IMPORTANT: The spooled file extractor is no longer supported. Any spooled file extractor definitions, that has previously been designed can still be used in the workflow, but they cannot be edited.
The better alternative is to use the designer for transformation.
When you refer to the contents of a spooled file either in the designer or in the workflow, then you can refer to the contents in two different manners:
You can use the ng:spoolMap and the ng:spoolMapCond functions to extract and map the spooled file contents directly. The latter even supports conditions to only map specific spooled file lines.
The alternative is to use the XML extractor for spooled files. This can help you to extract the contents of the spooled file and present it as an XML file instead. This is covered below.
The advantage with the extractor is, that you can format the data of the spooled file and identify the various fields before you start the design process. This makes it e.g. much easier to scan detail lines for various layouts.
Please note, that the spooled file extractor only supports the legacy format (version 1.0) of the spooled file. Spooled files in version 2.0 are not supported in the spooled file extractor, but for those the spooled file extractor is also not required as the format is much easier to handle in the designer.
You cannot combine the two in the same template.
These sections describes how to use the spooled file extractor:
1.Create a spooled file extractor. This describes how to create a new spooled file extractor and also how to open an existing extractor.
2.Splf extractor: Simple mapping. This is an introduction to simple mappings of the spooled file data. This also includes examples of simple repeats both vertical and horizontal.
3.Splf extractor: Delete a mapping. Description of how to delete a mapping. It is recommended to save the extractor before you delete a mapping.
4.Splf extractor: Conditioned mappings. This section introduce conditions. In order to setup a condition, you might need to setup a token first.
5.Splf extractor: Tokens. Tokens are texts, text types or expressions, that can be used for comparisons in conditions. There are several predefined tokens, and you can create your own tokens.
6.Splf extractor: Overlapping mappings. Describes how you can define and edit overlapping mappings e.g. to handle multiple page layouts.
7.Splf extractor: Expandable parent. Shows how to make a parent node expand to include all detail lines.
8.Splf extractor: How to save. How to save a spooled file extractor.
9.Splf extractor: How to use it in the workflow.