Advanced Positional Layout

You can use an Advanced Positional file to define the structure of your Source or Destination layout. 

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

1. Click Configure > LAYOUTS > Advanced Positional.
2. Click Create Advanced 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 advanced 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. In the Definition Mode field, select the definition mode for the Advanced Positional Layout. You can define the layout in the following three ways: 
      • Import Definition file
      • Use Data Dictionary
      • Enter the Fields Sequentially
   3. In the Field Separator field, select either Field Length or Start & 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. 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 Choose File, navigate to and select the required file (XSD or Field), and then click Open to upload.

   5. If you select UseData Dictionary option, follow the steps below:
      1. In the Data Dictionary field, select the data dictionary. 
      2. Click Select Record. 
         A new screen displays the name of the data dictionary and the list of all records that are in the dictionary.
      3. On the Select Records screen, select the check box against the record that you want to display in the Advanced Positional layout.
      4. Select Select All check box to display all records.
      5. Click Ok.
         This closes the Select Records window and displays the selected records under the Record Definition. You can view or delete a record from this screen by clicking the appropriate button (View or Delete) for that record.

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

      If you select Enter the Fields Sequentially option, the Definition File and Data Dictionary fields will be inactive.
      1. Type the name of any field in the Field Definition for Record Identifier and the value of the field in the Value. Record Identifier is used to identify the records that will be parsed through this definition. You can also use the regular expression as a value by clicking Is Regex.
         

      2. 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.

      3. 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.

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

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

      6. If you have selected Start & End Positions as a field separator then type the start and end positions in the Start and End.
         The starting position of a row in a positional file is 1. In a positional file, the layout counts a tab as one position and not eight positions. By default, the layout creates these field positions in a sequence. You can also create a layout with fields that are not in a sequence.

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

      8. 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.
         The skipping of fields is useful in case where a standard XSD has a large number of fields. Skipping reduces the size of the XML that will now contain the required fields.
         

         • You can download the XSD, hierarchy XML, and the field file for an existing Layout by opening it in edit mode.
         • The field file that you download shows the skipped fields by 'T' and the other fields by 'F'. This depiction remains the same while viewing the Print-Friendly Page.
      9. Click Add Record to define another set of data and repeat the steps.
   7. After defining records, you need to define their hierarchy. This is mandatory for creating an Advance Positional layout.
   8. Once you finish adding the records, defining the Record Identifiers and their values, click Refresh under Hierarchy Definition. This populates the Record Identifiers of the defined records in the Record ID field under Hierarchy Definition.

   9. Select a record from the Record ID.

   10. Select Y or N from the Required list box to indicate if a record will appear in the source file.
   11. In the minoccur, type the minimum number of occurrences that you want a record to appear in the source file. If the value of the Required field is 'Y' then the minoccur must have at least minimum 1 occurrence in the source file. If the value of the Required field is 'N' then the minoccur field must be 0.

   12. In the maxoccur, type the maximum number of occurrences that you want a record to appear in the source file. The maximum allowable value that you can enter in the maxoccur field is 2147483647.

       • If you want to define hierarchy at the Root Level, click here.
       • If you want to define records at Child Level, click here.
   13. 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. Click Populate to view the XML code for the hierarchy you have just made.
          You can also edit or type new XML code for the hierarchy and this code will then override the existing hierarchy. In case there are numerous records then you can create a flat hierarchy and edit that XML code to change the hierarchy as per your wish.

          It is recommended to copy the XML code, edit it in another XML editor, and then make any changes. Once you are done with the changes, paste it into the Hierarchy XML. Once you update the XML code, don't click Populate again or make any changes to the Hierarchy, as these actions will replace your XML code with the original XML code.
       3. 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.
       4. Enter the target record separator in the Target Record Separator field.

       5. 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.
       6. Select the Validate Target Record Identifier check box to match the target record identifier in XML with the value specified in the layout. 
       7. 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 check box 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.
       8. 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.
       9. Select Remove Last New Line Record Separator check box if you want to remove the new line record separator from the target file.
       10. 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.
       11. 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.
       12. 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.

       13. In the Project field, select the project.

   14. Click Save. 

Using Hierarchy at Root Level

To use a hierarchy at the Root Level, follow the steps below:

1. Click Add Root Record.
   This creates a record at the same level as that of the previous root record.

2. Select a record from the Record ID field and enter all the related information.

3. Repeat the steps from i through l to create another root record.

   Every record must have a unique Record ID. For example, if the first root record is John, then you need to select Smith in the next root record.

Using Record at Child Level

1. Click Add Child.
   This creates a child record at a level below the Root record.

2. Select a record in the Record ID field of the child record and enter all the related information.

3. Repeat steps from i through l to create a child record.

   A parent and child record must have a unique Record ID in one hierarchy. For example, if John is the parent record, then you need to select Stationary as the child record. Similarly, if you can create another child record under Stationary then you need to select North as its Record ID.

   
   

   You can remove a record by selecting the record and then clicking Remove. Click OK, when prompted to confirm. Alternately, if you delete the last fieldname of a record and then save the layout, this action will delete the entire field. For example, a record has three fields – Name, Description, and Age. Now deleting Age will result in the deletion of the entire field.

   If a record has more than one child records then deleting the parent record will delete all its child records.