File Poller
The File Poller activity is a process starter activity that polls for files or directories with the specified name and starts a process, when a change (creation, modification, or deletion) is detected.
General
The General tab has the following fields.
Field | Literal Value/Process Property/Module Property | Description |
---|---|---|
Name | None | The name to be displayed as the label for the activity in the process. |
Filename | Yes | The path and name of the file or directory to monitor.
You can also use wildcard characters to monitor a directory for files that match the provided specification. For example, C:\files\*.log must match any change to a file in the files directory with an extension of .log. |
Polling Interval(sec) | Yes | The polling interval (in seconds) to check for the specified file. |
Include Existing Files | None | Check for the specific file among the files that existed before the process engine starts.
|
Exclude File Content | None | Specifies not to load the data from the file into this activity’s output. If selected, the contents of the file are not available to the subsequent activities in the process. |
Content as | Yes | The type of content in the file which can be either Text or Binary. This field is available only when the Exclude File Content checkbox is not selected. |
Encoding | Yes | The character encoding for the file (when Text is specified in the Content as field). This field is visible only when Content as value is set to Text. |
Include Timestamp | None | Select the checkbox to display timestamp, in addition to the date. |
Description
Provide a short description of the File Poller activity.
Advanced
The Advanced tab has the following fields.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Sequence Key | This field can contain an XPath expression that specifies which processes should run in order. Process instances with sequencing keys that evaluate to the same value are executed sequentially in the order the process instance was created. |
Custom Job Id | This field can contain an XPath expression that specifies a custom ID for the process instance. |
Poll for Create Events | Select this checkbox to start a new process when a file or directory matching the specification in the
Filename field is created.
If not selected, the newly created files or directories are ignored. |
Poll for Modify Events | Select this checkbox to start a new process when a file or directory matching the specification in the
Filename field is modified.
If not selected, the modifications to the files or directories are ignored. |
Poll for Delete Events | Select this checkbox to start a new process when a file or directory matching the specification in the
Filename field is deleted.
If not selected, deletions of files or directories are ignored. |
Include Sub-Directories | Select this checkbox to enable monitoring of the events that occur in subdirectories of the specified directory.
If not selected, only the directory is monitored and subdirectories are ignored. |
Mode | Select the type of polling to perform from the following modes in the drop-down list:
|
Sort by | Specifies the order in which the files should be processed, if more than one file is detected. You can sort by File Name,
Date Modified, or
None.
The files are processed as the polling interval occurs. Hence, the Sort By field applies to all files that have changed since the last polling interval. The field is useful for processing the files in a specific order when the process engine starts and the Include Existing Files field is selected (then all existing files are processed in the specified order). Note: The
File Poller activity starts process instances based on the specified
Sort By order, but the process instances may not complete in the same order. If you want to guarantee that processes start and complete in a specified order, specify Max Jobs = 1, and set the engine persistence mode to
group or
datastore.
|
Sort Order | Specifies whether the order specified in the Sort By field is Ascending or Descending. This field is only applicable if the Filename or Date Modified is selected in the Sort By field. |
Output
The following is the output for the activity.
Output item | Datatype | Description |
---|---|---|
action | string | The occurred event to trigger the
File Poller activity. The possible values are:
create ,
remove , or
modify .
|
timeOccured | integer | The time when the
File Poller activity detected the change in the file.
The time is defined as the amount of time in milliseconds. For example, since midnight, January 1, 2013 UTC. |
fileInfo | complex | This element contains the fileName, location, type, readProtected, writeProtected, and size data. |
fullName | string | The name of the file, including the path information. |
fileName | string | The name of the file without the path information. |
location | string | The path to the file. |
configuredFileName | string | The name of the file or directory this activity is configured to operate on. |
type | string | The file type. |
readProtected | boolean | Signifies whether the file or directory is protected from reading |
writeProtected | boolean | Signifies whether the file or directory is protected from writing |
size | integer | The size of the file in bytes. |
lastModified | string | The timestamp indicating when the file was last modified. |
fileContent | complex | The element containing the textContent and binaryContent data. |
textContent | string | The content of the file (text files), if the Exclude File Contents check box is not selected on the General tab. |
binaryContent | binary | The content of the file (binary files), if the Exclude File Contents check box is not selected on the General tab. Only available only if type is set to binary. |
encoding | string | The character encoding for the file. This field is present only if Content as field is set the value as Text. |