AX2252
File collect
For example, you might have several reports that are set up to use multipass file processing to save snapshot copies to various folders. After running all of those reports, you could use file collect to combine the various snapshot copies into a single "report package." You can process these packages with different settings to impact which files are collected and how they are delivered—for example, you could use a file filter to collect all of the "North" reports into one package, and all of the "West" reports into another package, and send them to the appropriate department managers.
File collect allows you to:
- Combine multiple Excel spreadsheets into one output file, and then save that file to a designated file location and/or deliver it via email to one or more recipients.
- Define "common files" to be automatically added to each package, such as a cover page, or a supporting document, or a consolidated top-level report.
- Automatically refresh file lists based on source folder locations, so that the list of files to collect can be determined dynamically. Source files can also be "hard-coded" as needed.
- Define multiple packages for processing and/or use multipass processing to dynamically change package settings such as the output file name, file filter, and target email recipient.
File collect is a special feature of file processing. Unlike other file processing types, where you are refreshing sheets in the file with data and then performing actions on those sheets, file collect uses a special configuration sheet to define the settings of the collect operation. Although the file can contain other sheets, these sheets are essentially ignored for the file collect operation (unless the configuration sheet references the other sheets to determine file collect settings). In most cases, the only purpose of the file is to contain the file collect configuration settings.
When you set up file processing for file collect, you specify the processing type, the sheets to process, and optional multipass settings. All other file processing settings do not apply to file collect. All file collect settings are managed within the special File Collect Configuration sheet.
