When empty, a message is displayed in the attributes grid:
'No attributes have been added to this export template. Add attributes here by dragging and dropping them from the toolbox.’
Provision of one or more attributes at an export template is optional (an export template with no attributes can be used to define the structure of backfill files – for more information, please see the Audience Definition section in the Configuration documentation).
Any existing attributes are displayed within the grid. You can add one or more attributes to an export template by dragging them from the toolbox and dropping them onto the attributes grid. Attributes added in this way are displayed above the ordinal position at which they were dropped. When the grid contains more attributes than may be displayed at once, it is scrolled automatically on the addition of a new attribute dropped at the bottom position.
You can also drag and drop existing attributes up and down within the grid.
An export template must contain at least one attribute. You cannot add an Exists in table attribute to an export template. Parameter attributes are supported. The link between an export template and an attribute is static – that is, the link is created between the template and the state of the attribute at the point of its being saved.
You can view the following columns within the attributes grid:
•Order: a read-only, system-generated ordinal integer indicating the position of the attribute relative to its peers. Order is incremented or decremented accordingly as attributes are re-ordered within the grid.
•Attribute: the read-only name of the attribute as sourced from the toolbox. When you hover over an attribute, a button is displayed next to its name, which you can click to view details of the attribute in the File Information dialog.
•Target Table: the table upon which the attribute is based.
•Alignment: an indication of how the attribute's data will be output within the export file; set using a drop-down list, constrained to values ‘Left’ and ‘Right’. Text alignment defaults according to an attribute's data type (string, date: Left; integer, decimal: Right).
•Length: must be a positive integer value. Length defaults in accordance with an attribute's underlying length in the database. Note that, when added to an export template, a Cassandra attribute’s length defaults to zero, and will need to be updated manually to a positive integer value.
•Padding Char: mandatory. May be a single character only. Defaults to space. Used to pad white space in string fields in a fixed-width export template.
•Gap: must be a positive integer value. Gap defaults to ‘0’. It is used to define the space to be provided between attributes in a fixed-width export template.
•Header Row Value: this value defaults to the value of an attribute’s underlying database column. Its provision is optional, and it can be a maximum of 100 characters in length.
•Format String: this optional property can be a maximum of 100 characters in length. It supports provision of standard Microsoft .NET format strings. For examples please see the following:
o Standard Numeric format strings: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dwhawy9k(v=vs.110).aspx
o Custom Numeric format strings: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8(v=vs.110).aspx
o Standard Date and Time format strings: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1(v=vs.110).aspx
o Custom Date and Time format strings: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4(v=vs.110).aspx]
When a file is generated using the export template, the supplied format string is applied to numeric and date-based values. An attempt to apply a format string to a string attribute results in an error.
Fields Text alignment, Length, Padding char and Gap are only relevant to fixed-width export templates, but are displayed whether the template is fixed-width or delimited.
If required; it is possible to include the same attribute more than once in an export template.
To include metadata attributes within an export file you will need to set up the appropriate attributes from the offer history meta table.
You can only use anonymous auxiliary database attributes in an export template resolving to an anonymous auxiliary database. Only a single attribute can be included in this context.