FME Batch Processing Methods

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each FME batching method?

Answer

The following sections list the advantages and disadvantages of each FME batching method.
 

Command Line Batch File

The Command Line Batch File is easy to understand and simple to create and use. It is most efficient when the need is to carry out the same translation on the same datasets again and again. When the dataset or translation parameters need to be changed then manual editing of the file is required; this isn’t a particularly user-friendly task.
 

FME Command File

The FME Command File is only slightly more complicated than the Command Line method but carries additional advantages for certain situations.

Like the Command Line method, it is simple to understand but requires manual editing of the batch file when batch parameters need to be altered.

One important characteristic is that the process starts FME, executes each command in turn, and then stops FME. This is different from the Command Line batch file which would start FME, execute a command, stop FME, start FME, execute a command, stop FME, start FME, … etc.

Continually starting and stopping FME can carry a very large time overhead when the number of commands to be carried out is numbered in the hundreds or thousands, so the Command File has a significant advantage.
 

Batch Deploy

The Batch Deploy method has the advantage of a user-friendly GUI to help a user select files and change batch settings. From FME 2005 it is no longer limited to a single input and output format; a user may now have multiple source readers (only one can be batched) and multiple destination readers (any number of which can be batched).

Disadvantages are that it is only capable of processing data within a single workspace, whereas other methods allow for multiple workspaces. The batch files created by this tool use TCL and are not easy for a novice user to edit; so changing settings requires the user to repeat the batch deploy wizard each time.

Another disadvantage is that this method does not permit values to be passed to Macros within the workspace during the batch process.