Format Macros

Format macros are format configurations that can be used across datamaps and even across connectors. In addition, input parameters can be added to modify the behaviour of the macro externally. So they can be compared to Excel formulas with input parameters.

They are further explained and showed in this part of the 1.17 release spotlight.

Creating a Macro

Navigate to the ‚Format Macro‘ secton in your connector suite and create a new macro by clicking the +.

After you have given the macro a name and a label, you must save your settings. Then, a selection box for the format plugin will appear, where you can select nearly any plugin available in the datamap.

Now you can configure the plugin. In this example, we’re configuring a loop head plugin. If you already have you configured plugin, you can paste the settings into the plugin. To create variables, use the following syntax: {macro:YourNameHere}

Back in the macro configuration, new settings will appear depending on how many placeholders you have set in your configuration of the plugin. You can now name your placeholders, add a discription, a default value (if needed) and choose the Input Type.

Using the Macro

Once you’re done with your configuration, the macro will appear in the datamap as a format plugin. There, you can also change the values of you parameters. In this example config1 gets ‘Number of processed Elements = 2‘ and config2 gets ‘Number of processed Elements = 1‘

The result in this example looks like this: