Summarizing the Job entries that deal with files

In the previous subsections, you experimented with some of the many Job entries meant to deal with files. As you saw, they are mainly grouped under the File management and the Conditions categories. Most of these entries have a self-explanatory name and their use is quite intuitive. Here we have a brief summary for you to experiment with:

Purpose	Job entries
Copy/Move files and folders	Copy Files: Copies one or more files or folders. As an option, the source files can be removed. Move Files: Moves one or more files or folders. For moving files, there are more settings available here than in the Copy Files entry.
Delete files and folders	Delete file: Deletes a single file or folder with a fixed name. Delete files: Deletes one or more files, with a fixed name or a given pattern. Delete folders: Deletes one or more folders with a fixed name.
File compression	Zip file: Creates a zip file with the files in a given folder, with a given pattern. Unzip file: Unzips one or more zip files.

Note that this is not a full list of entries that deal with files. For the full list, you can explore the Spoon categories or read the documentation at https://help.pentaho.com/Documentation/8.0/Products/Data_Integration/Job_Entry_Reference.

There is some overlap in the purpose of some entries. This means that there is no single way to implement some tasks. As an example, the following are some other ways to move the music files, compared to what you did in the tutorial:

• Using the Copy Files entry. This entry has an option for removing the source files, which is equivalent to moving the files.
• Using the Copy Files entry followed by a Delete files entry.

There is no rule about when to use one or the other. You will find out by yourself which one is best for your requirements.

All the entries mentioned earlier can be used together with some Conditions entries, exactly as we did in the tutorial. Here are some entries that you can use:

• File Exists: Succeeds if a particular file or folder exists.
• Checks if files exist: Succeeds if all the listed files/folders exist.
• Checks if a folder is empty: By default, succeeds if the folder is empty. Alternatively, this entry can be configured to succeed if the folder doesn't contain files with a given pattern.
• Evaluate file metrics: Evaluates the number of files or the size of files in a list. There is a list of possible success criteria that can be configured in the Advanced tab of the entry.

For more examples of this subject, you can read Chapter 5, File Management, Pentaho Data Integration Cookbook - Second Edition by Packt Publishing, https://www.packtpub.com/big-data-and-business-intelligence/pentaho-data-integration-cookbook-second-edition