Dataport - force append

Fisherman

A really quick question here.

I've been looking through the online help and trying to see if there is any way to programmatically force a dataport to append to an existing file on export. I'd need to export data into a fixed-width, proprietary format file that is structured in a Header, Line, Trailer format (one header, multiple lines, one trailer per file). The dataports make for a nice tool since they will manage field widths in an easy-to-read format. Since the indented data items won't get me there (since it's not UPXML or for User Portal), I was going to try to string three dataports together, one for header, one for lines, and one for trailer, but I can't figure out how to force dataports 2 and 3 to append rather than replace the file created in dataport 1.

If all else fails, I can fall back on a report to do the job, but I was hoping that there was some trick that I don't know about. Any ideas?

kapamarou

You could always try calling each dataport through code and after each dataport, again through code, copy the contents of each produced file to a new file...

Fisherman

True. I might try that. Thanks for the suggestion.

matttrax

There is no way to do that through a dataport. Using the PADSTR function it is pretty easy to create a fixed length data file.

Belias

kapamarou wrote:

You could always try calling each dataport through code and after each dataport, again through code, copy the contents of each produced file to a new file...

this can help
http://www.mibuso.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=36141&hilit=append+text+file
generate the three files and then connect them
maybe you have to play with one or two carriage returns...
P.S.: indents are not possible in dataports
let us know if it works

Fisherman

Belias -

Thanks for the link. For the moment, I've decided it may be less of a headache to just use linked data items in a report and write out to a file using an outstream and bigtext. It was my backup plan, and really just wanted to use the dataports because of the built-in width enforcement in the fixed width option - it's just a little easier to interpret than scanning through a bunch of C/AL.

If this looks like it's not heading in the direction that I want it to, I'll try some other methods and post back.

zoranp

Hi,

Why don't you simply generate three DataItems in one dataport - one for header, one for lines and one for trailer. You don't indent the dataitems and you can copy filters from header to the other two DataItems. With the use of two dataport properties RecordSeparator and DataItemSeparator you can control separator between records of the same dataitem and separator between two different dataitems.

danlindstrom

Hi Fisherman

Are you a developer with partner license?
If so I rekomend you to create a codeunit that exports your data to the textfile.
Dataports have some avdantages, in this case they give more headache than advantage

I belive that mattrax is speaking in same terms by using PADSTR