Preprocessor step properties

The Preprocessor step does not run for every record in the source data. It runs once, at the beginning of the extraction workflow, before anything else; see Preprocessor step.

The properties described below become visible in the Step properties pane when the Preprocessor step is selected in the Steps pane.

Description

This subsection is collapsed by default in the interface, to give more screen space to other important parts.

Name: The name of the step. This name will be displayed on top of the step's icon in the Steps pane.

Comments: The text entered here will be displayed in the tooltip that appears when hovering over the step in the Steps pane.

Fixed Automation Properties

The Fixed automation properties subsection lists all the fixed properties available from PlanetPress Workflow. These properties are equivalent to data available within the PlanetPress Workflow process. For each property, the following is available:

  • Name: A read-only field displaying the name of the property.

  • Scope: A read-only field indicating that the scope of the property is Automation.

  • Type: A read-only field indicating the data type for each property.

  • Default Value: Enter a default value for the property. This value is overwritten by the actual value coming from PlanetPress Workflow when the data mapping configuration is run using the Execute Data Mapping task.

There are currently the following automation properties available:

  • JobInfoX: These properties are the equivalent of the JobInfo values available in the PlanetPress Workflow process. They can be set using the Set Job Info and Variables task. To access these properties inside of any JavaScript code within the data mapping configuration, use the automation.jobInfos.JobInfoX (where X is the job info number, from 0 to 9).

  • OriginalFilename: This property contains the original file name that was captured by the PlanetPress Workflow process and is equivalent to the %o variable in the process. To access these property inside of any JavaScript code within the data mapping configuration, use automation.properties.OriginalFilename.

  • ProcessName: This property contains the name of the process that is currently executing the data mapping configuration and is equivalent to the %w variable in the process. To access this property inside of any JavaScript code within the data mapping configuration, use automation.properties.ProcessName.

  • TaskIndex: This property contains the index (position) of the task inside the process that is currently executing the data mapping configuration but it has no equivalent in PlanetPress Workflow. To access this property inside of any JavaScript code within the data mapping configuration, use automation.properties.ProcessName.

In scripts, fixed automation properties are retrieved via the automation object (see automation), for example automation.jobInfo.JobInfo9 or automation.properties.OriginalFilename.

Other variables used in a Workflow configuration are made available to the data mapping configuration via the Properties subsection of the Preprocessor step (see below).

Properties

The Properties subsection is used to create specific properties that are used throughout the workflow. Properties can be accessed through some of the interface elements such as the Condition and Repeat step properties, or in scripts, through the DataMapper Scripts API.

Properties are evaluated in the order they are placed in the list, so properties can use the values of previously defined properties in their expression.

  • Name: The name of the property used to refer to its value.

  • Scope: What this property applies to:

    • Entire Data: These properties are static properties that cannot be changed once they have been set, in other words they are Global constants.

    • Each Record: These properties are evaluated and set at the beginning of each Source Record. These properties can be modified once they have been set, but are always reset at the beginning of each Source Record.

    • Automation variable: These properties initialize variables coming from the PlanetPress Workflow automation tool. The name of the property needs to be the same as the variable name in Workflow. They can be either a Local variable or a Global variable. For either one, only the actual name is to be used, so for %{MyLocalVar} use only MyLocalVar, and for %{global.MyGlobalVar} use MyGlobalVar. If a global and a local variable have the same name ( %{myvar} and %{global.myvar} ), the local variable's value is used and the global one is ignored. To access a Workflow variable inside of any JavaScript code within the data mapping configuration,  use

      automation.variables.variablename

      .

  • Type: The data type of the property. For more information see Data types.

  • Default Value: The initial value of the property. This is a JavaScript expression. See DataMapper Scripts API.

Entire Data Properties are evaluated before anything else, such as Preprocessors, Delimiters and Boundaries in the Settings pane (see Data source settings). This means these properties cannot read information from the data sample or from any records. They are mostly useful for static information such as folder locations or server addresses.

Preprocessor

The Preprocessor subsection defines what preprocessor tasks are performed on the data file before it is handed over to the data mapping workflow. Preprocessor tasks can modify the data file in many ways, and each task runs in turn, using the result of the previous one as an input.

  • Name: The name to identify the Preprocessor task. Click this field to rename the Preprocessor task.

  • Type: The type of Preprocessor task. Currently there is only one type available: script.

The buttons to the right can be used to add, remove and reorder the tasks and to apply them to the current data file.
The Export button exports the current data file in its current state. Preprocessing may cost a lot of time when the data file is very large. You could use the exported file instead of the original file to avoid preprocessing while developing the workflow configuration.

Preprocessor definition