Reader Directives

The directives that are processed by the Schema (Any Format) reader are listed below.

The suffixes shown are prefixed by the current <ReaderKeyword> in a mapping file. By default, the <ReaderKeyword> for the Schema (Any Format) reader is SCHEMA.

DATASET

The Schema (Any Format) 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 Schema (Any Format) reader was given a source dataset of c:/data/roads/arcinfo/test.adf, and was directed to read using PATH reader, then c:/data/roads would be used as the input dataset for the PATH reader.

Required/Optional

Required

REAL_FORMAT

This directive specifies the FME short name of the format that will be used at runtime to read the schema from the source dataset.

Format short names are documented as part of each reader's documentation, and can also be queried for at runtime using a GUI READERPICK directive. If no valid name is specified, the reader will try to determine the name from filename extension of the source dataset as long as the dataset is a file.

Mapping File Syntax

SCHEMA_REAL_FORMAT SHAPE

Required/Optional

Optional

Workbench Parameter

Input Format

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