The directives that are processed by the Generic reader are listed below. The suffixes shown are prefixed by the current <ReaderKeyword> in a mapping file. By default, the <ReaderKeyword> for the Generic reader is GENERIC.
DATASET
The Generic reader uses this directive to specify a source dataset that will be passed on to the underlying reader.
A dataset can be one or more files, a folder, a URL, or a database name.
For file-based readers like MIF and Shape that have well-known extensions, the reader will guess the format name from the extension if no format was specified.
For readers that require a folder as the source dataset, a filename will be used to get the enclosing folder by removing the filename part from the path. For example, if at runtime the Generic reader was given a source dataset of
c:/data/roads/arcinfo/test.adf
and was told to read using PATH reader, then
c:/data/roads
would be used as the input dataset for the PATH reader.
Required/Optional
Required
Workbench Parameter
Source Dataset
DEF
The Generic reader uses this directive only if the underlying reader requires it.
See specific format reader documentation for information on the usage of this directive.
Required/Optional
Optional
REAL_FORMAT
This directive specifies the FME "short name" of the format that will be used at runtime to read the data from.
Format short names are listed in the Quick Facts as part of each reader's documentation, in the Reader/Writer Gallery in Workbench, and can also be queried for at runtime using a GUI READERPICK directive.
If no valid name is specified, then the reader will try to guess the name from filename extension of the source dataset provided the dataset is a file.
GENERIC_REAL_FORMAT SHAPE
Required/Optional
Required
Workbench Parameter
Input Format
SEARCH_ENVELOPE
Using the minimum and maximum x and y parameters, define a bounding box that will be used to filter the input features. Only features that interact with the bounding box are returned.
If all four coordinates of the search envelope are specified as 0, the search envelope will be disabled.
Mapping File Syntax
<ReaderKeyword>_SEARCH_ENVELOPE <minX> <minY> <maxX> <maxY>
Note: If all four coordinates of the search envelope are specified as zero, the search envelope will be disabled.
Required/Optional
Optional
Workbench Parameter
Minimum X, Minimum Y, Maximum X, Maximum Y
SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM
This directive specifies the coordinate system of the search envelope if it is different than the coordinate system of the data.
The COORDINATE_SYSTEM directive, which specifies the coordinate system associated with the data to be read, must always be set if the SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM directive is set.
If this directive is set, the minimum and maximum points of the search envelope are reprojected from the SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM to the reader COORDINATE_SYSTEM prior to applying the envelope.
Required/Optional
Optional
Mapping File Syntax
<ReaderKeyword>_SEARCH_ENVELOPE_COORDINATE_SYSTEM <coordinate system>
Workbench Parameter
Search Envelope Coordinate System
CLIP_TO_ENVELOPE
This directive specifies whether or not FME should clip features to the envelope specified in the SEARCH_ENVELOPE directive.
Values
YES | NO (default)
Mapping File Syntax
<ReaderKeyword>_CLIP_TO_ENVELOPE [yes | no]
Workbench Parameter
Clip To Envelope
EXPOSED_ATTRS
This directive allows the selection of format attributes to be explicitly added to the reader feature type.
This is similar to exposing format attributes on a reader feature type once it has been generated; however, it is even more powerful because it enables schema-driven applications other than Workbench to access and leverage these attributes as if they were explicitly on the schema as user attributes.
The result of picking a list of attributes is a comma-separated list of attribute names and types that will be added to the schema features. Currently all reader feature types will receive the same set of additional schema attributes for a given instance of the reader.
Required/Optional
Optional
Mapping File Syntax
Not applicable.
While it is possible for FME Objects applications to invoke this directive, the required format is not documented.
This directive is intended for use in our GUI applications (for example, Workbench) only.
Workbench Parameter
Additional Attributes to Expose