Version 23.4.8839

• Overview
• Connector Configuration
  • Settings Tab
    • Connector Configuration
    • Mappings
  • Automation Tab
    • Automation Settings
    • Performance
  • Alerts Tab
    • Connector Email Settings
    • Service Level Agreement (SLA) Settings
  • Advanced Tab
    • Advanced Settings
    • Message
    • Logging
    • Miscellaneous
• Using the Designer
• Using the Code View
  • Navigating XML Input
  • Templating Output Data
  • Additional Scripting Features
• Macros
  • Examples

The CSV Map connector uses ArcScript to transform flat XML files into CSV, TSV, and PSV file formats. A flat XML file is one where, in addition to the root element, the depth is not more than two levels.

Overview

The CSV Map connector has two modes of operation: the visual Designer and the scripting-focused Code view. The Designer enables you to visually establish simple relationships between document types. More complicated translations require the Code view, which leverages the ArcScript scripting language to create a mapping template between XML and a flat file structure.

To begin, from the Settings tab, upload a sample Source File and Destination File. If the structure of both sample files allows for designer-driven mapping, the visual Designer is populated with the source and destination fields. The application also attempts to populate the Code window with as much of the destination structure as it can.

Connector Configuration

This section contains all of the configurable connector properties.

Settings Tab

Connector Configuration

Settings related to the core operation of the connector.

• Connector Id The static, unique identifier for the connector.
• Connector Type Displays the connector name and a description of what it does.
• Connector Description An optional field to provide a free-form description of the connector and its role in the flow.
• Source File A file that represents the XML structure of input documents. Any files processed by the connector should have a matching XML structure. To support designer-driven mapping, this file must be a simple XML, CSV, PSV, or TSV structure.
• Destination File A file that represents the structure of output documents. To use designer-driven mapping, this file must be a simple XML, CSV, PSV, or TSV structure.

Mappings

This section defines the mapping relationship between input and output files. The Designer view can map simple XML, CSV, PSV, and TSV structures, and the Code view can map more complicated XML structures. See Using the Designer and Using Code View for details.

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

• Send Whether messages arriving at the connector are automatically processed.

Performance

Settings related to the allocation of resources to the connector.

• Max Workers The maximum number of worker threads consumed from the threadpool to process files on this connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Settings > Automation page.
• Max Files The maximum number of files sent by each thread assigned to the connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Settings > Automation page.

Alerts Tab

Settings related to configuring alerts and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Connector Email Settings

Before you can execute SLAs, you need to set up email alerts for notifications. Clicking Configure Alerts opens a new browser window to the Settings page where you can set up system-wide alerts. See Alerts for more information.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Settings

SLAs enable you to configure the volume you expect connectors in your flow to send or receive, and to set the time frame in which you expect that volume to be met. CData Arc sends emails to warn the user when an SLA is not met, and marks the SLA as At Risk, which means that if the SLA is not met soon, it will be marked as Violated. This gives the user an opportunity to step in and determine the reasons the SLA is not being met, and to take appropriate actions. If the SLA is still not met at the end of the at-risk time period, the SLA is marked as violated, and the user is notified again.

To define an SLA, click Add Expected Volume Criteria.

• If your connector has separate send and receive actions, use the radio buttons to specify which direction the SLA pertains to.
• Set Expect at least to the minimum number of transactions (the volume) you expect to be processed, then use the Every fields to specify the time frame.
• By default, the SLA is in effect every day. To change that, uncheck Everyday then check the boxes for the days of the week you want.
• Use And set status to ‘At Risk’ to indicate when the SLA should be marked as at risk.
• By default, notifications are not sent until an SLA is in violation. To change that, check Send an ‘At Risk’ notification.

The following example shows an SLA configured for a connector that expects to receive 1000 files every day Monday-Friday. An at-risk notification is sent 1 hour before the end of the time period if the 1000 files have not been received.

Advanced Tab

Advanced Settings

• Processing Delay The amount of time (in seconds) by which the processing of files placed in the Input folder is delayed. This is a legacy setting. Best practice is to use a File connector to manage local file systems instead of this setting.
• Local File Scheme A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.

Message

• Save to Sent Folder Check this to copy files processed by the connector to the Sent folder for the connector.
• Sent Folder Scheme Instructs the connector to group messages in the Sent folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all messages for the week in that folder. The blank setting tells the connector to save all messages directly in the Sent folder. For connectors that process many messages, using subfolders helps keep messsages organized and improves performance.

Logging

• Log Level The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
• Log Subfolder Scheme Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. The blank setting tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders helps keep logs organized and improves performance.
• Log Messages Check this to have the log entry for a processed file include a copy of the file itself. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Input or Output tabs.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

• Other Settings Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, setting1=value1;setting2=value2). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Using the Designer

The visual designer is only available for CSV, PSV, TSV, and simple XML files. Below is an example of a simple XML document as the source file:

<actor table="actor">
  <actor_id key="true">124455</actor_id>
  <first_name>Bob</first_name>
  <last_name>Smith</last_name>
</actor>

This source file might be paired with the following CSV document as the destination file:

id,first name,last name,time
124455,Bob,Smith,2017-07-18T17:38:53-04:00

When these files are configured as the source and destination files, the designer displays rows in the Source Fields column for each row in the source file (actor_id, first_name, and last_name). For each field in the source, use the dropdown to select the appropriate Destination Field column. The application automatically attempts to match the source and destination fields based on the column names. In the above example, the actor_id row would automatically be matched with the id column.

Using the Code View

The Code view provides the ability to generate the mapping template manually using ArcScript. This allows for more granular control over the possible input and output formats. The code view defines how the destination file looks once rendered, with ArcScript elements dynamically filling in the template with values from the source document. ArcScript elements all start with an arc prefix: for example, <arc:set>. Any content in the code view that is not ArcScript is included as part of the output file.

Navigating XML Input

ArcScript supports navigating complicated XML structures to parse out values from the Source File. The xmlDOMSearch operation takes an xpath as input and loads the XML structure at the given path. This operation loops for each instance of the xpath found in the source document: to load the entire document and avoid looping, provide the root element of the XML source as input to xmlDOMSearch. For example:

<arc:call op=xmlDOMSearch?xpath=/root>
  <!-- Inside this operation call the parsed XML elements can be accessed -->
</arc:call>

Once the XML document is loaded, the xpath formatter supports reading out values from the XML at the specified xpath. This formatter accepts absolute xpaths as well as xpaths relative to the path loaded by xmlDOMSearch. The xpath formatter, like all formatters, can only be used in square brackets []. For example:

<arc:call op="xmlDOMSearch?xpath=/root/author">
  [xpath('name')]
</arc:call>

Take the following simple XML as an example input to the above script:

<root>
  <author>
    <name>Stephen King</name>
  </author>
  <author>
    <name>Kurt Vonnegut</name>
  </author>
</root>

In this example, the xmlDOMSearch operation loops over each author element in the root. Within each author loop, the value from the name element is read as content in the output file. The output file in this case would look like this:

Stephen King
Kurt Vonnegut

Templating Output Data

The Code view serves as a template of the output file, and ArcScript fills in the values to the defined template. As a simple example, if data is formatted as comma-separated values, these commas can be included as part of the Code view to provide structure to the ArcScript functions. Therefore, you can generate more complex CSV files from more complicated XML structures than the Designer mode allows.

For example, take the following XML, which has nested elements that prevent the use of Designer mode:

<actor table="actor">
  <actor_id key="true">12445</actor_id>
  <name>
    <first_name>Viggo</first_name>
    <last_name>Mortensen</last_name>
  </name>
  <actor_id key="true">12522</actor_id>
  <name>
    <first_name>Gal</first_name>
    <last_name>Gadot</last_name>
  </name>
</actor>

The nested elements can be retrieved by passing the appropriate paths to ArcScript’s xpath formatter. These formatters can be placed in commas and after header names to provide the desired CSV structure, and an additional csvescape formatter ensures that the values are properly quoted:

id,first name,last name
<arc:call op="xmlDOMSearch?xpath=actor">
[xpath('actor_id') | csvescape],[xpath('name/first_name') | csvescape],[xpath('name/last_name') | csvescape]
</arc:call>

You can generate a wide range of text files with this mix of templating data and ArcScript calls.

Additional Scripting Features

Since full ArcScript is available in Code view, you might want to leverage ArcScript Operations in the template. For example, if the source file only includes the Id of an item in the database, but you need the actual item name, you can use the dbQuery operation to look up the name for the corresponding Id.

ArcScript also supports conditional logic in a mapping template. The arc:if keyword is one of many keywords available to help with performing conditional logic in templates. For example, if the source file contains information about customers in QuickBooks, you might want to perform different business logic for customers with an outstanding balance versus customers who have paid in full. A simple example of this use case might look like the following:

<arc:set item="Customer" attr="paidinfull" value="true" />
<arc:call op="xmlDOMSearch?xpath=Customer">
  <arc:if exp="[xpath('balance')] > 0">
    <arc:set item="Customer" attr="paidinfull" value="false" />
  </arc:if>
</arc:call>
id,first name,last name, paid in full
[xpath('customer_id') | csvescape],[xpath('first_name') | csvescape],[xpath('last_name') | csvescape],[Customer.paidinfull]

Macros

Using macros in file naming strategies can enhance organizational efficiency and contextual understanding of data. By incorporating macros into filenames, you can dynamically include relevant information such as identifiers, timestamps, and header information, providing valuable context to each file. This helps ensure that filenames reflect details important to your organization.

CData Arc supports these macros, which all use the following syntax: %Macro%.

Examples

Some macros, such as %Ext% and %ShortDate%, do not require an argument, but others do. All macros that take an argument use the following syntax: %Macro:argument%

Here are some examples of the macros that take an argument:

• %Header:headername%: Where headername is the name of a header on a message.
• %Header:mycustomheader% resolves to the value of the mycustomheader header set on the input message.
• %Header:ponum% resolves to the value of the ponum header set on the input message.
• %RegexFilename:pattern%: Where pattern is a regex pattern. For example, %RegexFilename:^([\w][A-Za-z]+)% matches and resolves to the first word in the filename and is case insensitive (test_file.xml resolves to test).
• %Vault:vaultitem%: Where vaultitem is the name of an item in the vault. For example, %Vault:companyname% resolves to the value of the companyname item stored in the vault.
• %DateFormat:format%: Where format is an accepted date format (see Sample Date Formats for details). For example, %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff% resolves to the date and timestamp on the file.

You can also create more sophisticated macros, as shown in the following examples:

• Combining multiple macros in one filename: %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%%EXT%
• Including text outside of the macro: MyFile_%DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%
• Including text within the macro: %DateFormat:'DateProcessed-'yyyy-MM-dd_'TimeProcessed-'HH-mm-ss%