R Read All Files In Folder

[Leto Corrales]

Iam trying to find an elegant way to loop over a series of files contained in a folder. I tried implementing community examples ( -structures/loops/example-for-reading-a-list-of-files) and a few variants, but I keep getting an error that says: Errors loading flow variables into node : Coding issue: Cannot create URL of data file from \my_folder.

The Table Row To Variable Loop Start node will automatically create a variable out of the list passed on by the List Files node, so no need to create the My_list variable. Simply select the folder in the List Files node that you want to scan, add any filters and your loop will go through all of those outputs in the File Reader. Just choose for example the URL column in the File Reader node as the location of the files you want to read.

- Looks at the files within a folder on SharePoint and will send a monthly email reminder on the day it was upload i.e. if uploaded on 2nd January, on 2nd February/March/April, etc., you will get an email reminder about that specific file in that folder.

The issue arose that within that folder, there are sub-folders with files and the flow is not picking up the files within the sub-folders.

I have tried adding a filter array but I am not too sure how and the flow is still failing.

So that step works ? but it seems to be failing now on another previous step that worked. This is where it looks at the date the file was uploaded to send the email reminder on the next month on the same date though. It did not fail before.

"Unable to process template language expressions in action 'Compose_the_short_string' inputs at line '0' and column '0': 'The template language function 'substring' parameter is out of range: 'start index' must be non-negative integer and should be less than the length of the string. Please see for usage details.'."

Like you mentioned, trying to use a Get File Content on a folder will generate an error. You can add a condition before the Get File Content to avoid this. Check if the IsFolder boolean field value is equal to false.

Not sure if this might help...I went to one of the failed flows and noticed that it is failing under the "get file content" (I have this added in to attach the document in the email to the end user) so it fails on the folder but works on the file. So it will send the file but overall shows the flow as failing.

I have a folder that contains a few different files all in the same format. They have to be saved separately as they come from the same source but slightly different parameters. I have never used the folder browse interface tool but am wondering whether it could be useful here.

My problem is that sometimes there might be 4 instead of 3 files every month. It is because I run the same report based on six different variants and sometimes there is or isn't data for some of the parameters.

If they are varying you can use the solution provided by @Qiu. If you are using a lower version of Alteryx and not able to open the workflow use this guide to downgrade your workflow -Works/Making-Workflows-Apps-amp-Macros-Backwards-Compatible/...

I have used an input tool with a * sign to import all the files from the location. As far as I can see, all the files have the same layout and come from the same place. However when I imported them, one was rejected for having a different schema although I can't figure how it was different. What other things does Alteryx look out for in regard to schemas being different apart from layout and file type?

Hey

If Alteryx is saying that the files have different schema, you need to check the Data Types of the particular file with the "Select" tool to see how Alteryx is interpreting the data type of each column. Mostly that is the reason, even if the columns are same in the file, but Alteryx sees them as different schema as the data type of those columns are different.

Let's say, I have a folder called maps and inside maps I have map1.txt, map2.txt, and map3.txt. How can I use Java and the BufferReader to read all of the .txt files in folder maps (if it is at all possible)?

Apologies for asking what I expect is going to be a very basic question. However I would like to read all files of a particular format (eg dxf) in a folder, apply a coordinate reprojection to them and then output them to a different folder. To read the files from a particular folder I believe I would use the Directory and File Pathnames Reader? To apply the reprojection transformation I would use the csmapreprojector, however to write the many files (eg dxf) out to a different folder I am not 100% of the methodology (and or writer) for that.

I have same question, understand that the reader can show a folder that contains say 5 files how do I write out 5 files to an output folder, I cant see the equivalent "select multiple folders\\files" on the writer

The equivalent would be something called a "fanout". Look for the fanout option on the writer parameters in the Navigator window. You choose an attribute that defines the name to write to. Usually it is the same as the incoming dataset; eg fme_dataset

I want to create a scheduled flow that, once every day, creates a list of all the recently created files with 'invoice' in the filename on Sharepoint, then mail that list to one of the mailboxes of the finance department.

I have a flow that begins with List Folder with the finance dept folder on our Sharepoint selected. This feeds into a Filter Array which does From: Body, isFolder equals False. In short, this removes all the folders and leaves only the files.

The problem I'm running into now is that I don't get all the PDF files. I get a subset even though I never specified a maximum nr of results to gather.

Also, if I try to limit the entries to a specific folder I don't get any results anymore, even though I know there are PDF files in both the root of that specific folder as well as in a subfolder.

Should I understand that the web and the windows desktop are specifying the same working directory? (i.e. I can only have 1 working directory that is used by both?) Or is there a different working directory, one for the web, one for the desktop?

This field is only for folder selection. You can define your folder structure here. Incase you need to pass any file as input, and if you have already placed the file in this location you can just define the name alone.

I have had major headaches with the Dropbox desktop app ever since installing it. In particular, the Dropbox app running in the background has caused my computer and my Internet connection to freeze many times. It even prevented the Windows Task Manager from loading properly so I couldn't kill the Dropbox process--yet when I did after many tries, the computer *immediately* became responsive again. Therefore, I have prohibited any processes having to do with Dropbox from running automatically on startup.

I assumed that this would reduce the Dropbox folder to a mere normal Windows folder, i.e. an unshared local folder that has my own local files in it but no access to files shared by others. However, I can no longer open even my own files that were created on this computer and never edited or used by anyone else. Even if I copy them to my desktop, which has nothing to do with Dropbox (obviously), if I try to open them I get an error about Dropbox.

Naturally, not only am I concerned with accessing the files now (I assume I can restart the process and open them), but I'm concerned that when I am no longer connected to my employer's Dropbox account (my work with them ends at the end of May), that files that I believe I own will go randomly missing and be irretrievable. I obviously wouldn't be disappointed OR surprised to not be able to open others' synced files at that point, but I'd obviously like to have my own work saved for future reference.

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These suggestions do not help. It is so frustrating that I think I will delete my dropbox files since I cannot get to them. If I have to run it in the background, then it takes too long to run my computer. I cannot even download them once I am on Word online, as it automatically saves them back to dropbox. I am so frustratedand will rely on other cloud software. I have used this so long, but now it suddenly creates more havoc that it is worth.

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