Esri File Knowledge Writer Parameters

Database Connection

Select a file knowledge graph.

  • When unchecked (default) and a knowledge graph already exists, then tables and features are written to the existing knowledge graph.
  • When checked, any existing knowledge graph is deleted before writing begins. Checking this option also enables the Template Knowledge Graph parameter.
Warning  After a knowledge graph is deleted, it cannot be recovered – all data is lost.

If a knowledge graph does not exist when writing begins, a new knowledge graph is created.

If a knowledge graph is specified, the writer will make a copy of the template into the location specified in the Writer Dataset parameter. All operations will be performed on the copy while the original knowledge graph remains unchanged.

The parameter is available only when Overwrite Existing Knowledge Graph is enabled.

Note  Since it is doing a complete copy, any data present in the template will also be copied to the destination. To remove unwanted data from tables or feature classes, set Truncate Table to Yes on each feature type. Alternatively, to copy only schema and not data, use ArcGIS to export the schema to an XML Workspace Document, then set the writer to import the resultant schema with the Import XML Workspace Document (Schema Only) parameter (below).

Case Conversion

These parameters change the case of all feature type and attribute names in the output.

  • UPPERCASE – Change all feature type names to uppercase text.
  • lowercase – Change all feature type names to lowercase text.
  • None – Do not make changes to any feature type names.
  • UPPERCASE – Change all attribute names to uppercase text.
  • lowercase – Change all attribute names to lowercase text.
  • None – Do not make changes to any attribute names.

Spatial

Coordinate systems may be extracted from input feature data sources, may come predefined with FME, or may be user-defined. FME allows different output and input coordinate systems, and performs the required coordinate conversions when necessary.

How FME Processes Coordinate Systems in the Workspace

If a coordinate system is specified in both the source format and the workspace, the coordinate system in the workspace is used. The coordinate system specified in the source format is not used, and a warning is logged. If a source coordinate system is not specified in the workspace and the format or system does not store coordinate system information, then the coordinate system is not set for the features that are read.

If a destination coordinate system is set and the feature has been tagged with a coordinate system, then a coordinate system conversion is performed to put the feature into the destination system. This happens right before the feature enters into the writer.

If the destination coordinate system was not set, then the features are written out in their original coordinate system.

If a destination coordinate system is set, but the source coordinate system was not specified in the workspace or stored in the source format, then no conversion is performed. The features are simply tagged with the output system name before being written to the output dataset.

For systems that know their coordinate system, the Coordinate System field will display Read from Source and FME will read the coordinate system from the source dataset. For most other input sources, the field will display Unknown (which simply means that FME will use default values). In most cases, the default value is all you'll need to perform the translation.

You can always choose to override the defaults and choose a new coordinate system. Select More Coordinate Systems from the drop-down menu to open the Coordinate System Gallery.

Changing a Reprojection

To perform a reprojection, FME typically uses the CS-MAP reprojection engine, which includes definitions for thousands of coordinate systems, with a large variety of projections, datums, ellipsoids, and units. However, GIS applications have slightly different algorithms for reprojecting data between different coordinate systems. To ensure that the data FME writes matches exactly to your existing data, you can use the reprojection engine from a different application.

Note  To use this feature, you must have a supported GIS application installed on your system (for example, Esri ArcGIS®).

To change the reprojection engine, Select Workspace Parameters > Spatial > Reprojection Engine. In the example shown, you can select Esri (but the selection here depends on your installed applications):

For more information, see the links below:

Table Parameters

ArcGIS geometry has to satisfy certain constraints to be considered valid. For example, polygons must have more than 2 vertices. This parameter allows you to specify whether geometry that breaks those constraints will be simplified to ensure only valid geometry is written.

Note that simplifying geometries can be resource-intensive.

For details on the conditions for invalid geometry and how it is simplified, please refer to ArcGIS documentation: Simplifying a Geometry and Calling the Simplify Method.

Advanced

The number of features written in each Edit Operation of an Edit Session. Data is sent to the server when each edit operation ends.

Default: 1000

Note  The current transaction is committed and a new transaction is started whenever a new table is created or opened, even if the transaction interval was not reached.

This parameter tells the writer whether it should ignore features that would usually cause the translation to fail. This includes features that are topologically incorrect, are not supported by the writer, or conflict with the definition of the table to which it is to be inserted (that is, they are outside of the geometry envelope specified by the feature class). Additionally, the writer will also ignore polygons, donuts, or aggregates of polygons/donuts that cannot be reoriented.

The default setting is No, which means that failed features are not ignored and will cause the translation to fail when encountered.

This parameter sets the number of features to ignore before causing a translation to fail due to a problematic feature. (However, the translation may still fail for other reasons.)

Values: To ignore all failed features: -1; otherwise 0 or a positive integer.

This parameter allows you to store the failed features to an FFS file for later viewing.

This parameter allows you to specify an FME Feature Store (FFS) file to store any failed features.

This file will be created automatically, but will only be created if there is a failed feature.

Note  If the writer encounters a failed feature and writes to this file, and if a file with the same name already exists, the existing file will be overwritten.

This parameter is required when Dump Failed Features to File is set to Yes.

Values: path and filename

If either the path or the filename contains a space, the value must be enclosed in double quotation marks. The filename must end in the extension .ffs.

Enables fast deletes when feature operation is set to Delete.

  • Yes – Combines WHERE clause predicates up to a limit of 32K characters at a time. If the limit is exceeded, a new query to the table is created.
  • No – Slower deletes by creating a query to the table for each feature.

Determines whether to copy the GlobalIDs from the source table to the destination table, or generate new GlobalIDs for the destination table. The feature operation must be set to Insert.

  • Yes – Preserves the existing source feature type GlobalID attributes.
  • No – Auto-generated GlobalIDs are assigned to features that do not have one.
Note  Ensure that GlobalIDs are not duplicated. If a GlobalID is already in use, FME will write the feature, but the knowledge graph will silently reject it.