File System Metadata

The metadata for a File record is significantly different from many other IBM® Lotus Enterprise Integrator® (LEI) and Domino® Enterprise Connection Services (DECS) connections. There is a single record description (metadata) with set fields of set types. These fields are shown in the following table.

Field

Description

Filename

This is a TEXT field with a maximum length dependent on the maximum file path length (varies by operating system). The file name is specified without the directory, since that is defined by the DATABASE property. This field matches any LEI TEXT or BINARY field. Required for Insert operations as the file name to insert.

This field is returned as case-insensitive for Microsoft Windows operating systems. However, UNIX is case-sensitive and for IBM® i, the filename may be case-sensitive.

Contents

This is an LEI/DECS TEXT (NATIVE format) or BINARY (BLOB format) field with no maximum length. This field contains the file contents as a stream, and matches any LEI/DECS TEXT or BINARY field. The default type is TEXT, but the BINARY type allows files to be handled as binary BLOBs.

ContentsFormat

This field is only available if you specify that the "Contents" field type is TEXT. The "ContentsFormat" property enables you to specify the format of the text as a specific character set. The character set specified is applied to the "Contents" field. Valid character set names are the same as the ones used for setting the "NativeText" property in the notes.ini file and the sorting character set in the Order MetaConnector. The default setting is "NATIVE."

Timestamp

This is an LEI/DECS DATETIME containing the last modification date and time for the file. This field maps to a LEI/DECS DATETIME field.

*Size

This is an LEI/DECS INT field containing the size of the file contents, in bytes. This field is ignored on write operations; the size is obtained from the Contents field. This field matches any LEI/DECS number field (INT, FLOAT, CURRENCY, or NUMERIC), although any type other than INT will cause a precision loss error if Allow Precision Loss is disabled.

Note: LEI/DECS removes trailing spaces. If the Contents is type TEXT and its value includes trailing spaces, then there may be a difference between the value of the Size field and the length of the Contents field.
Note: Some databases and data sources have reserved words that cannot be used. Refer to the documentation for the product itself for information about reserved words. For example, "Size" is an invalid column name in Oracle, so activities involving a file system connection and an Oracle connection may encounter errors if "Create Metadata" is selected to create Oracle metadata with the same field names.

Understanding Text Connector Field Mapping by Position

For any activity in which you use the Field Mapping by Position option, you must understand that field display and internal field order are not identical for this connector. The fields listed for the Text Connector connection appear onscreen in alphabetical order. However, internally, IBM® Lotus Enterprise Integrator® (LEI) and Domino® Enterprise Connection Services (DECS) read and map the fields in the following order to the external system.

  • Filename (VARCHAR)
  • Contents (BLOB or TEXT)
  • Timestamp (TIMESTAMP)
  • Size (INTEGER)