When you click Create or Copy on the "View Outputs" page, the system automatically navigates to the "Configure an Output -- Format" page. The options you select on this page will determine the options available to you on subsequent pages. (See the Task Overview for information on the complete output creation process, including output navigation rules.)
The Collector offers three file formats: Delimited, Fixed Length, and XML. Each of these formats is explained below, along with related options.
Format Type |
Description |
Options |
|
Delimited |
A variable-length format in which a special character, such as a comma or tab, is used to separate each field of data. |
Delimiter -- Select a character to separate fields in a record. |
|
End-of-line char -- Select a character to separate records. | ||
|
Record organization -- Select Separate Files if you want each data level to appear in a separate file. Select Record Types if you want fields to be grouped by level with a different "record type" identifier at the beginning of the record associated with each level. Select Concatenated Records if you want all data levels included on a single record type in a single file. | ||
|
Include header record? -- Check this option to include field name as first record. | ||
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Quote when data contains delimiter? -- Check this option to place double quotes around any field that contains the selected delimiter character. | ||
|
Fixed length |
Each field has a constant size from record to record regardless of its contents. |
Same options as Delimited format above, except no delimiter character. |
|
XML |
An open standard for describing data from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is used for defining business-to-business documents. It uses a similar tag structure as HTML; however, whereas HTML defines how elements are displayed, XML defines what those elements contain. HTML uses predefined tags, but XML allows tags to be defined by the developer of the page. Thus, any data items (such as conference duration, dial-in number, or conference start time) can be identified, allowing Web pages to function like database records. The XML format offers two advantages the delimited and fixed-length formats: (1) It is more tolerant of change, and (2) it is relatively easy to understand even when no external documentation is provided. In other words, it is "self-documenting." |
Outside tag -- Specify an XML tag for indicating start/end of this output data. Include white space for legibility? -- Check this option to separate tagged elements with white space. |
Also on this page, you must enter a description for the output. This description appears for each output on the "View Outputs" page. (See Viewing & Managing Outputs for more information about this page.)