sorter
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Use When |
Data within a model based message needs to be sorted by one of the attributes within the model or data needs to be sorted by multiple attributes within an entity in the model |
Samples |
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Description |
The Sorter is used to sort data elements within a message that is being processed through a flow. The sort can be defined at either the message level or by entity/attribute using the component editor screen. When sorting by entity/attribute the data will be sorted per entity, where each entity will be treated as though it is a separate database table and the ordering occurs across the selected attributes (columns). NOTE: Using the entity/attribute sort option will use an H2 database to load the records into using the model entity as a table and the attributes as columns. Then it will perform an 'order by' in a sql statement to re-order the records. The tables will determine the key structure based on the way the entity is modeled in Metl and will use the key to load the H2 table(s). Word of caution, the key needs to be unique otherwise if your flow allows duplicate records this sort will remove these duplicates. Also, you may not have null values in the attributes you select as the key to the table. |
Inbound Message Type |
Model Based Message |
Output Message Type |
Model Based Message |
Control Message Handling |
Input: Messages are collected until a unit of work boundary is reached then all messages are sorted. Output: A single control message will be forwarded to downstream components once all messages have been processed through this step. |
| Name | Description |
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Whether to forward failed messages and continue processing. This is the name of a linked component to forward the failed messages to. |
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Sort Entity.Attribute (optional) |
The single model entity and attribute to sort the data by. The entity and attribute must be concatenated with a period (entity.attribute). NOTE: Either an entry must be defined here or attributes selected in the Component Editor screen for the component to function. A value in this field overrides any attribute(s) selected on the Component Editor screen. |
Double clicking on the Sorter component in the flow or clicking the Component Editor button will result in the Sorter editor being displayed as shown below.
The Sorter editor displays a row for every entity/attribute contained within the input model and allows the selection of the attributes on which to use as the sort along with the ability to order them.
When a sort checkbox for an attribute is selected, the screen will re-sort all selected attributes to the top by entity. To change the sort order, select one or more attributes within an entity and use the buttons at the top to Move the selected item(s) up, down, to the top or to the bottom.
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Note
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You can only re-order the attributes within a single entity at any one time. |