File Sender, Content Conversion - how to define variable length last field?

181 Views

XI 3.0 SP17

With a File Sender communication channel, that uses Content Conversion - how do I define a 'variable length' last field?

The scenario - the input file has four fields, of which the first three are a known fixed length, and the last (fourth, trailing) field is variable in length.

Using a Message Protocol of 'File Content Conversion', how do I define that last variable length field (field name 'WOData' below) in the Content Conversion Parameters section?

My current parameters are:

Recordset Structure - Row,*

ignoreRecordsetName - true

Row.fieldFixedLengths - 1,12,5,99999

Row.fieldNames - WOType,WONum,WOLine,WOData

I've tried the following for 'Row.fieldFixedLengths' to no avail -

'1,12,5,*'

'1,12,5,0'

'1,12,5,'

'1,12,5'

The last two were grasping at straws 😊)

The only thing I've got to work is specifying a 'large' value for the final field (99999 above).

In addition, does anyone know if specifying a large value (e.g. 99999) for the final trailing field will give rise to performance issues when the file is being processed?

In the help for "Converting File Content in a Sender Adapter", it states -

NameA.fieldFixedLengths

If you make a specification here, the system expects a character string that contains the lengths of the structure columns as arguments separated by commas.

If you also specify a separator for the columns, you must not add its length to the length of the columns.

This entry is mandatory if you have not made an entry for NameA.fieldSeparator.

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/2c/181077dd7d6b4ea6a8029b20bf7e55/content.htm