We have discussed Simple File Adapter Configuration as well as File Content Conversion for a simple structure CSV file. In this article we will understand how to deal with File Adapter when file structure is a bit complex. For example if it has different number of columns of information on different rows.

Let us take an example of a simple sales order. Assume that sales order is received in form of a text file. The first row has header information like customer details and order details; whereas the remaining rows have order items details. Every field has different lengths and there are no field separators. The adjoining figure shows such a file with minimal fields.

Sender File Adapter Configuration with Content Conversion

The figure below shows a typical configuration of the sender file adapter. Specify File Content Conversion as message protocol. Document Name and Namespace correspond to the message type from the Integration Repository. Recordset Name defines the root node under which rest of the XML will be created. If left blank, it defaults to ‘Recordset’. If you do not want this extra node to be inserted, you can set the parameter ignoreRecordsetName to true (Thanks Mike for this input). See this link for exhaustive list of available parameters.

Specify the name and occurrence of each sub-node in Recordset Structure. In this case, OrderHeader node occurs once while OrderItem node can occur any number of times. Key Field Name and Key Field Type help in differentiating different substructures. In this case Key =1 implies OrderHeader node while Key = 2 implies OrderItem node.

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