Guides

Edit component dialog box

Suggest Edits

The Edit Component dialog box is used to edit component attributes. This dialog box is available in each component. To access the dialog box, double-click on the component that has been pasted into the Graphic Editor pane.

In the Edit Component dialog box, you can edit the attributes of a component. At the top of the window is a toolbar with several commands for attribute values. Below the toolbar are several groups of attributes.

Commands

Copy Property

Copies the selected attribute value into the clipboard.

Paste Property

Pastes the value from the clipboard as a value of the selected attribute.

Clear Property

Clears the value of the selected attribute.

Add Custom Property

Adds a custom attribute to the component.

Remove Custom Property

Removes the selected custom attribute from the component.

Use Parameter as Value

Opens a dialog to select an existing graph parameter as an attribute value.

Export as Graph Parameter

Exports an existing attribute value as a graph parameter.

Attributes

In the Properties dialog box, all attributes of the components are divided into 5 groups: Basic, Advanced, Runtime, Deprecated and Custom.

Two groups (Basic and Runtime) can be set in all of them.

The other groups (Basic, Advanced and Deprecated) differ in different components.

However, some of them may be common for most of them or, at least, for some categories of components (Readers, Writers, Transformers, Joiners or Others).

Basic

These are the basic attributes of the components. These attributes depend on the type of the component. They can be either required or optional.

They may be specific for an individual component, for a category of components or for most of the components.

  • Required - Required attributes are marked by a warning sign. Some of them can be expressed in two or more ways; two or more attributes can be used for the same purpose.

  • Optional - They are displayed without any warning sign.

Advanced

These attributes contain complex (advanced) or specific use-case related settings of the components.

Advanced attributes may be specific for an individual component, for a category of components, or for most of the components.

Deprecated

These attributes were used in older releases and they still remain here and can be used even now. However we suggest you do not use them unless necessary.

May be specific for an individual component, for a category of components or for most of the components.

Custom

The Custom attributes are defined by the user. Use the button at the top of the dialog to add a new custom attribute.

Runtime

These attributes are also common for all components.

  • ID - The unique identifier of a component. If you check Generate component ID from its name in Window > Preferences > Data Shaper and your component is called e.g. Write employees to XML, then it automatically gets the ID WRITE_EMPLOYEES_TO_XML. While the option is checked, the ID changes every time you rename the component.

  • Component type - Describes the type of the component. By adding a number to this component type, you can get a component ID.

  • Specification - Describes the function of the component. It cannot be changed.

  • Phase - An integer number of the phase to which the component belongs. All components with the same phase number run in parallel. And all phase numbers follow each other. Each phase starts after the previous one has terminated successfully; otherwise, data parsing stops.
    For more detailed description, see Phases.

  • Enabled - Specifies whether the component should be enabled, disabled or whether it should run in a passThrough mode. This can also be set in the Properties tab or in the context menu (except the passThrough mode).
    For a more detailed description, see Enable/Disable Component.

  • Pass Through Input port - If the component runs in the passThrough mode, you should specify which input port should receive the data records and which output port should send the data records out. This attribute is used to select the input port from the combo list of all input ports.

  • Pass Through Output port - If the component runs in the passThrough mode, you should specify which input port should receive the data records and which output port should send the data records out. This attribute is used to select the output port from the combo list of all output ports.

  • Allocation - If the graph is executed in Cluster, this attribute must be specified in the graph.
    For more detailed description, see Component Allocation.

Warning!

Java-style Unicode expressions
Remember that you can use the Java-style Unicode expressions anyway (except in URL attributes).
You may use one or more Java-style Unicode expressions, for example: \u0014.
Such expressions consist of series of the \uxxxx codes of characters.
They may also serve as delimiter (like CTL expression shown above, without any quotes): \u0014

Updated 4 months ago