GUI Types in Reader/Writer (*.fmf, *.fmi) Files

Usage

To use each type in FME, prefix each directive (i.e. the GUI type name followed by some arguments; see Syntax for more info) with GUI. For example, for the GUI type TEXT, the line

GUI TEXT stringVariable Enter some text:

...will create a text input field that has the label "Enter some text:". The value of this field is stored in the macro stringVariable.


The default value for the macro can be specified with an additional line:

DEFAULT_VALUE stringVariable This is the default text
GUI TEXT stringVariable Enter some text:

This will create a text input field that has the label "Enter some text:" with the string "This is the default text" already entered in the input field.


The parameter can be made optional (i.e., no user input is an acceptable state) if the keyword OPTIONAL is placed before the GUI type. For example,

GUI OPTIONAL TEXT optionalStringVariable Enter some additional text:

Syntax

The following describes the general syntax for using the various GUI types available. Syntax specific to each GUI type can be found by selecting the appropriate type from the menu on the left.

[-]DEFAULT_VALUE <macroName> <defaultValue>
[-]GUI [flags]+ COMMAND <macroName> <configString> <label>

The directive always begins with the GUI type name, say COMMAND (in practice, this is case-insensitive). It is followed by one or more arguments, denoted by angled brackets.

COMMAND <arg1> <arg2> <arg3>

The usual order of these arguments is as follows:

COMMAND <macroName> <configString> <label>


In this documentation, we have denoted an optional argument with square brackets.

COMMAND <arg> [<optional>]

As in regular expressions, an asterisk denotes that the previous grouping may be repeated. Typically, the grouping is an optional argument.

COMMAND <arg>[%<optional>]*

An example usage of the above syntax would be "COMMAND value%value2%value3". Note that the syntax description is space-sensitive. All other symbols are literal.

Notes

• Metafile comments can be inserted by starting the line with '!'.
• The GUI line will be written to the mapping file ad verbum. If -DEFAULT_VALUE is used then the corresponding GUI line will also be omitted from mapping file.
• If -GUI is used then GUI line will not be written to mapping file. This is used if the keyword is to be set and used during schema generation, and then cannot be changed when running the mapping file/workspace.
• If -DEFAULT_VALUE is used then nothing will be written out to the mapping file. It just indicates that the line is used for setting box generation only.

LOOKUP and LOOKUP_GLOBAL

         LOOKUP <macroName> <from>,<to>[%<from2>,<to2>]*
         LOOKUP_GLOBAL <from>,<to>[%<from2>,<to2>]*

This type maps values from one value to another. If a LOOKUP directive is specified, whenever a macro returns a value that matches <from> exactly, it will be changed to <to>. LOOKUP only affects a single given macro at a time, whereas LOOKUP_GLOBAL affects all macros in the same dialog. When both a global and non-global LOOKUP exist with equivalent <from> statements, the one from the non-global overrides the global mapping.

Example 1

         # map "foo" to "local"
         GUI LOOKUP MAPPED mapMe foo,local
         
         # map "foo" and "bar" to "global"
         GUI LOOKUP_GLOBAL foo,global%bar,global
         
         GUI CHOICE MAPPED foo%bar%baz Choose one:

When the user chooses "foo", "local" is returned.

Example 2

         # map "bar" to "local"
         GUI LOOKUP MAPPED mapMe bar,local
         
         # map "foo" and "bar" to "global"
         GUI LOOKUP_GLOBAL foo,global%bar,global
         
         GUI CHOICE MAPPED foo%bar%baz Choose one:

When the user chooses "foo", "global" is returned.

Note: LOOKUP_GLOBAL has a drawback where the value of 0, if assigned to any parameters, will be treated as if no value has been set to that parameter and a different value has to be used in UT. It is recommanded to use LOOKUP <macroName> <Unused>,<value> for compatibility with UT.

         -GUI LOOKUP_GLOBAL ,0
         -GUI LOOKUP CLIP_TO_ENVELOPE ,No