as: $(FME_MF_DIR)TemporaryData

But get evaluated as D:\\BatchProcesses\\ServiceArea/TemporaryData 

This was not compatible with arcpy when passed via a system caller in my use case.

After much digging about here is my workaround:

Option 1: This is a poor solution as it is hardcoded in every instance. Use the FME_MF_DIR parameter and TrimRight command to strip the trailing backslash on the workspace folder and hardcode "\\TemporaryData" into any use of the folder.

@TrimRight($(FME_MF_DIR),"//")\\TemporaryData

Option 2: Wrap any use of your original parameter with a string replacer to change any forwardslashes back to a backslash.

@ReplaceString($(TemporaryGeoDatabaseLocation),"/",\\,caseSensitive=TRUE)

Note: the backslash is an escape character and must not be included in double quotes as it will escape the ending quote and cause an error.