Flat File Adapter Reference

alias

Specify the File alias the adapter should use to establish the connection.

any valid File alias

action

recordSeparator

Separator of the different records, normally line feed and carriage return. For serialized files, any other character can be defined.

any character or one of

C Syntax

Character (Dec.)

<newline>

<esc>

\x1B

27

<newline>

Parses correctly on Unix and Windows platforms.

\n

10

<space>

32

<tab>
<tabulator>

\t

9

<unixnewline>

Composes newline.

\n

10

<windowsnewline>

Composes newline and carriage return.

\r\n

13, 10

escapeCharacter

Defines the character used for escaping when a reserved character is used within a field value.

any character

/

quoteCharacter

The quoteCharacter will be ignored by reading field value.

any character

/

fillCharacter

Defines a dummy character to fill non-existent values (results in NULL). Used for fixed property layout only.

any character

0

reservedCharacters

Defines a list of characters to be escaped automatically when the file is composed.

any character

{"/", "%", "&", "(", ")"}

composeEmptyAttributes

Controls whether empty trailing attributes of data segments will be written during composition.

true/false

attributeLayout

Defines the attribute layout (fixed or separated) of the complex attribute.

• Fixed: For property values that are shorter than the maximum length of the field, the field is filled with a fill character. As per default, this is blank space, but you can change the the fill character in attribute fillCharacter of the FlatFile class (see Attributes of Class FlatFile).

• Separated: If separated is used, specify the separator using attributeSeparator (see below).

fixed

Fixed property layout.

separated

Separated property layout.

attributePattern

A RegEx pattern to parse the field content into a complex structure using capture groups.

a valid regular expression

^(.?)(://)([A-Za-z0-9.])(:[0-9])(/.)$

attributeSeparator

Defines the property/field separator.

any character

Use the specified character as property separator.

<Tab>

Use tabulator as property separator.

comma (,)

Use the comma (,) as property separator.

suppressEscaping

Boolean value to suppress escaping.

true

Property values of this property will not be un-escaped (parser) or escaped (composer) (default).

false

Escaping/un-escaping is not suppressed.

composeMacro

A macro that is executed while parsing/composing a file or complex field.

This macro can contain multiple commands separated by commas or spaces. Macros on classes are executed before the processing of its properties or associations. The ID represents a counter.

The following counters are available:

• eight automatic counters with ID AUTO0 .. AUTO7

• two automatic line counters with ID LINE0 and LINE1 (parsing only)

• unlimited custom counters with ID CUSTOM0 .. CUSTOMx

Automatic counters are increased by 1 for each processed record. Custom counters have to be increased manually using the increase macro. All counters have the initial value of 0 when they process the first record.

For more details on macro commands see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File.

any valid macro expression (see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File)

GetCounter(0)

parseMacro

composeMacro

A macro that is executed while parsing/composing a file or complex field.

This macro can contain multiple commands separated by commas or spaces. Macros on classes are executed before the processing of its properties or associations. The ID represents a counter.

The following counters are available:

• eight automatic counters with ID AUTO0 .. AUTO7

• two automatic line counters with ID LINE0 and LINE1 (parsing only)

• unlimited custom counters with ID CUSTOM0 .. CUSTOMx

Automatic counters are increased by 1 for each processed record. Custom counters have to be increased manually using the increase macro. All counters have the initial value of 0 when they process the first record.

For more details on macro commands see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File.

any valid macro expression (see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File)

GetCounter(AUTO0)

parseMacro

evaluationOrder

Defines the order in which the association of the classes starting on same parent class must be processed.

any integer

pattern

A pattern to identify the record. The pattern is checked before the fields are separated. If no pattern is defined, all records will be parsed.

any character

^Pattern.*

a valid regular expression

pattern

A pattern to identify the record. The pattern is checked before the fields are separated. If no pattern is defined, all records will be parsed.

a valid regular expression

^Pattern.*

attributeLayout

Defines the property layout of the flat file record.

fixed

Fixed property layout. For property values that are shorter than the maximum length of the field, the field is filled with a fill character. As per default, this is blank space, but you can change the fill character in attribute fillCharacter of the FlatFile class (see the Attributes of the FlatFile class above).

separated

Separated property layout. Specify the separator using attributeSeparator (see below).

pattern

Property layout is specified by a RegEx pattern in attributePattern (see below).

attributePattern

A RegEx pattern to parse the record content into the properties using capture groups.

a valid regular expression

^(.?)(://)([A-Za-z0-9.])(:[0-9])(/.)$

attributeSeparator

Defines the property/field separator.

any character

Use the specified character as property separator.

Comma (,)

Use the comma (,) as property separator.

<Tab>

Use tabulator as property separator.

ignoreEmptyRecords

Boolean value for ignoring empty records. If set to true, no item will be generated, if none of the defined properties or sub records have any content.

Note, that a record containing only empty Strings is not empty – in opposition to a record composed from NULLs. See ignoreEmptyStrings below to skip processing of records containing only empty Strings.

true

Ignore empty records.

false

Process empty records.

suppressEscaping

Boolean value to suppress escaping. If suppressEscaping on a FlatFileRecord is true, FlatFileComplexAttribute that are part of this record will inherit this setting.

true

Property values of this record will not be un-escaped (parser) or escaped (composer) (default).

false

Escaping/un-escaping is not suppressed.

composeMacro

A macro that is executed while parsing/composing a file or complex field.

This macro can contain multiple commands separated by commas or spaces. Macros on classes are executed before the processing of its properties or associations. The ID represents a counter.

The following counters are available:

• eight automatic counters with ID AUTO0 .. AUTO7

• two automatic line counters with ID LINE0 and LINE1 (parsing only)

• unlimited custom counters with ID CUSTOM0 .. CUSTOMx

Automatic counters are increased by 1 for each processed record. Custom counters have to be increased manually using the increase macro. All counters have the initial value of 0 when they process the first record.

For more details on macro commands see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File.

any valid macro expression (see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File)

GetCounter(AUTO0)

parseMacro

lineNumber

Specifies the number of a record in the file. The first record is lineNumber=1, the second lineNumber=2, etc.

any integer

evaluationOrder

Defines the order in which the association of the classes starting on same parent class must be processed.

any integer

ignoreEmptyStrings

Boolean value for ignoring empty string properties. If set to true, empty string values will be processed to NULL.
Use this attribute in combination with ignoreEmptyRecords to skip processing of records containing only empty Strings.

true

Ignore empty string values.

false

Preserve empty string values.

suppressEscaping

Boolean value to suppress escaping.

true

Property values of this property will not be un-escaped (parser) or escaped (composer) (default).

false

Escaping/un-escaping is not suppressed.

parseMacro

A macro that is executed while parsing/composing a file or complex field.

This macro can contain multiple commands separated by commas or spaces. Macros on classes are executed before the processing of its properties or associations. The ID represents a counter.

The following counters are available:

• eight automatic counters with ID AUTO0 .. AUTO7

• two automatic line counters with ID LINE0 and LINE1 (parsing only)

• unlimited custom counters with ID CUSTOM0 .. CUSTOMx

Automatic counters are increased by 1 for each processed record. Custom counters have to be increased manually using the increase macro. All counters have the initial value of 0 when they process the first record.

For more details on macro commands see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File.

any valid macro expression (Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File)

GetCounter(0)

composeMacro

padding

Defines the padding rule for the field from the left or right side.

left("<any character>")

right("<any character>")

• Parsing: Ignore the specified character from the left/right side to the first different character.

• Composing: Fill the property from the left/right side to the first different character using the specified character.

left("0")
right(" ")

format

Pattern for formatting numeric and date & time values. For details see Number Formatting respectively Date and Time Formatting Patterns.

any valid number or dateTime pattern

S9G999G990D00

%Y.%m.%d-%H:%M:%

order

The evaluation order of the properties. If offset is not used, order reflects the field number within the record.

any integer

offset

The character position of this field within the record.

any integer

externalLength

Number of characters of the field (only for fixed length records relevant).

any integer

suppressEscaping

Boolean value to suppress escaping.

parseMacro

A macro that is executed while parsing/composing a file or complex field.

This macro can contain multiple commands separated by commas or spaces. Macros on classes are executed before the processing of its properties or associations. The ID represents a counter.

The following counters are available:

• eight automatic counters with ID AUTO0 .. AUTO7

• two automatic line counters with ID LINE0 and LINE1 (parsing only)

• unlimited custom counters with ID CUSTOM0 .. CUSTOMx

Automatic counters are increased by 1 for each processed record. Custom counters have to be increased manually using the increase macro. All counters have the initial value of 0 when they process the first record.

For more details on macro commands see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File.

any valid macro expression (see Using Macro Expressions on Parsing or Composing a Flat File)

GetCounter(0)

composeMacro

format

Pattern for formatting numeric and date & time values. For details see Number Formatting respectively Date and Time Formatting Patterns.

order

The evaluation order of the properties. If offset is not used, order reflects the field number within the record.

any integer

offset

The relative position of the field in respect of the other fields in the record, e.g. field number 3 has offset = 2.

any integer

condition

A condition that must evaluate true if the record exists. The condition can refer to a self object which represents the current state of the parent.

any valid conditional expression

self.UNS.exists()

evaluationOrder

Defines the order in which the associations starting on same parent class must be processed.

any integer

offset

Define the position of this record in the flat file, starting with 0 for the first record and always relative to the parent element.

any integer

anyObjectFlow

Any
with FlatFile class stereotype

in

Provide an object containing the flat file data. The class defining the type of this object should have stereotype FlatFile and should depict the structure of the file.

encoding

String

in

Provide the encoding of the file to be composed as specified on Charset Definitions.

any valid encoding (see Charset Definitions)

UTF-8

default

ISO-8859-1 (Latin1)

locale

NumbersLocale

in

Specify how number values will be treated, when written to the flat file (decimal point, currency symbol, ...). You can overwrite the system locales here. Refer to Number Formatting for more information.

default

system locales

name

String

in

()

Specify a full path to the flat file, if you want to write the FlatFile object to the file system.
Alternatively, you can compose the flat file to a Blob object (see parameter data). Note, that the name parameter takes priority over data.

tmp/myFlatFile.txt

data

Blob

out

()

If you want to compose the FlatFile object to a Blob object, use this parameter as output of the compose action.
Alternatively, you can write the composed flat file directly to the file system (see parameter name). Note, that the name parameter takes priority over data.

data

Blob

in

()

Provide the flat file data to be parsed.
Alternatively, you can specify a path to a flat file in the file system (see parameter name). Note, that the name parameter takes priority over data.

encoding

String

in

Provide the encoding of the file to be parsed as specified on Charset Definitions.

any valid encoding (see Charset Definitions)

UTF-8

default

ISO-8859-1 (Latin1)

locale

NumbersLocale

in

Specify how number values will be treated, when parsed from the flat file (decimal point, currency symbol, ...). You can overwrite the system locales here, if the file was written with divergent locales. Refer to Number Formatting for more information.

name

String

in

()

Specify a full path to the flat file to be parsed.
Alternatively, you can parse the flat file from a Blob object (see parameter data). Note, that the name parameter takes priority over data.

tmp/myFile.txt

anyObjectFlow

Any
with FlatFile class stereotype

out

The adapter returns a parsed flat file object. The class defining the type of this object should have stereotype FlatFile and should depict the structure of the file.

NumbersLocale

negativeSign

String

Characters used to signify negative values. Usually '-'.

positiveSign

String

Characters  used to signify positive values. Usually '+'.

thousandsSeparator

String

Characters used to separate units of thousand, e.g. ','.

decimalPoint

String

e.g. '.'

currencySymbol

String

e.g. '$'