Creating File Event Activity

The File Event enables you to specify when and how frequently a process flow should be executed based on either creation of a new file, or existence of a file(s) in a pre-defined location or upon its modification.

Steps to create a File Event Activity

1. Go to Account and click Manage Objects.
   
   
   
   
2. Click EVENTS > File Event.
   
   
   
   
3. Click CREATE File Event.
   
   
   
   

4. On Create File Event screen, enter the name and description of the new JMS Event in the Name and Description textboxes respectively.
   
   
   
   

5. Select the trigger type from the Trigger Type drop-down list. The available options are On FileCreated, On FileExists, and On FileModified. 

   Trigger Type Selection	Description
   On FileCreated	To configure the file event to check for the creation of a new file(s).
   On FileExists	To configure the file event to check for the existence of the file(s).
   On FileModified	To configure the file event to check for any modification in the file(s).

6. Select Check for File Modification check box if you want to process files that are modified after creation. This option is enabled only if On FileCreated option is selected in the Trigger Type drop-down list box.

7. Select Run Initial Load check box if you want to process the files that are created when the event is not active. This option is enabled only if On FileCreated option is selected in the Trigger Type drop-down list box.

    

   After the activation of the event, for the first time, the system processes all the files that exist in the base folder location, irrespective whether they were processed earlier or not. However, for subsequent activations, only the unprocessed files are processed each time.

8. Select Don't Process Duplicate Files check box if you don't want to process the same file again.

9. Select Process Empty Files check box if you want to run the event even when the input file is empty.
10. Type the file name that the file event needs to verify in the File Include Criteria text box.

11. Type the name of filethat the file event does not need to verify in the File Exclude Criteria text box. For example, if *.txt is provided as a value in the File Include Criteria but two files - Gdata.txt and Gdata1.txt are not required to be verified by File Event. Then Gdata.txt and Gdata1.txt file name need to be entered separated by a comma in the File Exclude Criteria text box. To specify more than one file in the File Include Criteria and File Exclude Criteria use regular expressions listed in the following table.

     

    Expression	Description
    *.*	For all files with some extension
    *	For all files in a directory
    a*.txt	For files starting with a and having extensiontxt(e.g. arch.txt)
    a??????.txt	For files starting with a and have 6 more characters followed by txt extension (e.g. archive.txt)
    a[1-9]	For a1, a2 ,a3 …………..a9
    b[aiu]t	For bat, bit orbut
    a.txt, a.doc	For two files named as a.txt and a.doc

     

    For example, if you enter h*/*.txt in File Include Criteria field and C:/Gmdata inFileBase Location field, it will search for all .txt file inside all directories which starts from h under C:\Gmdata.

     

    If more than one file is specified in the File Include Criteria text box, the process flow will trigger for each file.

12. Provide the path of the file in the File Base Location text box, for example, C:/Gmdata.

13. Select Use VFS check box if you want to enforce the validation of User ID and Password every time while accessing the file on a remote machine. When Adeptia Server is installed on Windows Operating System, File Event uses windows service to connect to the remote machine to access any file. It just connects once and uses the same connection with the same User ID and Password (which is stored in the cache) every time.

14. Select the Securecheck box, if the File Event is secured, that is, username and password are required to access it.

15. Type the username and password required to access the file in the User ID and Password text boxes respectively. This option is applicable only when the file specified is located on a remote machine.

16. Confirm the password in the Confirm Password text box.
17. Provide the date from which file event will start triggering in the Event Start Date. The date must be in MM/dd/yyyy format. Click the Calendar icon and select the required date from the calendar.
18. Provide the start time from the Time drop-down list.
19. Provide the date on which file event will stop triggering in the Event Expiry Date. The date must be in MM/dd/yyyy format. Click the Calendar icon and select the required date from the calendar.
20. Provide the expiry time from the Time drop-down list.
21. Select the type of trigger from the Trigger drop-down list. Following are the options:
    
    • Simple
    • Cron 

    By default, Simple is selected. This option triggers the File event as per the defined polling frequency.
    If you select Simple then do the following:
    
    

    1. Provide the time interval for which File event will check for the arrival of any file or upon modification of existing file in the Polling Frequency. 

    2. Enter the digit in the Frequency field and select the unit of time (seconds, minutes or hours) from the Duration drop-down list. 

        

       We recommended minimum Polling Frequency to be more than 60 seconds.

    If you select Cron then do the following:
    
    

    1. Select the days of the week on which the event should fire from the Firing Days drop-down list.  Following are the available options:

       Days	Description
       All Days	The event will fire on all days (Mon to Sun) of the week.
       Business Days	The event will fire from Monday to Friday excluding holidays.
       Week Days	The event will fire from Monday to Friday even if there are any holidays.

       
       

    2. Define the frequency of execution (in Cron Expression) in the Firing Schedule. Click Help to know more about Cron Expressions.
       
       

22. Provide the file stable time in the text box and select the duration from the drop-down list. This option is applicable for On FileCreated and On FileModified Trigger Type. The trigger will wait for the specified time for the file to become stable.

23. Click Save.
    
    

     

    You can view details of a process flow associated with a file event by clicking the process flow displayed under Associated Process Flows on the Manage File Eventscreen.

    When a file event triggers process flow, each process flow uses file event. At times, an event may have a large number of files and process flow fails while handling a large number of files. To process the maximum number of files at a time, set the value in the abpm.event.concurrency property that handles the files at the time of process flow execution.