Variable-Length Write Wizard

Variable-Length Write Wizard is a wizard with the ability to set the necessary schema definitions for generating variable-length data from input data.

Refer to "Variable-length text file" for details about variable-length files.

To launch Variable-Length Write Wizard

You can click the [Variable-Length Write Wizard] in the configuration dialog for the variable-length format definition in the Global Resource to launch the Variable-Length Write Wizard.

Variable-Length Write Wizard Screen Structure

Screen Element Number	Name	Description	Remarks
(1)	Column list	Define structures of the input data. Add fields which has the same number of columns in the input data and define structures which are the name, the type to the fields added.	The column list has the same structure as the Table model type. Refer to "Table model type" for details.
(2)	Structure definition	Define structures of the output data. Define groups and records in the Structure Definition and add fields added in the column list to the groups and records added by drag and drop.
(3)	Field(Column list)		Fields are shown as yellow icons.
(4)	Remove(Column list)	Delete the element selected in the tree of the [Column list].	You can also operate to select [Delete] in the right-click menu of the element.
(5)	Add	Add a field to the [Column list].	You can also operate to select [Add]-[Field] in the right-click menu of the "Column".
(6)	Edit(Column list)	Show the definition dialog of the field selected in the tree of the [Column list].	You can also operate to select [Property] in the right-click menu of the element.
(7)	Group		Groups are shown as blue icons.
(8)	Record		Records are shown as green icons.
(9)	Fixed Value Field	By adding fixed field to structure definition, it can be defined as constant field.	Fixed Value Fields are shown as yellow icons checked.
(10)	Field(Structure Definition)		Fields are shown as yellow icons.
(11)	Remove(Structure definition)	Delete the element selected in the tree of the [Structure Definition].	You can also operate to select [Delete] in the right-click menu of the element.
(12)	Edit(Structure definition)	Show the definition dialog of the element selected in the tree of the [Structure definition].	You can also operate to select [Property] in the right-click menu of the element.

Column List Configuration

Define a structure definition which defines columns of the input data as fields and define a record in the variable-length data.

Field Configuration

Configure fields by the following steps.

Operate either as follows to open "Field definition" dialog.
- Right-click "Column" icon, and select [Add]-[Field].
- Click [Add] button .

Configure properties in the "Field definition" dialog.

Basic settings

Item name

Required / Optional

Description

Remarks

Field name

Required

Enter a name of the field.

Field type

Required

Select a type of the field. Available characters are as follows.

[String]:(default)
[Numeric]
[Date]
[Tag]

Tag

Optional

Enter tag (record identification code).

Enabled when [Tag] is selected in [Field type].

Date format

Optional

Select or enter a date format.

Year	Meaning	Display	Example
y	Year	Number	1996
M	Month	Text or number	July or 07
d	Day	Number	10
h	Hour (1-12)	Number	12.
H	Hour (0-23)	Number	0
m	Minute	Number	30
s	Second	Number	30
S	Millisecond	Number	978

Enabled when [Date] is selected in [Field type].
The default is "$yy$MM$dd".

Click the [Finish] button to add the field to the column list.

Structure Definition Configuration

Define structure of the output data.

Group Configuration

Configure groups by the following steps.

Select [Add]-[Group] in the right click menu for structure definition icons.

Configure properties in the "Group definition" dialog.

Basic settings

Item name	Required / Optional	Description
Group name	Required	Enter a name of the group.
Occurrence	Optional	Not used in write operation.
Omittable	Optional	Not used in write operation.
Unlimited	Optional	Not used in write operation.

Click the [Finish] button to the group to the structure definition.

Record Configuration

Configure records by the following steps.

Select [Add]-[Record] in the right click menu for structure definition icons or group icons.

Configure properties in the "Record definition" dialog.

Record Properties

Item name	Required / Optional	Description
Record name	Required	Enter a name of the record.
Occurrence	Optional	Not used in write operation.
Omittable	Optional	Select whether to write the input data corresponding to the record to each and every row. [Checked]: If the input data corresponding to the record is the same with the row before, output data could be omitted. The output data is omitted when all the following conditions are matched. In the subsequent records, there are no record with the [Omittable] which is "Not Checked". In the subsequent records, record with the [Omittable] which is "Checked" exists, and the input data corresponding to the record is the same with 1 row before. In the subsequent record, there is a record with the first field being tag field, and the input data corresponding to the record is the same with 1 row before. It is not the end row of the input data. [Not Checked]: (default) Records are always written to each row.
Unlimited	Optional	Not used in write operation.

Click the [Finish] button to the record to the structure definition.

Field Configuration

Configure fields by the following steps.

Select a field defined in the [Column list] and do drag and drop the record to a record defined in the [Structure Definition].
Add a field to the structure definition and link the fields.

Fixed Value Field Configuration

Configure fixed value fields by the following steps.

Select [Add]-[field] in the right click menu for record icons and show the "Field definition" dialog.

Configure properties in the "Field definition" dialog.
Refer to "Field Configuration(Column list)" for details.
The [Field name] is written as an output value.

Click the [Finish] button to add the fixed value field to the structure definition.

Structure definition file export / import function

The column list and structure definitions defined in the wizard, can be saved in CSV file format, and the the column list and structure definitions can be restored from the file.

Once structure definition file is created, it can be used in both read and write process.

Structure Definition File Specifications

The encoding of structure definition file is Shift_JIS.

Groups , record and fields settings defined by the structure definition, can be represented in the following CSV format.

Group

Columns	Type	Character that can be specified	Required / Optional	Remarks
1	Prefix	GROUP or G	Required	Does not distinguish on upper/lower cases.
2	Group name	Any string	Required
3	Occurrence	Number of 0 to 2147483647	Optional	"Unlimited" is set when omitted.
4	Required	true or false	Optional	"false" is set when omitted.

Example:

Group name	HeaderGroup
Occurrence	Unlimited
Required	false

GROUP,HeaderGroup,,

Record

Columns	Type	Character that can be specified	Required / Optional	Remarks
1	Prefix	RECORD or R	Required	Does not distinguish on upper/lower cases.
2	Record name	Any string	Required
3	Occurrence	Number of 0 to 2147483647	Optional	"Unlimited" is set when omitted.
4	Required	true or false	Optional	"false" is set when omitted.

Example:

Record name	HeaderRecord
Occurrence	Unlimited
Required	false

RECORD,HeaderRecord,,

Field

Columns

Type

Character that can be specified

Required / Optional

Remarks

Prefix

FIELD or F

Required

Does not distinguish on upper/lower cases.

Field name

Any string

Required

Type

Each type of character that can be specified is as follows.

Type	Character that can be specified
String	string or S
Number	numeric or N
Tag	tag or T
Date	date or D

Required

Does not distinguish on upper/lower cases.

Type setting

Tag or date format

Optional

Required when Type is "tag" or "date".

Output

true or false

Optional

Specifies whether to output column list field to structure definition.""true" when output.
"false" is set when omitted.

Field name	Header
Type	String

FIELD,Header,S,,

Export structure definition file

Export the following structure definition.

Select [Export] from [Structure definition file] menu.

Select or enter the destination file, and Press [Finish].
Specify the absolute path of the DataSpider file system as the file path.
Constrained characters of DataSpider File System cannot be used except for path separator "/".
Click [Browse] button to activate the file Selectr and Select the file.
Click [Preview] button to display the contents of the specified in file.

"Export completion" dialog will appear when export succeeded.

Exported content is as follows.

GROUP,group,,false
RECORD,record,,false
FIELD,Tag,tag,HDR,true
FIELD,String,string,,true
FIELD,Number,numeric,,true
FIELD,Date,date,$yyyy/$MM/$dd,true

Import Structure Definition File

Import the following structure definition file.

GROUP,group,,false
RECORD,record,,false
FIELD,Tag,tag,HDR,true
FIELD,String,string,,true
FIELD,Number,numeric,,true

Select [Import] from [Structure definition file] menu.

Select or enter the import file, and Press [Finish].
Specify the absolute path of the DataSpider file system as the file path.
Constrained Characters of DataSpider File System except for path separator "/" cannot be used.
Click [Browse] button to activate the file Selectr and Select the file.
Click [Preview] button to display the contents of the specified in file.
If Structure definition already exists, an alert box appears to check whether to overwrite.

The structure definition will be shown in the Wizard if following dialog will appear when export succeeded.

Note when editing the structure definition file

Groups with a parent record need to be written under their parent group.
Example: When record A is defined under group A

[OK]

GROUP,A group,,false
RECORD,A record,,false

[NG]

GROUP,A group,,false
GROUP,B group,,false
RECORD,A record,,false

<= A record becomes the child record of group B.

As above, records that the parent field must be written under the parent record.

Export the file structure definition / import is, DataSpider will be on the file system.

The structure definition file is encoded depends on the default encoding of the server environment.

Specification Limits

External characters are not supported.

The field name is required.

The tag is handled as string.The tag does not support other types.

When the number of fields defined in column list is fewer than the number of columns of XML data, only the data as the number of the number of fields defined in column list will be written.

When the number of fields defined in column list is more than the number of columns of XML data, an error will occur and the writing operation will fail.

If export/import structure definition that certain group (A group) and record(A record) belonging to the same class but in the lower part, A record becomes child item of A group.
Example:
A value that needs to escape when displayed normally in "[" or"]" cannot be used as a group name, a record name, or a field name.

The slash ("/") cannot be used as a field name.

Elements with the same parent element cannot have the same name.
Specifically, it applies for the following elements.
- Groups
- Records directly beneath the structure definition
- Records in the same group
- Fields in the same record