File
System
Description
A file system is a complete hierarchical directory structure of files and directories including a root directory and any subdirectories and files beneath it. Some of the most important system management operations deal with file systems, specifically, creating and securing file systems, allocating system space available to users and backing up file systems to guard against data loss.
Automate Desktop's File System action encompasses a comprehensive list of activities for automating all of the operations mentioned above and many more. Other activities include retrieving file checksum and other properties, splitting or joining files, setting file attributes and a number of folder specific operations such as creating and synchronizing folders.
Available activities
Click the appropriate link for more details regarding each activity:
| Activity | Description |
|---|---|
| File System - Base64 encode/decode | Encodes a file to or decodes a file from the BASE64 file format using the specified encoding scheme. |
| File System - Change folder | Changes the current folder or "working directory" for the running task in operating systems such as Unix, DOS and Windows. |
| File System - Concatenate files | Concatenates the contents of two or more files and outputs the result to a single destination file. |
| File System - Copy | Copies one or more folders/files from the source path to the destination path. |
| File System - Create folder | Creates a folder. If the folder specified is a subfolder and the parent folder does not exist, then it will also be created. |
| File System - CSV to dataset | Reads data from a comma-separated values (CSV) file (although the separator character does not necessarily have to be a comma) and populates a dataset with results. |
| File System - Dataset to CSV | Retrieves data currently populated into a dataset and outputs the data onto a comma-separated values (CSV) file. |
| File System - Delete | Deletes the folders or files specified. |
| File System - Empty Recycle Bin | Empties the recycle bin of all drives on the system. |
| File System - Get checksum | Generates a hash (checksum) value for a file and places it into the specified Automate Desktop variable. |
| File System - Get information | Retrieves key information about a file folder or volume and stores the results into an Automate Desktop variable or dataset. To specify more than one file, use wildcard characters (for example, * or ?). To specify multiple files or wildcard masks, separate them with a pipe symbol (for example, c:\*.txt|c:\*.bak). |
| File System - Get metadata | Retrieves a file's metadata and populates a dataset with resulting values. |
| File System - Join Files | Joins together (merges) files previously split into pieces with use of the File System - Split file activity. |
| File System - Move | Moves one or more folders or files from the source path to the destination path. |
| File System - Read From File | Reads data from a file (usually a text file) and places the data in a variable so it may be used in subsequent task steps or employed in a repetitive process using appropriate Loop actions. |
| File System - Rename | Renames one or more folders or files from a source path to a destination path. |
| File System - Set Attributes | Sets the attributes of one or more files specified. |
| File System - Split File | Splits the specified file into pieces (or sections) of a fixed size. The pieces can later be re-joined using the File System - Join file activity. |
| File System - Synchronize Folders | Synchronizes two folders either uni-directionally (one-way) or bi-directionally (both ways). |
| File System - Touch | "Touches" one or more files in order to update their creation, last modified and/or last accessed date and time with the selected date/time. |
| File System - Write To File | Writes the specified text string to a file. |