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xSuite Interface Windows Prism 5.x – Online Help

Miscellaneous

DeleteExternalFile()

Deletes an external file from the file system.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1*

Text

Full path of the file in the file system

Examples

DeleteExternalFile("c:/test.txt") deletes the specified file if it exists.

Pause()

This pseudo-macro is used to artificially pause macro execution at the relevant point for testing purposes. This macro function does not return a result; rather, it leaves a target field at the current value.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1*

Number

Number of seconds for which processing is paused

Examples

Pause(10) pauses macro processing for 10 seconds.

QueryDbRecord(), QueryDbRecords()

These functions perform a query to an external data source and assign the read values of the first record found to the desired target fields.

The QueryDbRecord() function only processes the first record found and typically assigns its content to header data fields. The QueryDbRecords() function reads in either all records or a specified number of records. Only item data fields can be used as the target here. A new item data row is generated from each data record read and appended to the existing target table.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1*

Text

Name of the property General.Database[], in which connection parameters and database command are defined

The command must be a SELECT query. When using an OLEDB or native SQL server connection, typed field variables in the form @VariableName should be included in the query. Otherwise, the use of variables is limited to a text replacement with %VariableName%.. The replacement text must be notated in the syntax required for the respective database system.

2*

Text or array

Name of a single target field or array of multiple target fields to which the values are assigned in the order they are contained in the record found

To ignore values from the data set, elements in the target field list can also be left empty. With ['Field1', , 'Field2'], for example, the first value is assigned to Field1, the second value is ignored, and the third value is assigned to Field2.

For the QueryDbRecords() function, the target fields must be item data fields. The names of the fields must be specified in full, as they are defined in the field catalog, i.e. {table name}.{column name}. Within a function call, only fields of the same target table may be addressed. If a value is not read from the database for all fields of the table in question, the remaining fields will retain the initial value.

Sub-tables can also be addressed, but then, for the parent table, always specify the number of a concrete row that already exists:

{table name}[{row number}].{subtable name}.{column name}.

3

Bool

Boolean value determining whether a NULL value from the source data set is retained as such (default value: FALSE)

By default, the macro interpreter does not directly support the value NULL. Instead, empty values are used depending on the data type (e.g., an empty string "" for an empty text value).

By default, NULL values from the database are converted to an empty value that matches the source data type. If the NULL value is to be retained instead, the IsNull() macro should be used to explicitly check for this value during further processing.

4

Number

maximum number of data records that are to be extracted with QueryDbRecords()

By default, the number is not limited.

Examples

QueryDbRecord("DBSelect1", ["Field1", "Field2"]) executes a database query that is configured under the name DBSelect1. This query can, for example, use the command SELECT [Column1], [Column2] FROM [Table1] WHERE [Column3] = @Field3 to filter for data records with the value of Field3. The values of Column1 and Column2 of the first data record found are assigned to the fields Field1 and Field2. If no data record is found, the target fields remain unchanged.

QueryDbRecords("DBSelect1", ["Items.Field1", "Items.Field2"]) creates a new row in the Items table for each data record found and assigns the values of Column1 and Column2 to the table fields Field1 and Field2 respectively, using the same database query as in the previous example.

SetDocMetaData()

This function sets a piece of metadatum of the current document to a given value. If an empty value is assigned, the existing metadatum is deleted.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1*

Text

Metadatum name

2

Text

Metadatum value

Examples

SetDocMetaData("DocMeta1", "Value1") sets the value of the metadata DocMeta1.

SetFileMetaData()

This function sets a piece of metadata of an attachment that matches a defined name pattern to a defined value. If an empty value is specified, an existing metadatum may be deleted.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1

Text

Name filter for the file attachment, whereby only the first attachment found is taken into account

Default value: *

2

Text

Restriction of the search to file attachments of a certain type (default value: all attachments) (optional):

  • Original: original files from the input system

  • Processed: files added by the program through extraction or conversion

3*

Text

Metadatum name

4

Text

Metadatum value

Examples

SetFileMetaData("*.pdf", , "FileMeta1", "Value1") sets the value of the metadata FileMeta1 of a PDF file attachment.

WriteExternalFile()

This function writes the content of file attachments to external files in the file system.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1

Text

Name filter for the file attachments, whereby all attachments found are processed

Default value: *

2

Text

Restriction of the search to file attachments of a certain type (default value: all attachments) (optional):

  • Original: original files from the input system

  • Processed: files added by the program through extraction or conversion

3*

Text

Path of the target folder in the file system

Folders and subfolders that do not yet exist are created automatically.

4

Text

Name of the target file in the file system

The name can be generated dynamically using file variables. If files already exist in the file system under the name in question, these files will be overwritten.

Default value: %FileName% (existing name of the file attachment)

Examples

WriteExternalFile("*.txt", , "c:/test", "%FileBaseName%.export.%FileExt%") writes all text file attachments under the existing name, supplemented by the suffix .export, to the file system.

WriteExternalFileFromField()

This function writes the content of a document field to an external file in the file system. Field contents that are not of the "Text" data type are converted into a text representation in the program's internal string notation.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1*

Text

Name of the field from the field catalog whose content is written to the file

2*

Text

Path of the target folder in the file system

Folders and subfolders that do not yet exist are created automatically.

3

Text

Name of the target file in the file system

If a file already exists under the name, the existing file will be overwritten.

4

Text

Character encoding of the target file:

  • Ascii

  • Ansi

  • Utf8 (default value)

  • Utf16

Examples

WriteExternalFileFromField("Field1", "c:/test", "export.txt") writes the content of the field Field1 as a text file export.txt to the file system.

DeleteFromCustomStore()

This function deletes a key/value pair that was previously persisted via the document macro function WriteToCustomStore() from the database.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1(*)

Text

Context information about the following key, if this alone is not clear enough or unique (optional)

To delete all entries for a common context in one call, the context information can also be specified without a key.

2*

Text

Key under which the value is stored

Examples

DeleteFromCustomStore( , "CustomKey1") deletes the entry with the CustomKey1 key, if the key exists.

WriteToCustomStore()

This function writes a value to an internal database table used to persist custom data, independently of the administrative data generated by the program. However, the same database is used for this purpose, so this functionality is not available in database-less mode.

Parameter

Data Type

Description

1

Text

Context information about the following key, if this alone is not clear enough or unique (optional)

2*

Text

Key under which the value is stored

If an entry with this key (and possibly context) already exists, it will be overwritten. If no entry with this key exists, a new entry will be created.

3*

(variable)

Value to be saved

Examples

WriteToCustomStore( , "CustomKey1", "Value1") writes a value under the CustomKey1 key to the database.