Folder is a central flow element that serves as an intermediary for moving jobs between other flow elements. Each folder flow element instance represents a backing folder on disk that can hold jobs before, after or in between processing steps. The contents of the backing folder can also be accessed by external processes or by users. For example, a folder may be used to submit jobs into a flow or to retrieve the results of a flow.
Keywords
Keywords can be used with the search function above the Elements pane.
The keywords for the Folder element are:
- backing
- input
- output
- hot
- watched
Processing jobs
Any subfolders placed into a folder are treated as a job folder; that is, the subfolder and its contents are moved along as a single entity.
If a folder has no outgoing connections (that is, it is a "dead-end" folder), a job placed in the folder will stay there until it is removed by some external process that is not under the control of Switch.
If a folder has at least one outgoing connection, a job placed in the folder is removed after it was processed by all outgoing connections. If none of the filters on the outgoing connection(s) match, the job is moved to the problem jobs folder. Refer to Handling problem jobs and error handling preferences for more details.
Properties
Note that certain properties are present only for folders that have at least one outgoing connection, and certain other properties are present only for folders that have no outgoing connections ("dead-end" folders)
Property |
Description |
|---|---|
Name |
The name of the folder displayed in the canvas; a newly created folder receives a default name of "Folder nn"; it is recommended that you provide a meaningful name instead; if you setup a user-managed backing folder while a "Folder nn" name is still in place, the flow element automatically adopts the name of the backing folder |
Path |
The path of the folder's backing folder on disk, or "auto-managed" |
Leave originals in place |
If set to yes, incoming jobs are left untouched in the folder; Switch never writes to the folder so read-only access rights suffice; see Leaving originals in place for more details If set to no (the default), incoming jobs are moved out of the folder; Switch needs full access rights to rename, create and remove files and folders in the folder |
Ignore updates |
The Ignore updates option is only available if Leave originals in place is set to yes. If set to yes, a job will only be processed once, regardless of any changes to the file size or modification date. This can be used for workflows where the input job is replaced by the processing result, to avoid triggering endless loops If set to no, the job will be reprocessed when its file size or modification date is different. This allows processing jobs which have the same file name as previously submitted jobs |
Minimum file size (KB) |
Used to set the minimum file size (in KB) limit before Switch picks up the files or folders. To set no limits, leave it empty |
Scan every (seconds) |
The frequency with which this folder is scanned for newly arrived jobs; if set to "Default" or zero the global user preference is used instead; see Processing |
Time-of-day window |
If set to yes, the folder detects (and moves) newly arrived jobs only during a certain time of the day (specified in the subordinate properties) |
Allow from (hh:mm) |
The time-of-day window during which to detect jobs; the values are structured as "hh:mm" (hours, minutes) indicating a time of day on a 24 hour clock; an empty value means midnight; two identical values mean the folder always detects jobs |
Allow to (hh:mm) |
|
Day-of-week window |
If set to yes, the folder detects (and moves) newly arrived jobs only during certain days of the week (specified in the subordinate properties) |
Allow from |
The days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) during which to detect jobs; two identical values mean the folder only detects jobs on that specific day |
Allow to |
|
Day-of-month window |
If set to yes, the folder detects (and moves) newly arrived jobs only during a certain day of the month (specified in the subordinate properties) |
Day |
The day in the month during which to detect jobs, as a number in the range [1 . .31]; the default value of one means the first or the last day of the month (depending on the following property) |
Relative to |
Determines whether the day of the month is relative to "Start of the month" or "End of the month" |
Attach hierarchy info |
If set to yes, the folder's name is added to each job's hierarchy location path as the job passes through the folder; see Using hierarchy info for more details |
Add name at the top |
If set to yes, the folder name is added at the top of the hierarchy location path; otherwise it is added at the bottom |
Attach email addresses |
The specified email addresses are added to each job's email info as the job passes through the folder; see Using Email info for more details |
Attach email body text |
The specified email body text is added to each job's email info as the job passes through the folder; see Using Email info for more details |
Attach job state |
If the specified string is non-empty, the job state of each job is set to the string as soon as the job arrives in the folder; the statistics view can display the average time spent for each job state |
Set job priority |
If set to None (the default), nothing happens If set to any other value (including zero), the job priority of each job is set to this new value as soon as the job arrives in the folder The specified value is converted to a number and rounded to the nearest integer; text strings that do not represent a number are converted to zero To specify a negative value, use the "Single-line text with variables" property editor or provide a script expression |
Strip unique name |
If set to yes, the unique name prefix added to the filename by Switch is removed before placing the job in the folder; the default is to strip the prefixes from jobs deposited in a dead-end folder - leaving the prefixes in place avoids overwriting a previously deposited job with the same name |
Duplicates |
Determines what happens when "Strip unique name" is set to yes and a job arrives with the same name as a job already residing in the folder:
|
Show in statistics |
If set to yes, statistics for this folder are gathered and displayed in the statistics view |
Ignore these subfolders |
All subfolders that match the specified folder filter are ignored for the purpose of counting the number of jobs residing in this folder This property appears only when the folder's outgoing connection leads to a generic application; if that application stores information in subfolders inside its input folder, this property allows Switch to ignore these folders and their contents |