Substitution formulas in Data Reader path

Sergi Fernández · 2024-08-13T11:01:18+00:00

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Sergi Fernández

Hello everyone,

It could be useful for developers to have the following functionality implemented in Board:

Have already existing substitution formulas recognized on the path field of Data Readers.

Usage example:

By using @database on the Data Reader's path, when duplicating a database, and renaming it, we wouldn't have to manually modify the Data Reader's path to point to the Dataset folder of the renamed database.

In the end, having substitution formulas implemented on the file path would make Board more versatile and would allow developers to further enhance Board solutions.

Thank you,

Best regards,

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Comments

Helmut Heimann

This already works (at least @user, @database do) - you'll need to start the readers via procedure; the same applies to extracts.

Kind regards
Helmut

Sergi Fernández

Hi Helmut,

You're right, it works when specified in procedure steps for extractions and Data readers. I'll keep it in mind, thank you.

But regarding the Data Reader specifically, the documentation states that substitution formulas can be used when calling a Data Reader through a procedure, but doesn't mention that they can be used in the Data Reader object itself. Doesn't that generate certain limitations to the solution? For example, for running the Data Reader manually or combining it with other functionalities like "pattern" and load "All".

If we want to load several files through the same Data Reader and procedure step, we do so by choosing the option "All" on the procedure step, which will load all files matching the "filename pattern" specified in the Data Reader:

But if we want to use a substitution formula in the path, we must specify the path manually, and we lose the ability to load multiple files with different names.

It would be useful to be able to specify @database in the Data Reader object, so that when we manually run the Data Reader, or we call it from a procedure, we can run it on multiple files instead of being limited to a certain file.

Thank you,
Best regards,

Helmut Heimann

Hi @Sergi Fernández ,

yes, I agree with you that the ASCII DataReader in particular has some shortcomings. I just wanted to point out that some substitution formulas work--others, e.g. @<entityname> are unfortunately missing.
In such cases you always have to make do with "crutches" and that is a pity.

Best
Helmut