Process Automation - How to use Read from File operator

Products

• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager
• CA Process Automation Base
• Process Automation Manager

Issue/Introduction

How to use Read from File operator?

Environment

Process Automation - 4.3.X

Resolution

In order to use this Operator, there are few things that must be configured, here is an example of how this can be done:

1.- Create a folder under C: and place an empty TXT file inside it:

2.- Open TXT file and add any text to it:



3.- Create a process with "Read from File" operator and configure it as follow:





Few things to notice:

- The amount of "\" in the path is mandatory, 3 after the Drive and 2 on the folder.
- On this example the 'Administrator' user is used directly, this can be changed using process variables or even without a user if Process Automation service is configured to be executed by specific user with higher permissions:



When this process is executed, the result is shown as follow:



The operator shows the following information:

- Red: Name of the file read.
- Yellow: Path where this file is located.
- Green: User used to read the file.
- Blue: Content of the file.

Additional Information

Read from File is based on 'xcopy', if there is any problem with it, the Operator won't run. More details about this in the following article:

Process Automation - 'xcopy' is not recognized as an internal or external command using "Read from File" operator