Specifying File Layout, Record, and Field Properties

Displays the type of file layout. Values are FIXED, CSV, and XML.

Enter the XML tag name that is associated with this layout (or transaction). This tag can be 30 characters in length. This tag must be unique in the file layout.

This field is active when the file layout format is XML.

Displays the size of the input buffer that is used at runtime.

This field is active when the file layout format is XML.

Select to automatically add a decimal place based on the decimal value that is specified in the field definition when you import a file into a PeopleSoft database and no decimal place is specified for numeric values in the file.

If you select this option, make sure that the length that you specify for the Number field includes a decimal point, even though it is not visible. In this case, the decimal point is counted as a space. For each occurrence of numeric data that is missing a decimal point character in the input file, a space character is also required in the input file; locate the space character either immediately before the numeric characters or immediately after them.

This field is active when the file layout format is FIXED.

Select to parse the field by using Microsoft Excel CSV specifications.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

Select to parse the field based on delimiters. When a qualifier exists, the field is parsed by using a closing matched qualifier. The system ignores all characters before and after the qualifier.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

If you do not select this check box, the field must have qualifier pairs. The system ignores all characters before and after the qualifier.

Select to convert all tabs within the field to spaces. If you do not select this option, the system ignores all tabs.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

Select to interpret backslashes within field data as escape characters.

The following characters have special meanings:

• \t represents a tab.

• \n represents a new line.

If you do not select this check box, the system considers backslashes to be regular text data.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

Select to remove all leading and trailing white space within field data from the output data.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

Select to interpret two double quotes (" "), as one double quote (") in output data.

For example, if you enable this option, abc""def" is interpreted as abc"def.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

Select to interpret backslash quotes (\") as one double quote (") in output data.

For example, if you enable this option, "abc\"def" is interpreted as abc"def.

This field is active when the file layout format is CSV.

Enter a file record name that is associated with this file record. This name is used to access the file record from PeopleCode. Every file record in a file layout must have a unique name.

Enter a sequence number for the field that contains the file record ID.

Displays the default maximum length of the combined field sizes of the record. This value is automatically updated.

Enter a number that uniquely identifies the file record in the file layout. You can use this number for processing the file. This number is automatically written to the file if you use the WriteRecord or WriteRowset methods and if the file type is FIXED or CSV.

Enter the column or starting position in the file record where the file record ID starts.

Displays the length of the file record ID. This number is automatically generated when you enter the file record ID.

Enter a qualifier that is used for the file record ID and as the default for fields when no field qualifier is specified. This value overrides the definition qualifier that is specified in the File Layout Definition Properties dialog box. When you first create a file layout, this property is blank.

Enter characters to be placed at the end of each segment when the layout is written to a file.

Enter a delimiter that is used for all fields in the file record. This value overwrites the definition delimiter that is specified on the File Layout Definition Properties dialog box.

Enter an XML tag name for this file record. The default value is the file record name.

Enter a description of the record for documentation purposes only.

Select a date format, such as MMDDYY, DDYYMM, and so on.

Enter a character that is used to separate date values. The default value is /.

Enter the number of decimal positions to the right of the decimal point. This property is valid only for fields that are defined as number or signed number.

Enter the default value to be used by a call to ReadRowset when the corresponding data is imported from a file via a file layout definition.

Enter a description of the field for documentation purposes only.

Optionally select a parent file record and field from which the current field value is to be inherited. If you write to a file, the value is written only in the parent file record, not in the child (inheriting) file record; the value is not written more than once to a file. If no value is present in the parent field, then the system uses the default value that is specified here.

For example, the following file sample shows both the EMPLID (8113) and EFFDT (08/06/1999) written only once to a file, though these fields are repeated in the third file record (with a file record ID of 102):

100 8113 Frumman,Wolfgang
101      08/06/1999     000001   219 Going to London office
102                 100 000015 I 08/06/1999
102                 200 000030 I 08/06/1999
102                 300 000009 I 08/06/1999
102                 400 000001 I 08/06/1999
102                 500 000011 I 08/06/1999

Enter the name that is associated with this file field. Use this name when accessing the file field from PeopleCode. Every field within a file record must have a unique name; however, two different file records can contain the same file field.

Enter an XML tag name to be used around the field. The default value is the name of the field.

Select the data type of the file field.

Enter the maximum number of characters in this field.

Select to enable field padding. The field will be padded with space characters up to the value of the length property. Character data will be left justified, numeric data right justified.

If a field position or length is changed, enter an amount here to increment (positive number) or decrement (negative number) the current field and all fields before it (<<<) or after it (>>>).

Enter a qualifier for the field, that is, the character that surrounds this field, separating it from other fields. Specifying this value overwrites the value that is specified in the file layout properties and file record properties.

Enter the starting position (column) of the field within the file record.

Specify any characters to be removed from the input buffer. Use this field to preprocess input strings. For example, if a field in the input file contains hyphens but you want to remove the hyphens before processing the field, you can enter a hyphen here and it will be stripped out while being read. You can specify more than one character to be stripped out. Be sure to not separate the strip characters. For example, the following code strips out all semicolons and hyphens:

;-

The following code strips out all semicolons, hyphens, and spaces:

; -

Select to remove trailing spaces only from an input string. This option is active only for FIXED and CSV formats.

This option is different from the Strip Characters field, which removes all spaces from the entire input field if you specify a space.

Select to convert lowercase text to uppercase during inbound processing. Use this option primarily when customer data is in lowercase and the PeopleSoft software requires the data to be in uppercase.