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Iterate over Files

The Iterate over Files Action Step performs various Action Steps on a specified number of files. Drag the Action Steps to be processed into the gray area labeled Drop Items here using drag and drop. The Action Steps placed there will be processed from top to bottom in the order specified. This means that the Action Steps for processing will be applied to all files located in a folder and, depending on the settings, its sub-folders. It is possible to set various parameters such as the maximum number of files to be processed.

Properties

File Operation Settings:

  • Directory path Enter the path to the directory where the files to be processed are located. You can specify an absolute or relative path. If a relative path is used, then the path relates to the Base Path variable.

  • File name Use placeholders here to specify the names of the files to be processed. Use the placeholders * and ? and all allowed characters to construct a search expression. The placeholder . is used by default. This will find all files in a directory.

A list of invalid characters is provided in the section Path/file name/invalid characters.

Examples of how to construct search expressions are provided at the end of this section.

  • Force error if iteration limit is exceeded Set whether the Workflow is to be interrupted and an error message generated. This is applicable in the following two cases:

    • If the number of files for processing set under Max iterations has been reached and Use iteration limit is enabled.

    • If the maximum number of 100,000 files has been processed.

  • Max iterations Set the maximum number of files that should be processed until Iterate over files ends. You can specify up to 100,000 iterations. Max iterations will only be taken into account if you enable the option Use iteration limit.

  • Recursive loop Specify whether the sub-folders located in the specified Directory path and any files they may contain are to be included in the processing.

  • Use iteration limit Enable this option if you want to process a limit of up to 100,000 files. Set the limit in the field Max iterations.

Other Properties that are the same in all Action Steps are described in the section on Common Properties. For reasons of clarity they are not shown here.

Inbound Variables

Directory path Enter the path to the directory where the files to be processed are located. You can specify an absolute or relative path. If a relative path is used, then the path relates to the Base Path variable.

  • File name Use placeholders here to specify the names of the files to be processed. Use the placeholders * and ? and all allowed characters to construct a search expression. The placeholder . is used by default. This will find all files in a directory.

Outbound Variables

Count Of Processed Elements The Iterate over Files.Count of Processed Elements variable provides the number of files that have been processed.

Wizard

  • Directory path Specify the path to the files here. You can create an absolute path or a path relative to the Base Path. The initial value is %STWS_BASEPATH%. Select an existing path. You can also insert variables from the Workflow in order to construct the path. To do so, click on the pin and select one of the available variables.

  • File name Use placeholders here to specify the names of the files to be processed. Use the placeholders * and ? and all allowed characters to construct a search expression. The placeholder . is used by default. This will find all files in a directory. You can also insert a variable from the Workflow as the File Name. To do so, click on the pin and select one of the available variables.

A list of invalid characters is provided in section File Operations.

Examples of how to construct search expressions are provided at the end of this section.

  • Iteration limit Enable this option to set a limit on how many files can be iteratively processed. Enter your desired limit in the adjacent field; the maximum is 100,000.

  • Force error if iteration limit is exceeded Set whether the Workflow is to be interrupted and an error message generated. This is applicable in the following two cases:

    • If the Iteration limit is enabled and the number of files entered in that field has been reached.

    • If the maximum number of 100,000 files has been processed.

  • Recursive loop over all sub-folders Set whether the sub-folders located in the specified Directory path and any files they may contain are to be included in the processing.

Example

Use individual question marks (?) and allowed characters in the File name field to find a specific number of variable letters or numeric digits in the file name. The placeholder ???_log.* will, for example, find all files with three unknown characters at the start of the file name, followed by “_log”. If you do not know the number of unknown characters, but a constant piece of text appears in the file name, then you can use _log.* This search expression finds all files containing _log in the file name. You can also omit the placeholder .* (this is used to search for the file extension).

A list of invalid characters is provided in the section Path/file name/invalid characters.

Examples of how to construct search expressions are provided at the end of this section.