File Reader

The file reader is very simple example of component to read in files. If you have not done so already please have a read of A brief history of Iguana to understand the design philosophy here. This is simple starting component to customize to what you really need.

The configuration interface

There is only one field to configure - the SourceDir. This is the directory that the component feeds from.

What! That's not very configurable!

😅 No lol - it’s not is it.

In the first version of this component we did have more configuration fields on it. But taking a step back and thinking from an operations perspective it seemed like the most important field was the source directory.

If I am an operations person, then this is what I need to look at if there is a problem. Everything else just seemed like noise.

You can always change that: Custom fields

What files does it match?

The file matching logic is deliberately isolated in it’s own file which we can see here:

https://bitbucket.org/interfaceware/fromfile/src/main/MatchRules.lua

Why do we put this logic in it’s own file? It’s applying a concept call Separation of Concerns. We simplify code and make it easy to understand by separating it into its own file.

Looking the code you can see that this code will only match files with the extensions hl7, log and txt.

If you need to change it then you have a very simple obvious place to go.

How does it process the files?

The processing file logic is very straightforward, the source is here:

https://bitbucket.org/interfaceware/fromfile/src/main/ProcessFile.lua

It inhales the file, queues the contents and deletes it.

If you want to do something different or more complex - you absolutely can.

I don't like that you can change components so easily!

You do not have to use the components we supply in production.

In fact if you are a large company I would not recommend it. It would make more sense to start with the components we give you. Customize them the way that works for your organization and make your own official git collections.

That makes a lot more sense in terms of giving you the control and standardization needed for large organizations.

Argh I need help !!

Reach out! Lets talk about what you need to do.

We are here to help.

We are genuinely interested in getting a real understanding of the kinds of problems that customers need to solve.

We are looking ways to make our customer’s lives easier, whether that’s through better documentation, examples or just a little friendly encouragement.

How does this work out in the long run?

We also expect there will be areas where we develop new components that fit well defined common use cases. Cases that meet the needs of thousands of interfaces.

In other cases it will be about helping large companies build components which are ultra well suited to them.

Hope that helps and do free to reach out and talk with us.