Skip to main content

Flat File

The Flat File destination allows exporting a dataset to one or more files, according to logic completely decoupled from the file format, exactly as happens for the Flat File source.
The flow defines where to write (location) and how to format the data (format), while Flowlyze handles serialization and transfer to the destination system.

Base Parameters​

The Flat File destination exposes the following main parameters:

  • Directory: Remote path where files will be created (FTP/SFTP/FTPS directory).

  • Filename: Name of the file to generate. Supports placeholders and flow variables, allowing dynamic construction of the name (e.g. orders_{{date}}.csv).

  • Location Type: Indicates the transfer channel used (e.g. SFTP, FTP…).

  • Granularity: Defines the writing granularity level, i.e. how many files will be generated. The selection sets a suffix that is inserted before the extension in the FileName

    • Batch: one file per execution batch (single data flow execution)
    • Daily: one file per day
    • RequestId: one file per group of processed messages (parameter configured in BufferSize options)
    • Single With Time: per single message,
    • Single: no predefined granularity. A file is created with the FileName without adding suffixes.

  • Connection: Access parameters to the destination server:

    • host
    • port
    • username
    • password

Location Type​

Currently the destination supports all FTP protocol variants:

  • FTP
  • SFTP
  • FTPS
  • Amazon S3 (TBD)
  • Azure Blob Storage (TBD)

Format Type​

The currently available formats are:

  • CSV
  • JSON

Below are the specific configurations for each.

Format Settings — CSV​

Available parameters:

  • Has headers: Indicates whether the file must include the column header row.
  • Culture: Culture used for representing numbers and dates (e.g. it-IT → uses comma as decimal separator, en-US → decimal point).
  • Delimiter: Column delimiter (,, ;, \t, …).
  • Quote: Character to enclose text fields. Use \0 to not apply any quoting.

Format Settings — JSON​

Available parameters:

  • Array field name: Indicates the name of the field that will contain the array. If set: the JSON is written as an object, e.g. ` { "data": [ {...}, {...} ] }` If empty: the array is written directly in root: ` [ {...}, {...} ]`

Mapping (CSV only)​

The Flat File destination allows defining a column mapping for the CSV file. Through mapping it is possible to precisely describe how each field of the file will be generated.

For each column it is possible to specify:

  • Column name: The name shown in the header (if has headers = true).
  • Default value: Used if the field is not present in the message.
  • Field type: string, int, decimal, datetime (affects formatting and applied culture).
  • Field format: Examples:
    • #.00 to format decimals with two digits,
    • yyyy-MM-dd for dates.
  • Read format: Expected input format, useful when converting string values to dates or structured numbers during writing.