Advanced Parameter Use

Parameters are controls that define how FME operates; for example, how a Reader reads data, how a transformer transforms it, and how a Writer writes it.

Almost every component in FME has parameters; of one type or another.

Types of Parameter

When looking at the types of parameter, it’s helpful to first consider the types of people who use FME and their role in the process.

Workspace Authors are the people who design and create a workspace. They use FME Workbench and set parameters to control how the workspace runs.

Workspace Users are the people who make use of a workspace, without necessarily having created it first. The user might have very little knowledge of FME, and may never have used FME Workbench, but they still may need to set parameters to control how the workspace runs.

In light of these two roles, we can say there are two different types of parameter; FME Parameters (for authors to use) and User Parameters (for FME users to use).