File System - Write to File
Declaration
<AMFILESYSTEM ACTIVITY="write_file" FILE="text" DATA="text" ENCODING="text (options)" RESULTVARIABLE="text" REPLACE="text" />
Description: Writes the specified text string to a file. If the file does not exist, it will be created at runtime. If the files exists and already contains data, this action can be set to either overwrite the current data or append the new data directly below the existing one. Execution is performed in the background, therefore, the file does not have to be open in order for data to be written to it.
Practical Usage
Commonly used to write specific text onto a new text file or modify an existing text file by appending text to existing data or writing new text over the original data contained in that file.
General Parameters
Property |
Type |
Required |
Default |
Markup |
Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
File |
Text |
Yes |
(Empty) |
FILE="c:\sourcefolder\file.txt" |
The text file that the data should be written to. If the file does not exist, it will be created and written to at runtime. As with every text parameter, if the data you wish to write to is contained in a variable, simply enter the variable name surrounded by percentage signs to resolve it to it's contents at runtime (e.g., %VarName%). |
Method |
Yes/No |
No |
Yes |
APPEND="NO" |
Indicates how the data should be written. The available options are:
|
Data to write |
Text |
Yes |
(Empty) |
a)DATA="The text to write" b)DATA="%varName%" |
The data to write to the file. As with every text parameter, if the data you wish to write is contained in a variable, simply enter the variable name surrounded by percentage signs to resolve it to it's contents at runtime (e.g., %VarName%). |
Advanced Parameters
Property |
Type |
Required |
Default |
Markup |
Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Encoding |
Text (Options) |
No |
Unicode |
|
The character encoding method to use. The available options are:
|
Populate variable with the number of bytes written |
Text |
No |
(Empty) |
RESULTVARIABLE="totalBytes" |
The name of the variable to populate with the number of bytes that were written to the file. |
Replace following text with Null (0x00) character (optional) |
Text |
No |
(Empty) |
REPLACE="text" |
The text to replace with Null (0x00) character. In some programming languages, notably C, null characters are used to mark the end of a character string. Use this parameter if you wish to mark the end of a particular character string. |
Description tab - A custom description can be provided on the Description tab to convey additional information or share special notes about a task step.
Error Causes tab - Specify how this step should behave upon the occurrence of an error. (Refer to Task Builder > Error Causes Tab for details.)
On Error tab - Specify what AWE should do if this step encounters an error as defined on the Error Causes tab. (Refer to Task Builder > On Error Tab for details.)
Example
The sample AML code below can be copied and pasted directly into the Steps panel of the Task Builder.
Description: This task writes contents to C:\Temp\TestFile.txt using the Write to File action and reads the contents into a variable using a Read from File action. The contents are then displayed in a message box.
<AMVARIABLE NAME="TheData"></AMVARIABLE> <AMFILEWRITE FILE="C:\Temp\TestFile.txt" APPEND="NO">I love AutoMate!!!</AMFILEWRITE> <AMFILEREAD FILE="C:\Temp\TestFile.txt" RESULTVARIABLE="theData" /> <AMSHOWDIALOG>%TheData%</AMSHOWDIALOG>