Substitution formulas in Data Reader path

Sergi Fernández
Sergi Fernández Active Partner, Community Captain
100 Up Votes 10 Comments Second Anniversary Year 2 Community Captain
edited August 13 in Idea Exchange

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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  • Helmut Heimann
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
    50 Answers 500 Comments 250 Likes Fourth Anniversary
    edited August 13

    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
    Sergi Fernández Active Partner, Community Captain
    100 Up Votes 10 Comments Second Anniversary Year 2 Community Captain

    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:

    image.png

    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.

    image.png

    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
    Helmut Heimann Employee, Community Captain
    50 Answers 500 Comments 250 Likes Fourth Anniversary

    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

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