Variable-Length Wizard

Fixed-Length Wizard is a wizard with the ability to define schema of variable-length text file by drag&drop operation.

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

To launch Variable-Length Wizard

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

Variable-Length Wizard Screen Structure

Screen Element Number	Name	Description	Remarks
(1)	Structure definition	Define structures of a variable length file to read. This adapter reads a variable length file by following the definition.	The structure definition is a tree structure which has a structure definition icon as a root element.
(2)	Column list	Define structures of the output data. Data only defined in the structure definition is read.	Elements set in the structure definition can be added to the column list. The column list has the same structure as the Table model type. Refer to "Table model type" for details.
(3)	Group		Groups are shown as blue icons.
(4)	Record		Records are shown as green icons.
(5)	Field		Fields are shown as yellow icons.
(6)	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.
(7)	Edit	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.
(8)	Add	Add an element to the [Column list] selected in the tree of the [Structure definition].
(9)	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.
(10)	Up	Move up the order of the element selected in the tree of the [Column list].
(11)	Down	Move down the order of the element selected in the tree of the [Column list].

Structure Definition Configuration

Define data structures of a variable length file to read.

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	Remarks
Group name	Required	Enter a name of the group.
Occurrence	Optional	Enter occurrence of the group.	Enabled when the [Unlimited] is not checked.
Omittable	Optional	Select whether to omit the [Occurrence]. [Checked]: (default) Omit the [Occurrence]. [Not Checked]: Enter the [Occurrence].
Unlimited	Optional	Select whether to set unlimited to the [Occurrence]. [Checked]: (default) Set unlimited to the [Occurrence].l [Not Checked]: Set a limit to the [Occurrence].

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.

Basic settings

Item name	Required / Optional	Description	Remarks
Record name	Required	Enter a name of the record.
Occurrence	Optional	Enter occurrence of the record.	Enabled when the [Unlimited] is not checked.
Omittable	Optional	Select whether to omit the [Occurrence]. [Checked]: (default) Omit the [Occurrence]. [Not Checked]: Enter the [Occurrence].
Unlimited	Optional	Select whether to set unlimited to the [Occurrence]. [Checked]: (default) Set unlimited to the [Occurrence].l [Not Checked]: Set a limit to the [Occurrence].

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

Field Configuration

Configure fields by the following steps.

Select [Add]-[field] in the right click menu for record icons.

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 structure definition.

Column List Configuration

Define an output format of the data to read by the structure definition.

Add element

Select an element in the [Structure definition], and click [Add] button of structure definition tree to add the field to the [Column list].

}Only fields can be added to the column list.

When a filed is selected and added to the column list, the last selected field will be added to the [Column list].

When a group or a record is selected and added to the column list, fields in the group or record will be added to the column list.

In the following cases, the order of the field added to the list columns can not be guaranteed.

If you add fields to the list columns to select multiple fields in the structure definition
If you add fields to the list columns to select multiple records in 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 fields defined structure. "true" when output.
"false" is set when omitted.

Example:

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,false
FIELD,String,string,,true
FIELD,Number,numeric,,true
FIELD,Date,date,$yyyy/$MM/$dd,false

<= field output to column list
<= field output to column list

Import Structure Definition File

Import the following structure definition file .

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

<= field output to column list
<= field output to column list

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.

Groups can not be contain themselves (Groups can not be nested).Only component of the group is a record.

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

When a blank line appears at the end of the file to read, the blank line will be ignored.

Time and date appear in a string is dependent on what the default locale. If date data which can not be parsed by the default locale is read, read the data as a string.

If the [Occurrence] of the group is [Unlimited], when the corresponding input data appears, checks whether it can be applied to the data analysis of the next group.If applicable, apply to the next group.If not applicable, use the group to analysis and move on.

If the [Occurrence] of the record is [Unlimited], when the corresponding input data appears, checks whether it can be applied to the data analysis of the next record.If applicable, apply to the next record.If not applicable, use the record to analysis and move on.

If the [Occurrence] of the record or the group is [Unlimited], the maximum value is Integer.MAX_VALUE of Java which is 2147483647.

If the [Occurrence] of the group is [Omittable] error does not occur even when the time of occurrence of the group is less than the specified occurrence.

If the [Occurrence] of the record is [Omittable] error does not occur even when the time of occurrence of the record is less than the specified occurrence.

When a field in the column list is deleted in the structure definition, the field remains in the column list.

If select group by structure definition and add field to column list, field order cannot be ensured.

The order of fields in the column list follows the order of fields which are read in the structure definition.Can not read correctly if the order of fields switches in the column list.

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.