How to write rows to a file in Apache Hop
What this shows
Text File Output is the other end of a pipeline: it takes the rows you have built and writes them to a delimited file.
Reference documentationThe complete list of Text File Output options is documented in the Apache Hop manual, which is the authoritative reference.hop.apache.org →Sample pipeline
The pipeline in the video is Apache Hop's own sample, text-file-output-basic.hpl, which ships in the Hop samples project under transforms/.
Transcript
Full transcript
Text File Output is the other end of a pipeline: it takes the rows you have built and writes them to a delimited file.
Four rows of books come from a Data Grid and go straight to the file, so there is nothing between the input and the output to distract from the settings.
Filename and Extension are kept apart because Hop assembles the name for you. The checkboxes below add a date, a time, or the transform number to it - which is how you get a new file per run without writing any logic to do it.
Content mirrors what Text File Input asks of you, which is the point: what you write here is what someone reading the file back will have to configure there. Append decides whether a second run adds to the file or replaces it.
Leaving the Fields table empty writes every field in the stream, in stream order. Fill it in when you want a specific set of columns, a specific order, or explicit formatting - naming fields here also protects the file's layout from changes upstream.
Running the pipeline writes the file.
Four rows in, four rows written. The transform passes rows on as well as writing them, so you can keep working with them afterwards.