Positional Layout

Using the Positional layout, you can define the structure of your Fixed Length file either at Source or Destination. You need to specify the names and the positions of required fields in order to identify these fields.

Follow the steps below to create a positional layout using the default option:

1. Click Configure > LAYOUTS > Positional.
2. Click Create Positional Layout.
   
3. On the Create Layout screen, select the Default option from the Select Layout UI Type field.
4. Click Next. 
5. On the Create Layout screen,
   
   
   
   
   1. In the Name and Description fields, type the name and description of the new positional layout.
      
      Name: Only alphanumeric and underscore are allowed and you must start the layout name with an alphabet or underscore.
      Description: Only alphanumeric and few special characters(_ - . : , @ $ ? \\ and space) are allowed and you must start the description with an Alphabet/Underscore/Number.
      
      
   2. Select the Data Header Present check box if the data header is present in the text file. Data Header usually contains the titles of the fields in a text file. 
   3. In the Field Separator field, select either Field Length or Start or End Positions option.
      
      • Select the Field Length option if the field length is used to set the field positions.
      • Select the Start or End Positions option if start or end positions are used to set field positions.
   4. In the Definition Mode field, select either Import Definition File or Enter the Fields Sequentially option.
   5. If you select Import Definition File option, follow the steps below:

      1. In the Definition File field, select the definition type (XSD or Field).

      2. Click Upload File, navigate to and select the required file (XSD or Field), and then click Open to upload.

   6. If you select Using Entering the Fields Sequentially option, follow the steps below:

      If you select Enter the Fields Sequentially option, the Definition File field will be inactive.

      1. In the Field Name and Description fields, type the name and description of each field.

         You can use spaces and other special characters (~`! @ # $%^&*() {} [] | \\ : ; " ' - + =<> / ? . ,  ) in the field names. The special characters are rendered as underscores (__) if you use this layout in a Mapping.

      2. Select the type of data from the Type drop-down list. The supported data types are:

         Data Type	Description
         String	Select this data type if the field accepts a string value.
         Number	Select this data type if the field accepts a numeric value.
         Date	Select this data type if the field accepts a Date or Date and Time value.

      3. If the data type is Date, select the format of date and time in the Date Format and Time Format fields respectively.

      4. If you have selected Field Length as a field separator then type the length of the field in the Length.

      5. If you have selected Start & End Positions as a field separator then type the start and end positions in the Start and End.

      6. Select the alignment of the field from the Align. Select L for left aligned and R for right aligned.

      7. Select Skip check box if you want to skip some fields while generating the XML for your layout. For example, your source file has over 1500 fields, but you only need to use 1000 fields. This Skip check box will omit the 500 unrequired fields and it will not read them when it parses the data to XML. However, the fields will be visible in the file. If you create the layout using an existing XSD, then the skipped fields will appear blank. However, when you will use the same layout in other activities such as Mapping, it will display all the fields of the file.

         Skipping of unrequired fields is useful in case of a standard XSD with a large number of fields. This reduces the size of the generated XML that now contains only the required fields. 
         While editing the layout, when you download the data file, the Adeptia Suite represents the skipped fields by 'T' and the unskipped fields by 'F' (refer to Figure 225). Similarly, while viewing the Print-Friendly Page, the Adeptia Suite represents the skipped fields by 'T' and the unskipped fields by 'F'.
         • To insert rows, you need to specify the number and position of the rows that you want to add in the Number of Rows and at Position fields respectively and click Add Row. You can add a maximum of 99 rows at a time.

         • To remove rows, you need to specify the number and position of the rows that you want to delete in the Number of Rows and at Position fields respectively and click Remove Row.
           

   7. Expand the Advanced Properties:

      1. Define the Character-set encoding for your positional layout from the drop-down list of Character Set Encoding field. The available options are UTF-8, UTF-16, and ISO-8859-1.
         

         In case, the data you are processing through Adeptia Connect contains characters that are a part of another character set encoding, for example, UTF-8, then you need to change the character set encoding.
      2. Disable the Handle CR/LF (Source Data) check box, if the source file does not have any carriage return. By default, this option is checked, and layout expects file with carriage return. Handle CR/LF (Source Data) option is applicable only for the layout used at the source end.
      3. Enter the target record separator in the textbox Target Record Separator, if you want to write each record in new line in target file. By default records are written in single line. This option is applicable only for the layout used at target end.

      4. Select the Data Truncation check box, in case the data length is more than specified in the layout and you want to pass the specified length of data and ignore the rest of the data.

         The layout that you use at the target end has the option of Data Truncation.
      5. Select Allow Less Fields check box if you want to parse the data even if the number of fields in the data file is less than the number of field specified in the layout. If Allow Less Fields checkbox is selected and the layout is used at source end, layout will parse the input data and insert the empty tag of missing fields. If the layout is used at target end, it will write all the tags coming in input XML.
      6. In case number of fields in source data is more than the number of fields specified in the layout, only those fields are parsed, which are specified in layout. Other fields are ignored. If you want to generate error records, when number of fields in source data is more than the number of fields specified in layout, disable the Allow More Fields check box.
      7. Select Remove Last New Line Record Separator check box if you want to remove the new line record separator from the target file.
      8. In case the input data contains some characters that are invalid in XML, then this may result in the mapping getting aborted. You can filter these invalid XML characters by selecting the Filter Invalid XML Characters check box.
      9. Select Remove Space(s) check box if you want to remove all the leading and trailing spaces(s) from the data value on the source side.
      10. Select Remove Leading Zero(s) check box if you want to remove all the leading zero(s) from the numeric data value on the source side.

      11. In the Project field, select the project.

   8. Click Save.